IQALUIT
City council's meeting was cancelled and flags waved at half-mast Tuesday in Iqaluit when 400 people filled St. Jude's cathedral to bid farewell to friend, father and long-time community steward, Jimmy Kilabuk.
Former Iqaluit mayor Jimmy Kilabuk died on April 19. - NNSL file photo
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Kilabuk, or "Flash" as he was best known, died April 19 in Iqaluit at age 71.
Flash earned his nickname in the 1970s winning Iqaluit's Toonik Tyme long-distance snowmobile race between Iqaluit and Kimmirut, then named Frobisher Bay and Lake Harbour. Flash broke his own records year after year.
But the well-liked Flash might just as well be given the moniker for the way he could light a fire under community initiatives.
"Mr. Kilabuk's service to Iqaluit is a great example of what one person can do to enhance the place in which they live," said Mayor John Graham during the eulogy Tuesday afternoon. "We need more people like him."
Graham recalled Flash's lovable eccentricities such as his dyed-in-wool fanaticism of one particular hockey team.
"Flash was always a great fan of the Montreal Canadians. His house was full of Habs memorabilia," he said.
Kilabuk served the community for over 35 years, first as a volunteer firefighter then later as fire chief and prison guard. He'd spent many terms as a city councillor throughout the 90s and, as mayor of Iqaluit from 1997 to 2000, travelled to Iqaluit's sister city Sisimiut, Greenland. He had been on council for three consecutive terms when he began to grow increasingly ill last October. Kilabuk resigned from council via teleconference on April 9. He told fellow councillors he did not have long to live.
Jim and his wife Annie had seven children, one girl and six boys. At the funeral, his daughter, crying, thanked the city representatives for their kind words.
Mayor John Graham said – and it was evident from the streams of people attending the funeral – the city's thoughts and prayers are with Kilabuk's family.
