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Newsbriefs: Monday, June 19, 2017
Behchoko jury trial moves to Yellowknife
Behchoko/Rae-Edzo
A jury trial for a Behchoko man accused of sexually assaulting a minor and uttering threats will be held in Yellowknife.
Marty Bouvier, 21, opposed moving the trial to Yellowknife from Behchoko where the accused has a large number of family and friends.
But NWT Supreme Court Judge Shannon Smallwood agreed with Crown attorney Brendan Green's request for a change in venue.
Green argued it would be too difficult to find an impartial jury in a community with such a small jury pool.
Behchoko has a population of about 2,100 people.
- John McFadden
Milestone marked for young rangers
Behchoko/Rae Edzo
A new patrol for Junior Canadian Rangers had its official opening in Behchoko on June 14.
The evening ceremony, held at the community's sportsplex, saw 26 Junior Canadian Rangers named as members of the patrol.
The patrol is the 42nd one in Canada and is significant for the 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group's Northern presence, according to Capt. Stephen
Watton.
- April Hudson
Aboriginal Day on the airwaves
NWT
As Yellowknife joins cities across Canada to partner with Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) for Aboriginal Day, APTN has announced it will have a broadcast of the event for seven hours.
AMI-tv, a channel broadcast nationally in English, will carry APTN's national broadcast from 5 p.m. Mountain Time until midnight.
The event is being touted as the largest National Aboriginal Day celebration in Canada's
history.
- April Hudson
Positive start for Visitor Info Centre
Hay River
Hay River's Visitor Information Centre has had a good start to the year.
After opening in the latter part of May, 75 people signed the guestbook at the centre during the month, according to James Darby, the town's director of recreation and community services.
That compares to the 25 who signed the guestbook during May of last year.
- Paul Bickford
Fathers' Day came early for a few dads
Behchoko/Rae-Edzo
The Elizabeth Mackenzie Community Library hosted a Fathers' Fun Day on June 5, said librarian Marca Simba.
Each month, the library hosts a Family Fun Day and June's theme was in honour of Fathers' Day, said Simba.
Participants made sun catchers to give as Fathers' Day gifts, which featured the Superman symbol and an inscription that read, You Are My Hero, Dad.
Around 20 people attended the event, which took place from 1 to 4 p.m.
The monthly Family Fun Days are a great way to encourage families to spend time together and with other residents of the community, said Simba.
"It's nice to get to know other people and socialize with other people in the community," she said.
The library closed for the summer on June 15 and Simba is asking residents to return library books and DVDs by June 20.
- Kassina Ryder
Cultural Fun Day a hit at Mackenzie Mountain School
Lli Goline/Norman Wells
Mackenzie Mountain School's annual Cultural Fun Day was a big hit again this year, said principal Michael Duclos.
The event took place throughout the day on June 9 and featured a variety of activities, including a dunk tank where students could try and dunk Duclos.
"The kids really loved the dunk tank," he said.
Students were also treated to cotton candy from a cotton candy machine in addition to activities such as water balloon toss and a live version of Hungry Hungry Hippos.
Traditional games were especially popular, such as Dene and Arctic games and jigging. Different stations were set up in the morning and afternoon to allow students to rotate through every activity.
Local RCMP members also helped out with a barbecue lunch for students and staff.
"It was a lot of fun," Duclos said.
- Kassina Ryder
Creating leaders in Colville Lake
Kahbamiue/Colville Lake
A leadership workshop in Colville Lake helped build confidence among the community's youth, said recreation co-ordinator Isabel Orlias.
Mary-Ann Neal, a professor from Royal Roads University in Victoria B.C. and her son, Robert Neal, delivered the program, which focused on improving leadership skills as well as looking at ways to help the community. The week-long workshop ran from June 5 to 9 and attracted 13 participants.
Participants learned about financial management and strategic planning skills, as well as how to work collaboratively and make effective decisions.
"They were more outgoing and confident after the workshop," Orlias said.
A community feast took place on June 8 at the community gym as part of a small graduation ceremony where participants were presented with a certificate of completion.
"I think it was a really good workshop to have in our community," Orlias said.
The Ayoni Keh Land Corporation, the K'ahsho Gotine District Land Corporation and Imperial Oil sponsored the workshop.
- Kassina Ryder
NWT youth invited to travelling climate change summit
NWT
Northwest Territories youth are invited to apply for a spot on a travelling climate change summit this summer, information from Ecology North said.
The 2017 Young Leaders' Summit on Northern Climate Change will bring youth from the Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Yukon on a camping trip in the Yukon wilderness. Scientists, elders and residents will facilitate the trip, which aims to teach Northern youth about climate change while travelling on the land.
The trip will run from Aug. 21 to 25 in Whitehorse.
Applicants must submit a one-page essay about why they want to participate in the summit and a letter of
reference from a respected member of their community.
The deadline to apply is July 20.
- Kassina Ryder
Fort Good Hope walks for cancer
Radilih Koe'/Fort Good Hope
Fort Good Hope residents participated in a cancer walk on June 8 to support those diagnosed with cancer and to remember those who have died from the disease, said organizer Melinda Laboucan.
The walk was originally scheduled as part of the Goba Group's Traditional Health Week in May, but poor weather meant it had to be delayed, Laboucan said.
The Goba Group is a cancer support group in Fort Good Hope.
Laboucan estimated about 100 people participated in the walk, which began at Chief T'Selehye School at about 2:30 p.m. and finished at the Our Lady of Good Hope Church.
Goba Group member and pastoral leader Roger Plouffe said a prayer before participants joined hands and prayed together.
"Roger said some prayers for healing and for all those who are still mourning the ones they lost through cancer," Laboucan said. "After that we all went outside and held hands and we started chanting, 'no more cancer.' It was rally powerful, it was amazing to be a part of it."
Laboucan wanted to thank everyone who participated and the organizations that supported the walk.
"It was fabulous, thanks to everyone for coming out," she said.
- Kassina Ryder
Tlicho partners with Katimavik for new program
Tlicho
Youth are encouraged to apply for a new program called Tlicho Youth in Transition, said Adim Hebert, youth development co-ordinator for Katimavik.
The program is a partnership between Katimavik and the Tlicho Government. The new program is available to ten Tlicho youth who will spend about four months in Regina, Sask. from August until December.
The program includes completing a course through the First Nations University of Canada and a volunteer work placement.
All costs to participate are covered, including travel costs to and from Saskatchewan, Hebert said.
The program is available to anyone regardless of their academic backgrounds and will focus on learning entrepreneurial skills, as well as skills that will help participants transition to the workforce or academics.
The deadline to apply is June 23.
- Kassina Ryder
Artists called to add to Canada 150 project
Inuvik
Artists looking to make their mark during the Canada 150 events are invited to sign up to become part of the Art Express'd mobile gallery.
Jessie Buchanan is one of three artists travelling the nation to host art workshops, hear people's stories and collect art in a mobile studio made from a shipping container.
They're each starting at different ends of the country, and will be meeting at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, which is leading this project.
She's in Inuvik until National Aboriginal Day June 21, when the mobile gallery will be on display for community members to check out each other's work.
"It's a very whimsical and ambitious and I think very important project right now, especially given the time in history with Canada 150 and things that are happening with truth and reconciliation," said Buchanan at the project's debut Friday, June 9.
"We have so many voices to be heard at the table, so I think this project is really important in order to bring those voices forward, but also bringing them forward with artwork
She held a workshop for students that consisted of them making art out of mini-shipping containers.
Canada is a big country and people often stay in their own communities, so connecting them all through art is important, said Buchanan.
"I think art is a way to bridge and come together with a common purpose," she said. "I think art is a way to engage and be with each other."
As an indigenous artist herself, Buchanan also believes this is an important part of truth and reconciliation.
"I'm using this as an opportunity to hopefully engage in some of those calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission," she said.
In addition to the canvases, she also has a giant mural she is hoping Inuvik residents can add to and help her complete.
Anyone interested in signing up for one of the canvases to be displayed in the mobile art gallery, which will eventually be stationed in Winnipeg, is invited to sign up at the Midnight Sun Complex in Inuvik.
- Stewart Burnett
Hoop dancing for Aboriginal Day
Enterprise
World champion hoop dancer Dallas Arcand and singer-songwriter Tracy Bone will be performing in Enterprise on Aboriginal Day.
Arcand is from Alexander Cree Nation near Edmonton while Bone is from Winnipeg.
Their free performances, which will begin at 7 p.m. on June 21 at the Enterprise Ball Field, are being presented by the Enterprise Fire Department.
The show will be preceded by a barbecue dinner.
There will also be a children's hoop dancing workshop in the afternoon from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m.
- Paul Bickford
Top of the World Loppet being planned
Inuvik
Next spring will see the 50th anniversary of Inuvik's Top of the World Loppet, an annual cross-country skiing event. It will take place April 7 to 8.
Inuvik supplied the bulk of Canada's cross-country ski team for the Winter Olympics throughout the 1970s and 1980s.
The Inuvik Ski Club is looking to engage with potential attendees, racers and supporting organizations to make it a special event. A contest across Canada to design the event's logo will launch July 1.
- Stewart Burnett
Salt River planning handgames event
Thebacha/Fort Smith
Salt River First Nation in Fort Smith will be holding a $75,000 traditional men's handgames tournament from June 23 to 25.
The tournament is part of the First Nation's annual treaty land entitlement celebrations.
Top prize for the tournament is $40,000, while the second place team will win $20,000 and the third-place team will walk away with $10,000. There are also cash prizes for some other teams.
The entry fee is $1,000 per team, which can have a maximum of eight players plus one alternate.
All players must be 19 years of age or older.
- Paul Bickford
Golf tournament raises more than $5,000
Thebacha/Fort Smith
Seventy-six golfers took part in the Aurora Open Golf Tournament from June 2 to 4 at the Pelican Rapids Golf Course near Fort Smith, and raised more than $5,000 for Aurora College admissions scholarships.
"The Aurora Open continues to be a huge success due to the hard work of our organizers," stated Aurora College president Jane Arychuk in a June 8 news release.
"The scholarship money raised is a huge boost to students who often struggle to support their post-secondary dreams."
Funds raised by the three-day event will provide financial assistance to Aurora College students entering post-secondary programs at the college's three campuses in Fort Smith, Inuvik and Yellowknife.
This was the 19th year for the tournament.
- Paul Bickford
A big ol' egg hunt turns up eider duck eggs
Paulatuk
Amberley Buray recently took her youth group in Paulatuk on an eider duck egg hunt.
"The eider ducks are laying early this year," she said. "Typically their eggs cannot be found until July."
She found a nest with four eggs the night before and brought a bunch of the youth to go back and take a closer look.
"It turned into a big ol' egg hunt," she said. "The kiddos actually scouted out some other eiders that were nesting in the distance.
"Together we tracked the nest's location and found three more eider eggs."
As a non-Inuvialuk, Buray can't pick the eggs herself, but she was gifted one by one of the youth so she can experience what they taste like.
- Stewart Burnett
Inuit Youth Council president named
Arviat
Ruth Kaviok, a 19-year old from Arviat, has been elected the new president of the National Inuit Youth Council. She replaces Maatalii Okalik. "As president, I look forward to representing the national voice of Inuit youth," stated Kaviok in a news release.
- Stewart Burnett
Comedy fundraiser in Inuvik
Inuvik
Comedians Dave Hemstad and Derek Edwards were set to perform at the Midnight Sun Complex Friday, June 16.
The event was a fundraiser for the Children First Society, in partnership with the Inuvik Arctic and Emerging Technologies show and the Town of Inuvik.
- Stewart Burnett
Greenhouse workers get training
NWT
Greenhouse workers from Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Aklavik and Fort McPherson were in Inuvik at the Inuvik Community Greenhouse last weekend. They were working hard learning about how to run their community's greenhouse and more about food security.
Through the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, the coordinators will all get paid by the department to run their greenhouses, instead of the government paying the Inuvik greenhouse co-ordinator to fly to all the communities throughout the summer.
- Stewart Burnett
Seeking gas along highway
Tuktoyaktuk
The Government of the Northwest Territories has partnered with the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation to submit a proposal to the Government of Canada to explore the potential of natural gas sites along the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk highway.
That much-anticipated road is due to be finished this year. The government is looking to assess the viability of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG) to serve communities.
- Stewart Burnett
Dozens of kids at Bike Rodeo
Hay River
Sixty-five children turned out for the annual Bike Rodeo presented by the Hay River Fire Department on June 3. Fire Chief Ross Potter told town council on June 5 that the event - which promotes bicycle safety - went off really well.
"The kids learned a little bit and I think they all had fun," said Potter.
- Paul Bickford
Renovated hamlet office almost ready
Gjoa Haven
The modernization of Gjoa Haven's hamlet office is close to complete and staff are planning to move back into the building the last week of June.
Several hamlet employees were relocated to another old hamlet building while renovations took place over the past year-and-a-half. The renovated hamlet office building will house the community's radio station, a search-and-rescue office and a justice worker's office. Updates include an elevator.
"It's beautiful, just beautiful," deputy mayor Megan Porter said. "The outside is really nice, the the inside as well. (There's) glass doors. It's always been spacious, they just put in new office space in different locations in the building."
Sanaqatiit Construction Ltd. is the general contractor on the project.
A 2011 report by Aarluk Consulting indicates that the original offices and council chambers were completed in 1984.
- Derek Neary
Rabies confirmed in Iglulik dogs
Iglulik
The Department of Health is reminding residents to be mindful of rabies symptoms after two Iglulik dogs were confirmed to have contracted the disease and a third dog was being sent for testing last week.
Dogs, foxes or wolves can transmit rabies to humans. Anyone who has been bitten or scratched should go to the health centre immediately.
- Derek Neary
New languages commissioner named
Iqaluit
Helen Klengenberg will step into the position of languages commissioner, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly George Qulaut announced June 15.
The five-year-term position has been vacant since Sandra Inutiq resigned in May 2016 with a year remaining on her term.
"Helen Klengenberg has extensive senior management experience in both the public and private sectors," Qulaut stated in a news release.
"A proven advocate for language rights, she was a member of the Task Force on Aboriginal Languages and Cultures that presented a landmark report on indigenous language revitalization to the Government of Canada. I am proud that she is our territory's first languages commissioner from an Inuinnaqtun-speaking community."
From Kugluktuk and fluent in Inuinnaqtun and English, Klengenberg was born on the land and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario, a Master of Business Administration from Saint Mary's University and a certificate in Municipal Administration from McMaster University.
Klengenberg will serve in an acting capacity until confirmed at the September sitting of the legislative assembly.
- Michele LeTourneau
Capital prepares for royal couple
Iqaluit
Iqaluit is preparing to host the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall June 29 for the first stop of their Canadian tour.
The couple will then visit Canadian Forces Base Trenton on June 30, before celebrating Canada Day in Ottawa July 1.
"We are pleased to have Their Royal Highnesses in Canada at such an important moment in our history. The Royal Couple will have the opportunity to meet and connect with Canadians who are making a difference in their communities and building a lasting legacy for Canada's future," stated Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly, whose department is organizing the visit.
While this is the first visit to Nunavut for the couple, the Prince of Wales visited Iqaluit, then part of the Northwest Territories, in 1970.
Iqaluit will host the official ceremony welcoming them to Canada, and there will be a community feast in Sylvia Grinnell Territorial Park.
- Michele LeTourneau
Air shows on the way
Nunavut
The skies will be buzzing over Nunavut communities in June and July. The Canadian Arctic Aviation Tour will be putting on air shows in the territory, starting with Kitikmeot communities this week. Kugluktuk is first on June 19. That's followed by Cambridge Bay on June 20, Gjoa Haven on June 21, Taloyoak on June 22, Kugaaruk on June 23 and then over to Naujaat to begin Kivalliq shows. The tour will reach Baffin communities in July.
The Canadian Arctic Aviation Tour is the brainchild of several pilots who fly small aerobatic planes. They are travelling throughout Nunavut, the Northwest Territories, northern Quebec and Labrador in a quest to set a world record for the most consecutive air shows North of 60. The pilots will cover close to 31,000 km to reach 97 communities.
The initiative was undertaken this year in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of Confederation.
- Derek Neary
Plenty of seals and fish
Kugaaruk
The seals have been plentiful for hunters in Kugaaruk over the past month, said Mark Jr. Karlik, casual secretary/manager with the Kurtairujuark Hunters & Trappers Association.
"We're mostly looking out for baby seals. That's our delicacy here," he said. "We usually boil (the meat). Some people make a pot pie out of it. It's very delicious."
Arctic char fishing efforts have been successful as well, and there are bound to be more fish on the way as some community members have set nets in the cracks of the ice by the mouth of the river, near the ocean, Karlik said.
Numerous other species have been spotted nearby as well.
"We've been seeing some caribou and there's quite a few muskox not too far (away) in the past two months," he said. "Lots of geese and ducks (too)."
- Derek Neary
Cape Dorset cleans up
Kinngait/Cape Dorset
The annual community cleanup will take place in Cape Dorset June 26 to 30, and if the incentive to make the hamlet look better isn't enough in itself, the daily draws for prizes might convince people to participate.
The giveaways will include items as valuable as bicycles, said recreation director Will Sandoval.
"Basically they just need to come out and at least fill one garbage bag to be eligible to win a prize," he said.
Last year's rewards included bikes, furs and a barbecue, Sandoval said. Close to 125 volunteers of all ages took part in the 2016 cleanup.
"We had elders out there and I saw some three- or four-year-olds out there," Sandoval said.
The Northern store provides some prize funding through the fee it collects on the sale of plastic grocery bags, Sandoval added.
- Derek Neary
Boost your business
Iqaluit
With the popularity of Facebook in Nunavut, the Iqaluit Chamber of Commerce has decided to host a workshop on the topic.
Boost your Business with Facebook runs Monday June 26, 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Frobisher Inn.
The free workshop will provide participants with the most up-to-date tools, insights, and best practices for achieving success and staying safe on Facebook, according to the news release.
"As a special segment of the program, you'll have the opportunity to hear from, and speak directly to, The Office of the Privacy Commissioner and Public Safety Canada. This segment is a unique opportunity to better understand how to implement effective privacy and security measures for your small business," states the release.
Visit boostiqaluit.splashthat.com to register.
- Michele LeTourneau
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