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Lynn and Bob Brooks bid fond farewell to Yellowknife
Longtime residents leave behind legacy in women‚s advocacy, city politics

Emelie Peacock
Northern News Services
Friday, June 30, 2017

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Lynn Brooks may be leaving Yellowknife, but her spirit remains here and across the territory, says Samantha Thomas, executive director of the Status of Women Council of the NWT.

 NNSL photograph

Bob Brooks, left, and Lynn Brooks, both longtime Yellowknife residents and community leaders, are leaving the city for their retirement on Prince Edward Island. - Emelie Peacock/NNSL photo

The same can be said of Bob Brooks, Lynn's husband of 32 years, as the city's longest-serving councillor. As the two prepare to leave the place they have called home for more than 30 years in order to retire on Prince Edward Island, they leave behind a legacy.

Lynn's Place, safe housing for women fleeing violence, is a reminder of Lynn Brooks' many years as an advocate for women, children, victims of domestic violence and people in vulnerable situations such as homelessness.

"Passionate and compassionate" is how Thomas describes Lynn. The two worked together for years on the Status of Women Council.

"She is always willing to listen to other people and she will be the voice of people who are not able to speak," Thomas said.

"She is the most caring woman I have ever met and her kindness is overwhelming."

As executive director for the Status of Women Council from 1990 to 1995, Lynn said she saw the shelter movement grow across the territory, which at the time included Nunavut.

"It very much has been, for me, the privilege of working with some of the most dynamic and amazing women in the world that live in tiny little communities," she said.

"It's amazing what they're able to do with almost nothing."

Lynn also worked for the YWCA for many years and played an important role in opening the only family violence shelter in Yellowknife.

"The thing I'm most proud of is (Alison) McAteer House. When I worked for the (YMCA), that was something that we thought would be pretty straightforward in 1979," she said.

"It took us until 1984 to get that place opened."

Bob, the longest serving councillor on Yellowknife city council, left a mark of his own on city infrastructure and community planning. Looking back on two decades on council, Bob said he is most proud of building the Fieldhouse and replacing the sewer infrastructure at Northlands, a social problem and looming environmental disaster that had persisted for 25 years before it was replaced.

Bob served seven terms in office between 1991 and 2015.

"He always approached the job as a councillor (by) putting the community first. That's the way he's lived his life as a resident of Yellowknife beyond his time on council," said Mayor Mark Heyck, who worked with Bob during his final years on council.

"He's an avid volunteer, and you'll often see him out at community events even though he's no longer a city councillor."

Both Bob and Lynn have been mentors to many who have since become leaders in their fields. Julie Green, Yellowknife Centre MLA, said Lynn began talking about violence against women at a time when it wasn't a common topic of conversation.

Green described her as a trailblazer in broaching tough subjects and holding people in positions of authority to account.

"I think her greatest legacy is a long and consistent record in advocating for women's safety ... and she's been doing that since she got here," Green said.

Kam Hogan, president of the Yellowknife Rotary Club, said she learned a tremendous amount about being a Rotarian from Bob, who joined the club in the early 1980s.

"He is very calm, a very strategic, big-picture thinker, but doesn't lose sight of the nuts and bolts of things," she said.

Over the years, Bob and Lynn have seen Yellowknife change immensely. Lynn remembers when the first streetlight was installed by the old Bank of Commerce.

"The elders would come up from Old Town and they would stand there and watch it," she said, laughing.

Lynn arrived in Yellowknife in 1969, and Bob arrived just over a decade later in 1980.

Lynn remembers her early years in the North as exciting ones, with the start of the Indian Brotherhood and the Berger report.

"You saw government being developed, and you also saw the aboriginal people standing up and saying, 'You know, we're going to have a say about what goes on here, and we're tired of being pushed aside,'" she said.

The couple will also be missed as parents. They fostered 20 children and now have 13 foster grandchildren, while Lynn also has two daughters and four grandchildren from before she married Bob.

As for the future of the city they are leaving behind, Bob said it still faces a lot of social issues: homelessness, public security, addictions and mental health.

But he said he knows residents will work hard to solve the problems they face.

"The people in Yellowknife and the people in the Northwest Territories are great volunteers," he said.

"They really care, and they really work toward the betterment of our society. I hope that carries on and grows."

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