Health orders threaten NWT businesses: letter Chambers of commerce fear lack of 'sense of urgency' from GNWT Online first at NNSL.com St. Pat's graduates! Volume 49 Issue 30 FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2020 75 CENTS ($1.00 outside city) New grad focused on food security Blair McBride/NNSL photo Recent university grad and award winner Aimee Yurris with her vegetable plot at the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective site June 27. Read the full story on page 13. Comment: Former NWT Dene artist the secret commish creates life of rabbit honoured in MMIWG droppings new book VR video $1.00 outside Yellowknife Publication mail Contract #40012157 "It's just fun times since I've been here." 7 71605 00100 5 – Bunches of kids with interest in tennis attended a camp run by Jan Martinek Tuesday, page 16. 2 YELLOWKNIFER, Friday, July 3, 2020 news YELLOWKNIFER, Friday, July 3, 2020 3 Did we get it wrong? Yellowknifer is committed to getting facts and names right. With that goes a commitment to acknow- ledge mistakes and run corrections. If you spot an error in Yellowknifer, call 873-4031 and ask to speak to an editor, or email [email protected]. We'll get a correction or clarification in as soon as we can. NEWS Briefs Powerful opioid carfentanil found in NWT Public health officials are "very" concerned about the lab-confirmed presence of the power- ful opioid carfentanil in the NWT. "Confirmation of this drug in the NWT is very concerning to all those involved in addressing the opioid crisis. All those who use, provide, or are part of the response to illicit drug use in NWT, including experienced users, should be alarmed that carfentanil is present in NWT drugs," Dr. Andy Delli Pizzi, dep- uty chief public health officer, said in a news release Wednesday. Carfentanil is among the most toxic known opioids, with studies showing it is 10,000 times more toxic than morphine, 4,000 times more toxic than heroin, and 100 times more toxic than fentanyl. The Office of the Chief Public Health Officer (OCPHO) warns the public against touching or handling any suspicious substance Blair McBride/NNSL photo and advises that unintentional exposure to pure fentanyl or carfentanil can cause severe harm HAPPY CANADA DAY or death. Merlyn Williams, left, and Floyd Adlem, members of the NWT Pipe Band, rest after performing for Canada Day at Naloxone kits are available at all hospitals, City Hall Wednesday. health centres and pharmacies in the NWT. – Blair McBride Fire ban lifted The ban on open air fires in Yellowknife has been lifted, a City of Yellowknife spokesperson New book of poems angry stated in Thursday afternoon news release. The relaxed measure covers Yellowknife and Fred Henne and Yellowknife River Ter- ritorial Parks. The ban was put in place on June 19. and absolutely brilliant If very dry forest condition return the ban will be imposed. "Please practice fire safety at all times, burn responsibly and ensure your fire is cold before leaving," the release stated said. BOOK To learn more about fire prevention, visit this site. review – Blair McBride Grace Guy is a lifelong Yellowknifer and lover of literature. Police on the water Northern News Services on Canada Day Billy-Ray Belcourt's most recent collection of poems, NDN Cop- RCMP responded to three incidents on the ing Mechanisms, is passionate, angry and absolutely brilliant. water on Canada Day involving stranded ves- Longlisted for CBC's Canada Reads this year, this collection sels and a missing boater, police said in a news places destruction next to creation, fostering creativity and hope in release on Thursday. an age where both things are a hot commodity. Half a remix – with Around 11:49 a.m. on Wednesday, Yellow- poems pieced together from old texts – and the rest pure creation, knife RCMP received a call for help after a NDN Coping Mechanisms packs a very articulate punch. Since June pontoon boat was stranded on the Northwest is both Pride Month and Indigenous History Month, I am enthusiastic Arm of Great Slave Lake. to recommend NDN Coping Mechanisms right off the bat as this col- The boat was taking on water and the seven lection documents Billy-Ray Belcourt's experiences as a queer Cree passengers inside couldn't operate it due to high man who is thriving in a world designed to snuff his voice out. winds. To give some context on how good the book really is, I have to RCMP contacted Yellowknife Marine Res- make it clear that I don't like poetry. I usually find that reading poems cue, a unit of the Canadian Coast Guard Aux- is a slow and tedious process, leaving me exhausted with nothing to iliary (CCGA), who mobilized two vessels and show for it. NDN Coping Mechanisms was the opposite of all that. seven volunteers for the rescue. Belcourt's poems are direct, understandable, and far from melo- All passengers were safely brought back to dramatic. After the first five lines, I found myself genuinely inter- Yellowknife. ested in every word: where it was, who it was about, and how it fits About an hour later, around 1:02 p.m, into the story of Belcourt's life. While I won't do him a disservice Yellowknife RCMP received another call about and say that his poems fostered empathy (as Belcourt points out, a boat that had run aground near the Con Mine empathy is becoming a cheap buzzword), all the feelings he expresses boat launch in Yellowknife Bay. All four pas- – love, rage, and nostalgia for the future – feel close enough to touch. sengers and three dogs were rescued, without Thought-provoking, snarky, and often funny, NDN Coping Mechan- injuries. isms acts as both a personal confessional and an exposé on the seem- photo courtesy of Amazon In a third incident, around midnight on ingly endless cycle of colonial violence that has actively destroyed the NDN Coping Mechanisms is a collection of poems for Wednesday, Lutselk'e RCMP received a report lives of Indigenous peoples in North America and the world. of a missing boater. The boater, from Lutselk'e, Snatching text from various authors and legislations, Billy-Ray people who love books, love music, love pop culture, had departed in the direction of Yellowknife. Belcourt is as good at painting his world with the words of others as and love Leonardo Decaprio (or not), columnist Grace Members of the community prepared a search he is at crafting his own. When I finished the last poem in NDN Cop- Guy writes. plan with local resources. ing Mechanisms, I flipped the page right over and read the endnotes On Thursday morning, the boater, who had and acknowledgements just so that I could get a few more moments of to a Rihanna song, this collection has something for everyone. While safely reached Yellowknife, reported himself to Belcourt's writing. My favourite poems of this collection, all highly I find poetry is rarely engaging, even when it is interesting, NDN Yellowknife RCMP detachment and confirmed recommended, are A Country Is How Men Hunt, At The Mercy Of Coping Mechanisms lights up on the page. Somewhere between the his wellbeing. Due to weather, the boater had The Sky, Ars Poetica, and Leonardo Decaprio. artistic simplicity of Rupi Kaur and the manically detailed, emotional decided to camp overnight. NDN Coping Mechanisms is a collection of poems for people punch of Shane Koyczan, Billy-Ray Belcourt's NDN Coping Mech- – Blair McBride who love books, love music, love pop culture, and love Leonardo anisms is a great read for everyone who loves poetry (and everyone Decaprio. From dancing along to Bryan Adams' Heaven or humming who doesn't). 4 YELLOWKNIFER, Friday, July 3, 2020 commentary The Bristol on a pedestal LOOKING Back with Candace McQuatt email: [email protected] 50 years ago Pioneer Park – just behind the Welcome to Yellowknife sign was opening that summer. Its key attrac- tion consisted of the Ward Air Bris- tol which was originally planned to be set up on the site of the proposed PWA hotel on the hill west of the medical clinic on Giant Road, over- looking Frame Lake. Prior to PWA making an offer to the city for the site, consider- able work had been done towards developing the park at the Airport Road location. One of the condi- tions of the land sale was that PWA turn over $30,000 to the city in compensation for the work done and that money would be set aside for NNSL archive photos development of a park in another Above: Ward Air's Bristol, TFX, the first freight aircraft to serve in the North out of Yellowknife, arrived in 1957. A year later it location. was used to bring in the town's first fire truck. Below: The structure on which the Bristol was mounted was 20 feet in the air and At that time the Yellowknife Rotary Club stepped in recom- on an angle to simulate flight, so that it dominated the skyline as visitors approached along the road from the airport. mending the new site and offered to undertake responsibility for its maintenance. Inmates from the correctional institute did much of the preliminary work. 40 years ago Whether sand or rock, the first annual Yellowknife folk festival was held at Long Lake and was termed a total success by audience, perform- ers and organizers alike. 30 years ago For the first time since 1978 there would be no citizenship court as part of the annual Yellowknife Canada Day Celebrations. The reason was there was no cit- izenship judge to hold the court.