Klondike Sun ~ November 17, 2010

The Klondike Sun Wednesday,November 17, 2010 online edition

VOL. 22 NO. 15 $1.25

Prolonged River Freeze-up Leads Dawsonites to Weigh Consequences of Warming Trend Story by Chris Scott Photo by Dan Davidson

The EOC crew poses with trainer Michael Swainson (sitting in front in the middle).

Ravens may fly over it, and some day a tunnel may burrow under it, but for the moment the two hundred meter-wide stretch of river along the Dawson waterfront remains a (nearly) impassable barrier for those residents of West Dawson and Sunnydale who are stuck in town and wishing they could make it home. This year’s early ferry pull-out, on October 25th, combined with temperatures up to ten degrees above seasonal norms, have scuttled hopes for a quick freeze-up, and with sections of the Yukon River

ment, and in the scramble to get back to town, pack up her cabin, and relocate to a friend’s place in Dawson, Smith forgot to retrieve some ID she needed for banking.

Four days after pull-out, broke and getting desperate, Smith, accompanied by a friend, sauntered down to the Dawson waterfront carrying a borrowed canoe, and a firm determination to rescue her documents. Notwithstanding her extensive paddling experience and a background as a park ranger, this was the first time she was attempting to maneuver a canoe over ice, and in her rush to get into the boat something

Operation Fireball takes out a Bridge Story & Photo

By Dan Davidson Bridges are sensitive topics in Dawson City, the Yukon River Bridge debates of the early years of this century can attest, but it doesn’t do to forget that there is already a bridge you have to cross to get to Dawson. The Ogilvie Bridge crosses the Klondike River, and every piece of traffic and consumer goods that comes to town has to cross it.

So what if they couldn’t?

That was the scenario described in “Operation Fireball”, the emergency measures operation desktop exercise held in Dawson on Friday, November 5.

This was the culmination of a week during which YTG’s Rural Community Emergency Planner Michael Swainson put City of Dawson staff, along with the EMS and volunteer Fire Dept. through a series of Incident Command System (ICS) training exercises.

In the scenario it was December 5 during a normal Dawson winter with a temperature of -17° C and darkness well settled in when a van and a tanker truck collided in the middle of the bridge. Snow has been coming down all day and 10 centimetres has accumulated.

No one knows what is in the tanker, but it is on fire and the driver is slumped unconscious

IN THIS ISSUE: 1 - Fireball/Freeze-up 2 - Fireball/Freeze-up 3 - Wastewater Treat ment Plant 4 - Uffish Thoughts 5 - Letters / Events 6 - Remembrance Day 7 - Remembrance Day 8- Bookends 9 - Heritage Program 10 - Fair Trade 11 - Remains Uncovered

12-16 - TV Guide pages deleted 17 - 20 Years Ago 18 - Girls ‘n Ammo 19 - Author’s on 8th 20 - Humane Society/ Our Feathered Neighbours 21 - Cartoons 22- House Concert; Writer in Residence 23 - Classifieds 24 - City Page

over the wheel. All the identifying marks have either melted or are obscured.

The emergency called out the RCMP, EMS and the Fire Dept. to the scene.

As part of the exercise an emergency operations centre was established in council chambers and about two dozen people from a variety of volunteer and government organizations were assigned roles according to the ICS formula.

Erring on the side of caution the group decides to issue an evacuation order for the area within one kilometre of the fire. This includes the entire Tr’ondëk (or C4) Subdivison and the lower homes on the Dome. When it emerges that the tanker contains propane, this turns Con’t on p. 2

Christmas Pickle Ornaments Now Available at Max’s!

Fall hours: Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Sundays Noon to 5 p.m.

upstream of Dawson entirely icefree, and rain observed or forecast several times in the three weeks since pull-out, it seems that West Dawsonites’ proverbial resilience will be put to the test.

Merran Smith, 23, a SOVA student from Whitehorse , is one of those who walked relatively unprepared into the challenges associated with climate change in the rural north. Though she has recently observed, and accepts the science behind wonky weather patterns, Smith says she did not expect trouble when she moved to Dawson this fall and rented a cabin on the West side.

“I had heard it [freeze-up] was going to be two or three weeks,” she confides. “Not six weeks.”

Smith’s headaches began with the muddle over the ferry pull-out date, which was set for October 27th, and then rescheduled to two days earlier. It was only while participating in a First Nations caribou hunt on the Dempster Highway on October 24th that Smith learned of the rearrange-

slipped. The next thing she knew, Smith was floating chest-deep in the drink.

“I never felt adrenaline like that,” she recalls. “I think I looked terrified. [Then] I burst out laughing.”

Though Smith’s adventure concluded happily, following a change of clothes and a more prudent, ultimately successful second attempt to paddle the river, the experience impressed on her that canoe crossings during freeze-up are not to be undertaken lightly.

Longer-term West Dawsonites probably know this, and are also more philosophical about the limitations that come with crossriver living. But there is an edge of nervousness to the answers many of them offer when quizzed about how long freeze-up might last this year. A displacement that at first seems bearable or even thrilling can quickly become grating as the period of relocation is extended.Con’t on p. 2

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Prolonged River Freeze-up Leads Dawsonites to Weigh Consequences Cont’d from p. 1 of Warming Trend Consequences of Warming Trend

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Prolonged River Freeze-up Leads Dawsonites to Weigh

Naturally, a lot depends on the living arrangements of the individual. A call to the Bonanza Gold Motel revealed that five rooms there are currently being rented by West Dawsonites. On the other hand, many West Dawsonites are relying on the hospitality of friends, and at least one West Dawson resident is reputed to be sleeping in a downtown warehouse.

According to innkeeper Wendy Cairns, who has lived on the west side since 1991, the latest the river has remained closed to foot traffic in her experience has been early December. In 2009 ferry service ended November 2nd and the river was crossable November 17th.

Merran Smith, for one, does not hesitate to blurt out her apprehensions for this year. “I’ll feel like I’ll just be back in the cabin, and I’ll be leaving for Christmas,” she says.

Caili Steel, a second-year West Dawson resident and current

Programme Manager at the Conservation Klondike Society, emphasizes that the current mild fall and late freeze-up are consistent with the global pattern of humaninduced climate change whose impact will be particularly felt in the North. According to the Dawson Climate Change Adaptation Plan, a 2009 document drawn up by a partnership of locals and outside scientists, the Dawson area can expect annual temperatures two and a half to three and a half degrees warmer than the 1960-91 average by 2050, and that this may translate into “increased periods of isolation for residents in West Dawson and Sunnydale.”

Discussion has been active about whether various public works, particularly a sub-river tunnel, or a bridge, would be appropriate to address this problem, but so far the reaction of most West Dawsonites is that they give priority to their independence.

“We could build everybody a million-dollar house on the Dome

Operation Fireball Continued from p. 1

While this was a desktop exercise, it kept people on the move for the entire three hour span. out to be a wise decision.

Additional “sit reps” are issued and evaluated over the next five hours, during which the core group must respond to three key questions: What do you know?

What do you need? What are your worst fears?

The key roles in this scenario were logistics, finance, planning, operations, safety officer, liaison and information officer. All of them reported to the incident commander.

ICS is intended to provide a standard yet flexible command structure to allow any group of emergency responders to deal with any kind of situation in an organized and effective fashion.

As noted in the literature, “ICS establishes lines of supervisory authority and formal reporting relationships. There is complete unity of command as each position and person within the system has a designated supervisor. Direction and supervision follows established organizational lines at all times.”

“Operation Fireball” came to an effective end when the final “sit rep” indicated that the burning tanker, which could not be safely extinguished, had melted through the east end of the bridge, collapsing it and the two vehicles down onto the river ice and then into the water.

The immediate crisis was successfully resolved, though new problems would follow immediately.

Swainson declared the exercise a complete success during the debriefing.

“I was very impressed,” he said.

Wildland Fire Management’s Dan Baikie and Dawson Fire Chief Jim Regimbal were also pleased with the outcome.

The trainees will have a few months to recover from the ordeal, but an even more intense exercise is being planned for February. It will make real life events such as the 1979 Flood or the 2004 Forest Fire Season look like walks in the park.

for the price of that bridge,” scoffs cartographer John Bryant, comparing what he says would be an $80 million price tag for the bridge project with the estimated 70 households in West Dawson and Sunnydale.

Wendy Cairns concurs: “There aren’t enough of us to make those types of things necessary.”

And paradoxically, although warm weather is increasing the length of freeze-up, it is encouraging another trend whereby the isolation for those enduring it on the far side is not quite as total as it was before.

Every morning at 9 AM a four-passenger Bell-206 chopper takes off from the Trans North heliport next to Crocus Bluff, and flies cross-river to the Top-of-the-World Highway and Sunnydale Road intersection in West Dawson, from which point it transports West Dawson-based employees of the Ground Truth staking company to prospect sites south along the Yukon River.

The current mild temperatures, combined with a high price of gold, have made it both practical and profitable to post stakers in the field for the few light hours of each day, and both Trans North and Ground Truth, acting as good corporate citizens, have consented to ferry West Dawson care packages to the drop spot.

Payment is in kind.

“A case of beer goes a long way,” jokes Trans North pilot Dion Parker, a jolly, strapping New Zealander who seems to get fazed by nothing. According to sources, tobacco, fresh fish, newspapers and of course alcohol are among the items most frequently solicited by West Dawsonites. On at least three occasions, regular passengers- including Eli Cairns, sent across by his mom, Wendy, for a slumber party, have also crossed the river- for a fee.

Readers may be interested to learn that during his career as a pilot, Dion Parker spent many a December ferrying sweaty redsuited Santa Clauses to children’s Christmas parties in the heat of the southern hemisphere’s summer. When answering a question by this reporter as to whether, in the hitherto unthinkable event of freeze-up lasting another five weeks, he would be willing to act as “reindeer” to a WestDawson bound Santa, Parker grows animated, and an almost Yuletide twinkle appears in his eye.

“I guess we could,” he says.

Then, growing wistful: [But] it’s been a long time since I’ve flown Santa.”

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

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What’s With All the Water at the Wastewater Treatment Plant?

By Stephen Johnson Construction Manager, Dawson City Waste Water Treatment Plant As work on the Dawson Waste Water Treatment Plant moved into the fall season, there were a lot of questions about the pond developed next to the shafts. Construction Manager Stephen Johnson has prepared this update on the pond, which is now gone, and other matters.

In a word, the pond was about re-circulation. The water for drilling the main holes for the new waste water treatment plant was simply kept in a closed loop.

On the south side of the Screening Plant, a pond 2 metres (6.5 feet) deep was excavated in August and lined with a 30 mil (0.8 mm) thick engineered plastic sheet. The sole purpose of the pond was to hold water used for drilling the 2 main shafts in which will sit the influent pipes and air lines that form part of the new sewage treatment system. The 2 shafts are some 96 metres (315 feet) in depth from the surface of the ground.

But where did the water come from?

To begin with, the pond was filled with potable water from the fire hydrant on the other side of Fifth Avenue by the Locomotive Museum. A suction line was placed at the southeast corner of the pond and a pump, running continuously, drew water from the pond and dropped it into the large round casing that the drill machine sat on. The pipe from the casing back to the pond was used as an overflow. That maintained a proper level of water over the drill bit and helped to stabilize the shafts. As the bit progressed into the rock, the air supplied to the bit caused a Venturi (suction) effect and started the cuttings up the air lift. The air then forced cuttings and water up the drill pipe and through the blue rotary head at the top of the drill, through a large diameter rubber hose and pipe into the black tank located on the west side of the pond. The cuttings were deposited into the black tank and the water then overflowed a baffle and back into the pond over the 3 spillways.

Why is all the water so dirty?

The dirty water is because of the clay materials in the rock as well as the grinding of the rock as the drill bit progressed through the rock.

Doesn’t this dirty water harm the environment?

The answer to that is no. The reasons for that are that all of the water is re-circulated; the rock is very tight and has clay seams in it. Also, water samples were taken from the pond and results indicated that the water can be emptied from the pond directly into the Screening Plant. As part of the Environmental Protection Plan, a weekly inspection by an independent third party is carried out

on site and the town’s well water is sampled to ensure that the drilling is not affecting our groundwater that supplies the wells.

Why has it taken so long to drill these holes? The drilling started in June, didn’t it?

Well, apart from a problem with the 50” diameter drill bit while drilling the West Shaft, the main part of the drilling was actually small diameter holes (5-1/2”) that were used to cement the rock.

At this point we should step back and explain a bit about the rock.

Last year we drilled a diamond drill hole to learn about the nature of the rock. Bedrock was found

at approximately 10 meters (33 feet) which was a bit of a surprise as we thought that bedrock was much deeper. The hole was drilled some 100 metres (328 feet) deep; however, between 30 and 70 metres a bad section of rock was encountered which led to the small diameter drilling we started with in June. The 2 – 50” diameter shafts are the most important and riskiest part of the entire project and without them, there would be no project. Therefore we had to stabilize the rock and that was done by injecting cement into the rock in a curtain around the 2 shafts. That is what took the bulk of the time.

Alexco Causes Dawson Blackout

By Dan Davidson The Alexco Bellekeno Mine may not be quite ready to begin operations, but that didn’t stop it from blacking out Dawson City on Remembrance Day. According to Yukon Energy’s Jane Patterson, current operations at the ball mill in Keno require YEC to run one of the diesel generators in Dawson in order to meet the load demand.

Alexco had shut down the mill for the day and YEC had shut down the Dawson diesel. There was a shift change in Keno and the fresh maintenance crew there decided to start the mill up again in order to do some work.

Unfortunately no one thought to tell YEC, and so the lights went out along the line.

Dawson blacked out at 5:56 and power was restored at 6:08.

“We have spoken to Alexco about this and in future there will be better lines of communication between us and them to ensure this sort of thing doesn’t happen again,” Patterson says.

The Yukon River stopped moving last Thursday, but left a lot of open water between residents and a stable crossing.

What happens next?

Once the drilling of each shaft was completed, the next tricky thing was to lower the 38” diameter Aeration Vessel into the ground. This was done with the use of a crane and welding 80’ sections together. Since the bottom of each Aeration Vessel is closed (dome shaped bottom), water was added to sink it. Once each Aeration Vessel was properly situated, a pressure test was completed to ensure that they do not leak.

After that, each Aeration Vessel was cemented in place with grout delivered in 4 separate lifts. Following that, the internal piping was welded together and lowered into each Vessel.

Will these shafts leak sewage

into the environment?

For the shafts to leak, the influent (sewage) would have to penetrate the ½” thick steel Aeration Vessel, then penetrate the 6” thick cement grout around the steel vessel, then get through the cement grout curtain around the 2 shafts.

Following that the influent would have to get through very tight bedrock as well as clay seams. At the top of each shaft is a 1” thick casing that was drilled through the overburden gravels and is seated approximately 2.5 metres (8 feet) into bedrock. There is grout between the 38” steel vessel and the 1” thick steel casing. Therefore, the answer is no, the shafts will not leak into the environment and, most important, the aquifer that supplies our drinking water.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Opinions in the Sun Road map to one of Dawson’s cultural assets: French programs at RSS By le Centre de la Francophonie à Dawson

The future of French in Dawson: with Dawson’s daycares increasing French programming, the elementary school decreasing it, and the tourism industry dependent on bilingualism, it’s high time Dawsonites get together to decide what they want the future of French to be in our community.

From the first French “coureurs de bois” who brought fiddling, oral traditions and their language to Dawson City, to later Francophone pioneers who helped found, develop and make Dawson what it is today, French has been here since the arrival of trade and industry. Joseph Ladue was the founder of Dawson City, Emily Tremblay and her family prospected, then owned businesses here, the Forest family brought hockey and the Stanley Cup to Dawson from Québec, the Duclos documented history with their photography and the Pépins wrote many famous Gold-Rush tunes still heard today. The Famous Mercier and

Taché families dominated Yukon politics, as well as civil engineering, being greatly responsible for land and marine travel from Dawson to Whitehorse.

Dawson’s cemetaries are filled with French surnames, each telling a tale for itself. Even the Han word “mahsi” is a derivative of the French word “merci” meaning “thank you”.

Though there is no question that Francophones have been present and influential in Dawson’s past, there seems to be some debate about how present they are today and how influential French education should be in this day and age.

Dawsonites are, without a doubt, a colourful and varied bunch, of which Francophones comprise approximately 10%.

They work in mining, in restaurants, in tourism, in hotels, for the government and the city, own businesses, run non-profit organizations as well as dog teams!

They live in West Dawson, Dawson City, Bear Creek, Rock Creek, Henderson Corner and every other bit of settlement you could think of. They bring their culture and language with them

because they are proud, but more importantly because they are encouraged to do so via grants and federal budgets for education.

Such grants and federal monies are available in Dawson and can be put to good use.

Canada is officially bilingual for a reason. Both languages make up an important part of our heritage, no doubt, but both languages also contribute to a prosperous economy, multiculturalism, ethnic tolerance and social progress.

There are so many reasons to support second language education in Dawson City today, regardless of its Francophone heritage. The main industry in Dawson being tourism, it is fair to say that the quality of employment available to those who can communicate in both official languages usually exceeds that of others, specifically for government jobs, benefits and security. As if job prospects weren’t enough reason to learn French, science has shown that learning a second language, especially at an early age, can increase decoding abilities that can bet-

ter be transferred when learning literacy, math and science skills in primary school. Studies have also shown that supporting and developing second language skills helps with a student’s awareness of the world around them as well as with cultural self-identity which may increase self-esteem and motivation to learn...and motivation to learn inevitably leads to more learning. Don’t we all want that for our childrens’ future and for Dawson’s prosperity? Which leads us to the future of French in Dawson...

A committee was formed as a result of the parent concern with the elimination of enriched French programming for Francophone students as well as the combining of French and Music programming in grades 1-4. This committee will meet to discuss and determine a long-term plan for French programming at Robert Service School on November 15th and need input from community members who have ideas and opinions regarding French education. With such a dramatic reduction in French

programming at the primary level in 2010-2011 at RSS, do we have anything to say? It is time parents make their voices heard.

Robert Service School will be sending out a letter to all parents at the primary level in order to better determine the needs of all students with regards to French education. Would you like French and Music to be two separate classes again (gr.1-4)?

Would you like a French immersion preschool option in Dawson?

Would you like French enrichment at the elementary level? At the secondary level?

Would you prefer less French taught in the primary grades and more focus on other subjects?

References: Association franco-yukonnaise : http://www.afy.yk.ca Cognitive Benefits of Learning Language : http://www.actfl.org/i4a/pages/ index.cfm?pageid=4724 Self-esteem and foreign language learning: www.c-s-p.org/ flyers/9781847182159-sample.pdf

Literary Society of the Klondike Former board president Joanna Mazanti has generously donated a very extensive library to us. We have already begun to sell off these books at the Dawson Daycare Bazaar. Come visit our table at the upcoming KIAC and TH bazaars! We’ve got a wide variety of quality books on offer, including novels, plays, essay and short story collections.

Have a say in the direction of your community paper, a unique part of Dawson for the past 21 years. All of our content is volunteer-submitted. Have you got a great idea for a regular column? Interesting photos or stories from local events? Send it in to us and see your name in print! Check out our NEW WEBSITE where you will soon be able to view archived Suns from 21 years ago! Webmaster Steins is slowly but surely filling in those early years. 1989 is there now. Have a look at http://cityofdawson.com/category/klondike_sun

This is YOUR space. Write!

Who we are: Editor/ Head Writer Dan Davidson

Advertising & Production Manager Evan Rensch Archivist Chris Levett Subscriptions/Distribution Tara Borin, the Bandit Bookkeeping Karen McIntyre It Figures Bookkeeping Reporters / Photographers Tara Borin, Glenda Bolt, Palma Berger, Betty Davidson, Jay Armitage & others as noted

Webmaster John Steins We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program toward our mailing costs.

PAP Registration No. 08878

Published by the Literary Society of the Klondike: President: Tara Borin Vice-President: Dan Davidson Board of Directors: Florian Boulais, Miles Kenyon, Megan Graham.

Director Emeritus - Palma Berger

The Klondike Sun is produced bi-weekly. It is published by The Literary Society of the Klondike, a non-profit organization. Letters to the editor, submissions and reports may be edited for brevity, clarity, good taste (as defined by community standards), racism, sexism, and legal considerations. We welcome submissions from our readership; however, it should be understood that the opinions expressed herein may not always reflect those of the publishers and producers of the Klondike Sun. Submissions should be directed to The Editor, Bag 6040, Dawson City, YT, Y0B 1G0, e-mailed to uffish20@hotmail.com, directly to the paper at klondikesun@northwestel.net or dropped off in the drop-box at our office in the Waterfront Building, 1085 Front Street.

They should be signed and preferably typed (double-spaced), or saved on digital media (CD).

If you can give a phone number at which you can be reached, it would be helpful. Unsigned letters will not be printed. “Name withheld by request” is acceptable and will be printed, providing the writer identifies themselves to the Sun editorial staff. A Publishing Policy exists for more details.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

10th Annual Youth Art Enrichment Program DAWSON CITY, YUKON From November 3 to 7, 2010, forty-four high school students from across the Yukon Territory participated in the Youth Art Enrichment program in Dawson City through the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC). During this time, students took classes with professional Yukon artists in the visual and performing arts. On Saturday, November 6, students presented completed work to their colleagues and the community.

This year, students with an expressed commitment to art were able to apply to one of four courses.

For the first time in the history of the program, students had the option to take a course in the performing arts. George Maratos of Whitehorse led an Improv Intensive, introducing students to basic theatrical and improvisational concepts through a series of games, exercises, and performances.

Dawson City’s Michael Edwards taught a course on Digital Media Arts, in which students worked with digital cameras, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator to create and manipulate artwork. In Whitehorse instructor Rosemary Scanlon’s Fantastical Watercolour

Worlds course, students used water- made in this program will also be colours to make works inspired by displayed by the ODD Gallery in photography, popular culture, and December and at the Yukon Arts medieval tapestries with a focus Centre’s Kidz Gallery in Whiteon narrative. Finally, Whitehorse horse in February. artist and Youth Art Enrichment KIAC offers a broad range of Program veteran Meshell Melvin high quality community, continuled a painterly approach to Collage ing education and professional and Mixed Media, where students development programs from its incorporated drawing, painting, home base at the Odd Fellows and relief to build images and learn Hall in Dawson City, Yukon. The the principals of design.

10th annual Youth Art Enrichment In addition to class work, stu- program is supported by the City dents attended an art history lec- of Dawson, the Youth Investment ture, learned about post-secondary Fund, the Yukon Department of options for artists, and participated Education, and the Yukon Departin recreational activities. Students ment of Tourism and Culture, were also invited to attend an art Cultural Services Branch. opening at the ODD Gallery, and encouraged to participate in an Open Mic Night Coffee House. The public was invited to attend the culminating showcase of student work on Saturday, in the three workshop venues.

An exhibiMore photos from the YAEP on p. 18 tion of works

WHAT TO SEE AND DO IN DAWSON NOW This free public service helps our readers find their way through the many activites all over town.

Any small happening may need preparation and planning, so let us know in good time! To join this listing contact Tara Borin at klondikesun@northwestel.net.

Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC) - Odd Gallery: Mon. - Fri. 11 am - 5 pm Sat noon - 5pm. Visit www.kiac.ca for current exhibitions and programming information. Film Fest Selection Mondays & Wednesdays, Nov. 8th - Feb. 28th 2011, in the KIAC classroom: Help choose films to be screened at the 2011 Short Film Fest. Just show up, or contact Dan at 993-5005/filmfest@kiac.ca Senior’s Painting Saturdays 1-4 in the KIAC classroom. $5 fee for supplies, all skill levels welcome. Christmas Craft Fair Taking place in the Ballroom on Saturday, Nov. 27th from noon to 5 p.m.

Dawson City Rec Department - Drop-in Badminton Mondays in the RSS Gymnasium Families from 6:15-7:15 p.m., Adults from 7:15-8:30 p.m. Fitness Classes Mon, Wed and Fri 5:30-6:30 p.m. in the Ancillary Room. $2 drop-in fee or $25/6 weeks. For more information on these and other available programs, please contact the Rec Department, 993-2353 10,000 Villages Fair Trade Festival Sale - Unique gifts for yourself and your family, plus homemade Thai food! In the KIAC Ballroom, Sat. November 20th, 10-3 p.m.

TH Last Minute Christmas Bazaar - In the TH Community Hall, Sat. December 4th, 11-3.

Dawson City Museum Theatre - Please see www.dcmmovies.blogspot.com for upcoming show titles.

Hatha Yoga - Monday & Thursday 5:45 - 7 p.m., Saturday 9 - 10:30 a.m. in the Downtown Hotel conference room. All classes cancelled for stat holidays. $10 drop-in fee, or purchase a prepaid card for $50/10 classes. Email yogawithjoanne@me.com for schedule changes.

Westminster Hotel - Barnacle and Willie G in the Tavern, Thurs. - Sat. nights, 4-8. In the lounge this month: Thursday night Jazz with Bob, Richard and Joe, starts at 8:30 pm; Live Local Talent Fri. & Sat. from 10 p.m. Lounge now open from 5 p.m.

Dawson City Chamber of Commerce - Regular meetings 2nd Wed. of each month.

Dawson City Community Library - Open Mon - Fri, noon to 6.

Conservation Klondike Society Depot Hours - Sat, Sun, Mon, Wed: 1-5 pm, Tues: 3-7 pm. Donations of refundables may be left on the deck during off hours. Info: 993-6666

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THE KLONDIKE SUN

in OUR community

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Keeping Remembrance Day Real after Decades Story & Photos

By Dan Davidson

The gymnasium at the Robert Service School was packed once again for Remembrance Day services on November 11, with town councillor Wayne Potoroka serving as emcee for the event.

In the absence of a school choir, Betty Davidson led in the singing of “O Canada”. Prayers were offered by retired Archdeacaon Ken Snider. The Act of Remembrance was read by Legion member Myrna Butterworth and the Prime Minister’s message by Klondike MLA Steve Nordick.

Special speaker for the event this year was RSS teacher Peter Menzies.

Menzies reflected on the significance in his life of having grown up in the town of Crystal City, Manitoba, where the local Legion was a major player on the town’s social scene and where every family had a connection to someone who had served or died in one of the two World Wars of the 20th Century.

Menzies had three themes in

his talk. How is Remembrance Day important to families? How do we celebrate it as a community? How do we carry on the tradition?

In Menzies’ family there were two brothers who were old enough to enlist and one who could hardly wait. One of those who did, Uncle Oscar, was killed in the conflict, and Menzies has since written a song about him.

“Overnight, the Jensen family … became a military family.”

As it happens, Menzies himself exists because his mother’s first love went off to war and was killed there before that relationship could move to marriage.

The man who would become Menzies’ father signed up for the Canadian forces and survived the war, going on the marry Menzies’ mother and move to Crystal City, where all the big social events of the year – the Christmas Party, the Bonspeil, etc. – were Legion organized events.

When Menzies was in grade 10 in 1970 his twin brother, Bill, won the contest to give the Re-

membrance Day speech at their school, and that 16 year old had the nerve to ask the assembled audience how he, having never experienced a war, could be expected to relate to it.

“The room went completely silent. No student had ever posed that question before and there was a certain nervousness in the room because that’s a challenging question.”

Much to his relief the president of the Legion thanked Bill Menzies for asking that question, since it was, he told the audience, one that he had been pondering.

“That was 1970 … and now I’m a public school teacher and I work with these young people,” he said, adding that he still faced that challenge.

Menzies noted that he had tried, in his opening remarks, to name every organization represented in the gym on that day: Rangers, Legion members, teachers, post office employees, business owners, firefighters, EMS responders and everyone he could think of. Each of those groups, he said, had their own

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traditions that connected them with the conflicts in the world.

“In those wars, every one of those institutions were involved in them in a big, big, consumptive way, and each of those institutions has their own legacy that goes along with Remembrance Day, their own legacy of how they participated in those events and how they operate their insti-

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

in OUR community

THE KLONDIKE SUN

page 7

Photo Captions: p. 6 right and then clockwise. * The RCMP on guard. * Cenotaph guard and wreaths during the community service at the school. * The Rangers and Junior Rangers at the cenotaph in Victory Gardens after the public service at the school. * On November 10 Robert Service School held its own memorial service and the classes took these wreathes out to the cenotaph. * “O Canada” Alberta College of Art and Design, Athabasca University, BC Council on Admissions and Transfer, Canadian Forces, College of the Rockies, Devry Calgary, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Fairview/Grande Prairie Regional College, Grant MacEwan University, Kings University College, Langara College, Lethbridge College, Mount Royal University, Northern Lights College, Okanagan College, Quest University Canada, Royal Roads University, Service d'Orientation et de Formation des Adultes, Thompson Rivers University, University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Northern British Columbia, University of Saskatchewan, Vancouver Island University, Yukon College, Yukon School of Visual Arts

2010 Western Canada

Education Fair 25 Post Secondary Institutions in Whitehorse Everyone is welcome to attend!

tutions now.”

Menzies’ godfather, who had been the postmaster in Crystal City, carried mail for the troops during the assault to liberate France.

“He was under fire, delivering mail, so that the people in Crystal City would know what had happened to their loved ones.”

Menzies concluded with the observation that Dawson, with its many institutions, was a town where people do communicate with each other, was in a good position to carry on the Remembrance Day tradition.

The formal laying of the wreaths was a lengthy event this year, with several families laying wreaths in memory of

their loved ones who had seen service, as well as the usual wreaths from businesses and organizations. Each person to lay a wreath was accompanied by a member of the Junior Rangers.

Following the ceremony at the school, the Rangers and Junior Rangers took some of the wreaths to the cenotaph in Victory Gardens, where they were placed with the ones the school had put there the day before during RSS exercises.

Guests at this year’s event were Warrant Officer Bruno Bernier and Cpl. Dominique Clement, both of Joint Task Force North, based in Yellowknife.

Ranger Sgt. John “Mitch”

Mitchell explained that various members of Task Force North were dispatched to attend Remembrance Day events in the communities through out the North this year.

Monday, Dec 6 Yukon College Gym 9am–12:30pm & 1:30–6pm

Presentations are from 3:30–6pm

Your chance to have face-to-face discussions with enrolment advisors and ask questions

Prizes: Acer Aspire One Netbook ($300), Kodak Playsport Zx3 ($200) and more!

Presentation Schedule: www.yukoncollege.yk.ca/wcef

Info: 867-668-8752

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Marvelous Creatures in Strange Places

Bookends

Lizards of the Sky Animals Where You Least Expect Them

by Dan Davidson

By Claire Eamer Annick Press 98 pages $12.95

When it comes to animals and nature there are certain things that we expect to find in certain places and others that we do not expect. It is the unexpected ones that are the subject of this book by Whitehorse author Claire Eamer.

Let’s have her explanation, from the introduction:

“You wouldn’t expect to see a little bird poking its sharp beak between the stones at the bottom of a stream. You probably wouldn’t expect to see a spider inside a silk home. Or an animal that looks

like a miniature deer, cruising in the watery shadows beneath a stream bank. But you might be surprised.”

Her introduction, “Fancy Meeting You Here” sketches the parameters of the book quite well. Her intention is to take the reader out of what one might consider to be the comfort zone of life, what she portrays as a comfortable orchard where all the necessities of life are readily available.

Humans use technology to adapt themselves and their surroundings so they can live almost anywhere.

Animals, lacking technology, have to adapt themselves, and do so in some of the oddest places.

Each of the six chapters that follow deal with a specific type of environment and with the adaptations creatures have had to undergo in order to survive there.

There are many subdivisions within the chapters.

“Braving the Waves”, for instance, is divided into six parts, covering everything from living in the water itself to perching on the bottom or the top of the surface tension.

There are lots of big colour pictures, ribbonlike highlighted notes, and a section at the end called “The Least Expected”, which deals with the creature that might seem to be most out of place in this environment.

The book is cleverly designed

ATTENTION CARIBOU HUNTERS No hunting in Dempster Hwy area GMZ 2-16, 2-23, 2-27, 2-28 and 2-39

The Minister of Environment has signed an Emergency Conservation Order that prohibits hunting of all caribou in five game management subzones: 2-16, 2-23, 2-27, 2-28 and 2-39.

This conservation measure is intended to protect the Hart River caribou herd. It will be in effect from Friday, November 5 to Monday, January 31, 2011 (the end of the hunting season).

There are no Porcupine caribou along this stretch of the Dempster Highway right now so the risk of overhunting the Hart River caribou in the area is extremely high. This emergency closure applies to Yukon resident and non-resident hunters.

Questions? Contact Environment Yukon at 667-5652 or visit the department’s website: www.environmentyukon.gov.yk.ca

and laid out, with simple explanatory notes right where they are needed, mostly introduced by the even weirder creatures of John Tenniel’s imagination. Tenniel did the fantastic and iconic illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice books. They lend a fantasy air to this book, but I’m guessing the waistcoat on the Jabberwock will be enough to keep even a young reader from thinking that this beastie might be the flying lizard referred to in the book’s title.

Eamer’s text is kid-friendly but not at all simplistic, and informs

while entertaining. Her list of material for further reading and her bibliography show how much research went into the books, but it’s not stuffy, and reads as if she’s actually seen all these creatures in the wild and wandered through the places where they live.

Children of the Gold Rush

By Claire Rudolf Murphy And Jane G. Haigh Roberts Rhinehart Publishers 84 pages $23.00 This book has been around for a few years and on my shelves for most of that time. It’s still available all over the territory and seems to have gone through a new printing (the one I’ve listed here) since the original edition by

Alaska Northwest Books. I was moved to take another look at it after reading Frances Backhouse’s recent Children of the Klondike, in which she references this work.

This is a far simpler book, much more of a picture book than Backhouse’s. The text is brief compared to the pictures, and much of it is there mainly to interpret the photographs.

The authors did not restrict themselves to the Klondike, and so the book roves over to Nome, Fairbanks and Iditarod as well as Dawson City, touching down with vignettes about the lives of specific children in each of the places, including some of the same kids Backhouse wrote about.

There’s actually more of Alaska than the Yukon in this book, but that’s not a problem. In that time and place, people were all drawn North by the same golden magnet, so the title still fits.

Offices of the Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner are Not Well Understood Story & Photo

by Dan Davidson

After three years in office, Yukon’s Ombudsman and Privacy Commissioner, Tracy-Anne McPhee, thinks that there are probably too few people in the Yukon, and especially outside of Whitehorse, who have a clear idea of what her office does and what it can do for them. Accordingly, McPhee and two members of her staff spent a couple of days in Dawson City this week, meeting with a number of groups and talking at the Robert Service School.

McPhee splits her half-time appointment between the two positions, so the territory really has a quarter-time person (or .25 person years, as the government likes to style it) in each job.

McPhee says it’s really not enough, and made the point quite clearly in both of her annual reports when they came out last May. “My work is compelling and dynamic and it is my honour to serve the people of the Yukon. However, I continue to be frustrated by the government’s failure to recognize that limiting this position to halftime negatively impacts my ability to achieve its legislated objectives and properly serve the people of the Yukon.

“In 1996, when the Yukon government established the Office of the Ombudsman and Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) it made a commitment to an efficient, expedient and inexpensive way to identify problems, resolve issues and ultimately improve government services. The office is an integral part of an open and accountable government.

“In 1996, the dual Ombudsman/ IPC position was created as one halftime position, which is still the case in 2009.

This equates to less than two hours per day for each of the two functions. Fourteen years ago that may have been sufficient. That is no longer the case.”

McPhee says that a lot of people, including the ones who pay her salary, don’t seem to understand that her job as ombudsman, and the job of the people who work with her, is not about finding problems and pointing fingers. It’s about finding solutions to problems and making situations better.

That part of the office has jurisdiction to investigate complaints related to the work of the following departments and agencies: • Yukon Government departments; • crown corporations and independent authorities or boards; • public schools and Yukon College; • hospitals; • professional and occupational governing bodies; • municipalities & Yukon First Nations (at their request only).

Wearing her other hat, as Privacy Commissioner, she says the proliferation of social media and the amount of personal information that so many people are putting online is a subject that

ought to be way more of a public concern than it is. While she tries to raise public concern over this situation, her jurisdiction is more focussed on: • giving the public the right of access to records • giving individuals the right of access to their own personal information and the right to request corrections to that information; • specifying limited exceptions to the rights of access; • preventing the unauthorized collection, use and disclosure of personal information; • a variety of decisions about waivers, extensions, refusals and other details related to the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. While McPhee and her staff report they had substantive meetings with groups in Dawson while they were here, the public meeting at the Dänojà Zho Cultural centre was in competition with several other meeting and a film screening, which meant it took the form of a very small discussion group. And it meant that the visitors had lots of leftover donuts to share with the people they met the next day.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Putting the “I” in Heritage

By Miles Kenyon

Heritage can be described as the passing down of culture or traditions to those who are meant to protect them. On the afternoon of October 27th, a few individuals gathered in the Dӓnojà Zho Cultural Centre to learn that, with a little training, we can all become stewards of culture.

The Heritage and Cultural Essential Skills program (HACES) is being offered to Dawson residents through Yukon College in the upcoming weeks. This 10 week program provides students with the basic skills necessary to work within heritage and cultural departments across Canada, with specific emphasis on First Nations’ heritage.

HACES began with a gathering of Yukon First Nation Heritage workers in 2000 and was developed as a response to a need for hands-on heritage training within communities. Heritage and heritage training had been a priority for First Nations for many years, says Jody Beaumont, HACES Co-Ordinator, who also sat on the Yukon First Nations Heritage Group as the Director of Heritage for Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in.

“One of the number one issues was having appropriate training in the Yukon by Yukoners that actually fit the bill for what people needed- there are lots of opportunities outside of the Yukon, but they don’t really meet the needs of people here, because the reality is First Nations do things differently.”

Time was spent looking for funds, a steering committee was formed and a needs assessment was conducted. Finally, in 2009, a pilot project was launched in Mayo with the Nacho Nyak Dun First Nation, with Beaumont and her business partner, Michael Edwards, acting as instructors for many of the courses. This year, programs will be offered in Dawson City, Pelly Crossing and Ross River, with funding from Yukon Government’s Department of Tourism and Culture, and additional contributions being made

by community groups- in Dawson, HACES is supported by the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in government and the Klondike Region Training Fund.

One of the tenets of this program, completely unique in the Yukon, is to allow the needs of the community to drive the curriculum. While each offering will be based on the same foundation skills, each program will differ slightly to reflect particular needs and desires.

The HACES program also doubles as a way for many workers to brush up on essential skills, which Human Resources Canada defines as “…the skills needed for work, learning and life,” and include areas such as literacy, numeracy, document use and computer skills.

As such, participants in the program will be equipped to not only work in heritage positions, but will be able to branch out into many other areas of work.

A similar program to HACES, the Heritage and Culture Certificate Program (HCCP), is currently being offered through Yukon College, but is more academic and is aimed at those interested in obtaining management-level heritage positions.

“HACES is based on learning about heritage management while at the same time…these students will pick up some of the skills they need just to get in the door.”

Beaumont believes this to be very important, since many community members have relevant heritage knowledge, but lack the necessary familiarity with contemporary work culture.

The proposed core courses for the program touch on many aspects of the heritage realm: Introduction to Heritage Management, Administrative Skills, Research Skills, Archiving and Collections Management, Traditional Knowledge Management, Document and Multi-Media Skills, Language Management, Heritage Field Skills and Site Management, and Heritage Communication.

The program climaxes with a group project that combines all of the skills the students have spent

weeks honing. In Mayo, students created an interactive display on Old Village. But, Beaumont points out, students in each community can choose almost anything to showcase their newly-acquired talents.

HACES also boasts the possibility of balancing school and life, with less than full-time class hours, partial course loads, and a pass/fail system that ensures participation and involvement is rewarded without the pressures of academia.

Some might wonder why a program focussing on First Nations heritage management is necessary, but Beaumont responds that First Nations simply have their own interpretation of heritage, taking on a view of culture as a living history, not something simply relegated to dusty lockers. To illustrate this point, she recalls a heritage festival that took place at Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in: community members were gathering to learn about making snowshoes, so the Elders insisted that the best snowshoes from the Heritage Collection be brought down so each citizen could pass them around, try them on, and learn from them. This, Beaumont promises, is something that would make Heritage Managers in other sectors cringe, but First Nations have a much more interactive relationship with the past.

When asked what else Beaumont would like to say about the program, she stresses that HACES can offer relevant training to individuals of all ages. All of the students enrolled in the Pelly program would be defined as a ‘mature student’, most of whom are there because they are looking to make a life or career change, and Beaumont believes this makes complete sense. “It’s their [Elders] job, traditionally, to pass on knowledge and heritage to the young people, so what better people to be managing it?”

Individuals interested in more information about the HACES program can contact Jody Beaumont at jbeaumont@yukoncollege.yk.ca.

page 9

Eye on SOVA

By Rheas Flanagan

This column is intended to give curious readers an idea of what is happening in the studios of the Yukon School of Visual Arts.

This year’s batch of students hail from all parts of the country, each bringing unique experiences and artistic mediums.

So far this semester, in 3D class we have built wire sculptures, larger than life cardboard sculptures, additive sculptures out of clay and wax and are now working on subtractive sculptures combining everything from kitchen sinks to gold-rush era antiquities.

English class has taught us how to write critically about art. In one project, we used still photographs as a starting point to create our own stories and myths. Last week, we were lucky enough to receive a visit from J.J. Van Bibber, who captivated the class with tales from the trap line.

Our current project is designed to stimulate the left side of our brains, as the class collectively struggles with the art of critical writing.

In Art History, we’ve traveled through time from classical Rome and Greece through the Medieval Period, navigating the Black Plague and Byzantine art. At this rate, we’ll reach the Renaissance by mid-term. This week David Neufeld, the Yukon

and Western Arctic historian for Parks Canada, paid us a visit and discussed art history in Northern Canada.

In our 4D course, we have been learning the art of digital photography: f-stops, apertures and depth of field have become part of our everyday language.

The lighting workshop was definitely a personal highlight and came complete with an outrageous after-school photo shoot.

Portraiture was fun, too.

We’ve been drawing non-stop since the first week of school.

The class has experimented with different ways of drawing, and trying different materials – everything from coffee to olive oil.

We blushed our way through the many life model sessions, and this week we’re being encouraged to draw without a box and rely on our own imaginations.

Things are starting to get serious over here at SOVA as the end of the semester is nearly in sight.

The place is oozing creative juices, and we are all looking forward to showing off our work to the community at the upcoming open house in December.

Matthew Webster Scholarship Fund The first $500 scholarships from this recently established fund administered by the Yukon Foundation have been awarded to Yukon residents pursuing post secondary school education in trades and industrial design.

The recipients of this year’s scholarships are Denis Godin and Jaron Holder.

DENIS GODIN attended F.H. Collins and is currently enrolled in his second year at the University of Alberta in the field of industrial design. His long term objective is “to improve manufacturing and industry in the Yukon, such as material technologies, robotics and machining.”

JARON HOLDER was born and raised in Whitehorse, and is a graduate of F.H. Collins. He is in his second year of the four year carpentry program at Yukon College. Jaron intends to remain in Whitehorse on completion of his apprenticeship.

The parents of Matthew Webster wish both recipients every success with their studies. We thank all friends and family for their generous donations in establishing this fund in memory of our son, Matthew.

page 10

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

submitted by Cathie Findlay-Brook

~ A Healthy Climate for Fair Trade ~

For its 5th year running, the Ten Thousand Villages Festival Sale gives Dawsonites the opportunity to be a part of a growing community of people supporting fair trade and its partnering principles of social and environmental justice.

Developing countries have joined the quest for economic stability and security. Why wouldn’t people all over the world desire the same opportunities- secure access to the basic human needs of housing, health, education and peace - as people in richer nations such as ours take for granted?

Mainstream belief assumes that in order for poorer nations to wean themselves from dependency on richer nations and gain some kind of prosperity they must sacrifice social and environmental considerations in favour of the most expedient ways to turn a profit.

But what if those nations adopt Fair Trade practices? In fact when it comes to social and environmental sustainability and curbing climate change the practice of fair trade actually helps.

When you buy fair trade sugar, coffee or chocolate you are promoting organic methods of agriculture. On organic farms coffee plants are grown in the

shade of endemic plants. Field workers and song birds are free from the devastating effects of herbicides and pesticides and coffee grows in a natural environment.

Jewellery and home decor crafted with found bits of wire, metal and recycled pop cans will permit a father to stay in his home community with his family instead of travelling to the nether regions of his country to work in unsafe conditions in mines.

Palm leaf garlands, handicrafts and food products made from rainforest nuts ensure that workers can directly see the value added benefits of coconut palms and of leaving trees standing in the world’s rainforests and in so doing lessening the world wide effects of rainforest destruction.

Hand produced artisan wares means that a community doesn’t have to invest capital in costly and potentially environmentally damaging or dangerous manufacturing equipment.

Fair Trade offers practical, viable solutions for healthier livelihoods, communities AND environments. When artisans are paid fairly for their products and receive consistent orders they are then able to invest in their environment - meeting the needs of the present world without compromising the ability of future generations to meet

their own needs as well.

Poverty alleviation and environmental sustainability go hand in hand, but they require a conscious effort on our part to be responsible to each other and to our environment. Everything at the Ten Thousand Villages

Sale - from recycled accessories and handmade paper products, to reclaimed wood furniture - is produced in a sustainable manner by people who have safe working conditions and are paid a living wage.

By supporting Fair Trade

each and everyone one of us will help build a world where true social and environmental justice can be achieved. In Dawson on November 20th and beyond we CAN make a global difference.

Relay for Life returns to Dawson Press release

After a year’s break the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life will be held May 28th from 12 noon until 12 midnight!! Last year almost 17,000 people came together throughout BC and Yukon at a Relay for Life event and raised over $5.4 million!

In the previous 4 years that the Relay was held in Dawson a total of $136,294.00 was raised!! This money has helped Cancer patients and their families in various ways including ensuring that 6,100 people had a place to call home at one of the lodges while undergoing treatment and the drivers made over 43,000 trips to cancer treatment centers. This money also provides the summer camp experience at Camp Goodtime to 600 children with cancer and their families.

Did you know in 2008 there were 15 teams and 144 participants registered in the Dawson Relay, raising $46,369?? The goal for 2011 is be to beat those totals and have fun doing it!! This event cannot be successful without the help of a lot of volunteers and we know the community of Dawson is good for that!

We are looking for some lead volunteers to join us in organizing this fantastic fundraising event.

We will have an information table

at the Mini Bazaar Dec. 4th. and encourage you to come and find out how you can get involved and be part of the fun, friendship and fundraising!!

We invite you to come see us and find out how you can help, sign up as a participant or become a team captain. We will have paper registrations, pledge sheets and other information available at the table.

The 2011 Relay for Life websites are now live! Gather your friends, family and co-workers and start your team today and take advantage of the $10 Early Bird registration. There is much to do before we stop cancer from claiming lives and causing suffering. It’s a fight we all have to continue. Will you help? Go to www.relaybc.ca to learn more!

For more information you can

contact me at dhogan@northwestel.net or come and visit me at the information table on Dec. 4th.

Submitted by Donna Hogan , Volunteer Organizer

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

page 11

Three Coffins Found in Old Highway Compound Story & Photos

By Dan Davidson No one was expecting anything out of the ordinary on the afternoon of Thursday, November 4, when excavation work around the vertical sewage treatment (Vertreat) shafts on the site of the new Dawson wastewater treatment plant turned up some wood and some bones.

Corix Water Systems site manager, Stephen Johnson, halted work on the project as soon as he was aware of what had happened and contacted the RCMP, the City of Dawson and the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, as well as the Dept. of Highways, which is in charge of the project.

A couple of the Corix crew members, who wandered by on Friday afternoon, admitted that unearthing bodies where none This had been expected was weird and unsettling, to say the least.

During the rest of Thursday, decisions were made about what to do next. Suspect piles of dirt were covered with tarpaulins and one truckload, which had already left the property, was examined at the dump site out of town, to see if there were any bones there. It turned out that there were.

Greg Hare, senior projects archeologist with the Yukon government, arrived on Friday and began the work of examining the coffins and bones that had been uncovered.

On that day Hare explained the initial findings.

“We have what appear to be two coffins with the remains of two individuals that have been exposed during an excavation … just off Fifth Avenue in Dawson.”

“This is a recovery operation rather than a controlled excavation,” he said. “The backhoe exposed the materials yesterday.

Based on what I’ve seen, that has already been collected from the site, the majority of the skeletal material has been exposed so we’re going to be screening all of the sediments, recovering all of the bones, all the artifacts that may be associated with the burials, the wood from the coffins and basically trying to get everything cleared up here.”

The coffins were encountered about nine feet from the surface, or three to four feet from the bottom of the excavation. The former highway grader yard was once a slough area at the rear of Fort Herchmer, the NWMP post, and the compound has been significantly altered with landfill material, as well as compacted by many years of heavy equipment rolling over it.

As a result, the coffins are no longer full sized, nor are they probably at the original depth at which they were buried.

“They’ve been squashed flat through many years,” he said.

“They were crushed before the backhoe ever got here. They were probably 14 to 16 inches high when they were buried and now they’re about four inches. The backhoe basically just exposed the material

compound,” said Hare.

Work continued on the site through Friday and Saturday, with screening of the piles of dirt on site, and at the dumpsite and some further, more careful digging, in the

pit was excavated around the Vertreat (vertical treatment) shafts. that was already crushed.

“This is fairly often the case.

We’ve been involved in a number of historic grave excavations and, in almost every case, over time the coffin collapses and sediments and everything fall in, and everything becomes quite flattened.”

Hare said there had been some indications a few years ago that there might be graves in this area, left over from the time executions by hanging were carried out in Dawson. Walker Graham, a local nurse, had done some research for a paper he was working on, and had shared his ideas with Hare.

As a result Hare had intended to use ground-penetrating radar to see if any graves could be located two years ago.

“Walker and I walked the whole area, looking at … the potential grave areas. I brought a shovel and did some surface testing and could see that the whole surface of this compound had been topped with gravel …”

Ground penetrating radar works by measuring changing sub-surface density in a given piece of land. It picks up the areas, like graves, or pits, or burrows, that have been disturbed. Once the soil has been capped with a denser material, that method no longer works.

This is not the first time that graves have been searched for adjacent to the old NWMP post.

Former Parks Canada curator and current History Hunter Michael Gates recalls receiving information from a retired Mountie some years back. That information led to the discovery of a cache of discarded rifles which had been buried in the river.

The same individual spoke of gravesites closer to the former fort and Parks did attempt a search, but Gates says nothing was found.

“We expected that any graves would be closer to the RCMP

pit around the Vertreat shafts. On the second day, another coffin and body, in much the same condition as the first two, was exposed and recovered.

Hare is of the opinion, based on the material found along with the bodies, that the three graves are from the Goldrush period.

Somewhat to his surprise, the lime thrown in with the bodies seems to have acted to preserve clothing, though there is nothing to identify the individuals.

“I think it’s reasonable to assume that they are of Goldrush vintage related to executions that took place at Fort Herchmer.”

For more to be said about the remains, there will have to be careful examination back in Whitehorse.

As a recovery exercise, Hare says this one was very successful.

“The amount of community support and participation in the project exceeds anything I’ve ever worked on before. I think that the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, the developers (Corix), the workers who were involved, the City of Dawson, the Yukon government – I’ve seldom seen a project that has been so successful and gone so smoothly with people working together, rowing in the same direction.”

Hare was planning to remain on site for a couple of days as the Corix crew wound down its operations for the season. While he feels confident that there’s nothing more to be found that close to the others, he was going to keep an eye on things anyway.

Subsequent to Corix wrapping up its construction season, YTG decided to send a team to Dawson to do some more digging. Speculation is that there might be more coffins - three perhaps - nearby.

As other construction (the district heating plant) is slated for that lot, it might be good to forestall any further surprises.

page 12

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Twenty Years Ago in the Sun

The Sun celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009 and we are re-printing our front pages from 20 years ago as a souvenir of our lively history.

Back issues are being archived on our new website from 1989 to the present. Visit www.cityofdawson.com/category/klondike_sun for research.

This is a great resource for students, writers and historians, and also for prospective tourists with an interest in Dawson City’s life.

The Sun has obtained funding in late 2009 from the City of Dawson, YTG’s Heritage Branch and the Community Development Fund to conserve and archive the early issues and make them available once again in the public domain.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

page 13

Girls n’ Guns on Display at the ODD Gallery

by Evan Rensch

Though winter may be fast approaching in Dawson, the temperature is rising in the ODD Gallery. The gallery’s current exhibition, Guns ‘n Ammo, features enough visual punch to spark any viewer’s imagination.

Designed as a visual conversation, the show presents work by two artists – Dana Holst and Ufuk Gueray – who both precariously straddle notions of playfulness and violence in their practice, despite working in divergent media and subject matter.

Hung salon-style on the gallery’s inside wall, Edmontonbased Holst presents twelve delicate pencil drawings and two oil paintings that draw the viewer into a fantasy world where young girls reign supreme over the natural environment around them. Despite their innocent frilly attire, a cold sense of authority illuminates the eyes of these characters as they brandish an assortment of guns, from rifles to revolvers. In many images the young women display a weird rapport with a variety of wild animals, all of whom would be considered prized targets for a hunter’s crosshairs.

The continual tension and mys-

tery underlying this relationship between girl and animal gives the work much of its visual power.

An inevitable sense of anxiety is produced by this dangerous juxtaposition of the wild and domestic in such close quarters.

Yet Holst contradicts any preconceived fears: in all the works, her young girls are not the prey but the predator instead. They

Dana Holst, Bang Bang, 2009

cruelly display themselves as trophies of the hunt, while their wild counterparts dangle limply by their side. They take enjoyment in the revelry of it all – to them, the hunt is just another in-

nocent game in a child’s world.

Throughout these images, Holst uses fiction to reposition our notions of gender; these girls openly combat the stereotype of feminity as passive and powerless.

Ufuk Gueray, meanwhile, brings his own visual “bang” to the exhibition with a series of six oil paintings and two silkscreen prints, completed during the artist’s recent residency at KIAC. These new works depict an uninhabited, dystopian world where steely architecture looms forebodingly in the distance. Vast stretches of empty territory dominate the field of view, only to be punctuated by encounters with ambiguous mechanical mutants.

These images describe a world of sparse science-fiction.

A defined palpable tension permeates Gueray’s work. The cold smoothness of his world is physically interrupted by the artist’s violent use of paint: rich swabs

stead. By utilizing such a diverse range of cultural symbols, the artist critiques ideals of progress and happiness often associated with our twenty-first century lifestyles.

Gueray paints pictures that portray a world in which our current habits and hang-ups may take us in the future.

While both of the artists shown in Guns ‘n Ammo tackle vastly different subjects, their overarching artistic goals are remarkably compatible. Both artists attempt to deflate popular conceptions of innocence Ufuk Gueray, Disco Dust, 2010. and childhood as mere surface values: of violence, a sense of playfulness according to Holst and Gueray, a shines through the work. Hues of much darker, defiant picture lies pink and yellow illuminate the ho- beneath. As the exhibition’s title rizons of Gueray’s paintings: they suggests, these startling images hazily resemble the bright, neon confront the viewer’s imagination lights of modern consumption. at gunpoint and never let go.

Many of his mechanical creations “Guns ‘n Ammo” continues at resemble innocent boyhood toys, yet only at second glance does the the ODD Gallery until December viewer notice that these toy cars 17, 2010. The gallery is open carry cannons and chainsaws in- Tuesday – Friday, 11 AM to 5PM and Saturday­, 12 – 5 PM. of pigment create a sculptural texture that seduces the viewer and adds to the mystery. In one image, globs of crusty, brown paint are planted at the edge of a racetrack as if to suggest a fresh car crash or refuse pile.

Despite these quiet undertones

Youth Art Enrichment Program in Pictures Cont’d from p. 5

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page 14

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Winner

Riverhead

by Nathaniel Allister

I splayed my bedroll down by the banks so that my head slightly hung over the yawning water, drifting along on moonlit cat’s feet below. Soon the stars closed my eyes, and I dreamed.

I dreamed of the creak of water on wood, the pull of taught lines, the whistle and lurch of coal. Men’s quiet mumbling behind the muggy sun as the shore chugged on by, all skinny pines and flowers and bearded bony crags, the scrambled eggs of apathy.

The Queen Anne was a steam-powered bull, born to snort and bray under the biggest skies, to proudly bear the company colors into such lonesome no man’s land, unclaimed, uncharted, untried. It had been weeks since we’d seen another Christian, months since we saw a feather bed, but we gave that each day was a young virgin bride and each night a mad honeymoon between wolves and men, between explorers and horizons, every one of us, plumb anxious to get home but still fearing it so; dreading the little lines and angles of society, the buck of the heart and soul in our backtrack soon upstream. Just so easy submitting to the cold fast current, its washing, its wish-taking, its doey-eyed slews.

Red Terry, barking east over the cookfire at his cold Virginia Rose, letting thick cracks grow over skin he once kept so soft and tender.

She were never happy with me. Just waitin’, was all.

Well, now I reckon she’ll have all eternity to wait for me in Hell, after I take her down to the banks last June. Yessir. We’ll see her soon.

It seemed hardly real, these past lives of the other men, fading fast like a carpet in the hard August sun. Each morning on the river saw the patterns grow blurrier, dustier, the once-plush comfort all the stiffer from neglect.

I dreamed five hundred miles of the lost rivermen, of the sweat misting dogged hills and valley and plains, letting the memories of this now-forgotten voyage flow sweet and pure all night through my tilted sleeping head. * * * * I remember learning as schoolchildren the cartographic point of the American headwaters, a burbling spring buried in our history books and flowing fiercely west from a bygone frontier.

But Americans have never been interested in history.

This is a land of rivers. They’re carved deep into these stubborn spirits, tugging strongly, pulling us out

toward the promise of the distant gold-flecked sea.

Our children are taught to ride currents like bicycles, harness a stream like a rodeo bull.

To never quit watching for rocks ahead.

I have never met a man without regret. If you listen close, you might hear it rattling deep in his chest, rising up now and then like age-worn driftwood. Old wounds, poor judgments, lost loves, moth-eaten dreams.

Everyone wears his yesterdays upstream.

But we do not dwell in history. We were born castaways, young rebels merging and growing and struggling on.

Our riverboat roars toward the unknown and we swear by redemption, gamble away our fortunes on the ability to change.

The Indian Territories always waited just past the horizon.

They wait still. I only ever dream as a rat, letting sparkling waters roll me lazy on by, slowly carving out a myth— the only myth—that ever gave shape to my broken and mended soul.

It is the river myth.

In the beginning were the headwaters and in the end the Pacific, teeming and bejeweled under the final sighing sun.

Throw your shoulder to the wheel and let your riverboat carry you there down the wild, winding bends.

--Dawson City, August 2010

Cultural Industries Training Fund reinstated WHITEHORSE (November 12, 2010) – The Cultural Industries Training Fund (CITF) has been reinstated, Education Minister Patrick Rouble announced today.

The CITF was established in 1999 to support training in the cultural sector to allow for employment opportunities and to make cultural industry entrepreneurs and businesses more competitive.

The fund has always been governed by representatives from various cultural industry sectors and administered from within the cultural community. A new agreement between the Government of

Yukon and the Yukon Arts Centre Corporation has been signed. The CITF will now be administered by the Yukon Arts Centre.

“The Department of Education values the arts community and its contributions to Yukon’s culture and economy,” Rouble said.

“Our government is committed to supporting the Cultural Industries Training Fund because it is an important way to assist people working in Yukon’s cultural sector in growing their talents and expertise.”

“Yukon Arts Centre’s participation in the CITF directly supports two of our key goals,” Yukon Arts Centre CEO Al Cushing stated.

“We want to ensure that there will be arts learning opportunities for cultural workers, artists and patrons of all ages, and that all Yukoners will continue to benefit from a strong and expanding cultural economy. The program is a natural next step that builds on our community engagement work and the arts development work supported by the Culture Quest fund.”

“The Department of Education is pleased to partner with the Yukon Arts Centre to continue support for Yukon’s vibrant cultural industries,” Rouble added.

The Yukon Arts Centre will administer the $50,000 available to the CITF for the remainder of the 2010–11 fiscal year and continue to administer the fund in future years. Commencing on November 29, people who work in Yukon’s cultural industries who want to access financial support under the fund should contact the fund administrator Michele Emslie at 867-667-8476 for details. Applications will be reviewed, and grants approved, by an independent Cultural Sectors Review Committee that will meet at least four times a year.

THANK YOU! KIAC would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their hand in the success of our 10th annual Youth Art Enrichment Program. We are deeply appreciative of your talent and generosity.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Our Feathered Neighbours: The Tundra Swan

Humane Society Dawson Pet of the week Grizzly is a 3 years old Husky/Shepherd cross -neutered male. Grizzly is a bush dog and he would love to find someone to share his biggest passion with: hiking in the woods. He is a very calm and good natured dog and he gets along with most of the dogs at the Shelter. He is the big brother to everyone. He is very lovable, cuddly and brown! He is fairly large and tough, likes kids and can be very gentle. Griz is a great dog and he would love to find a home in an active family or he would be great for the solitary person looking for a quiet companion. He is good at warning us when people or other dogs come around the Shelter and he is very loyal and comes when called when off leash.

Grizzly is available to foster or adopt and he is also interested in finding a nice volunteer to walk him once in a while.

Come and visit Grizzly at the Shelter Tuesday to Wednesday 9 to 11:30 & 1 to 3:30 and Thursday to Saturday 10:30 to 330.

by Tara Borin The ice on the Yukon has stopped moving, and the last of the migratory birds have taken wing. Some of the ponds still have open water, though, and in the first weeks of November, a few stragglers still remained.

One of these migrants landed right outside my kitchen window, just long enough for me to get a few photos.

The Tundra Swan, Cygnus columbianus, is one of the two swan species indigenous to North America. They are large birds, measuring 152 cm from beak to tail, males weighing in around 8 kg. Adult birds are white with a black bill and black feet. Tundra Swans are difficult to distinguish from Trumpeters: at close range, a small yellow spot is visible where the Tundra’s beak tapers towards the eye.

32nd Yukon Legislative Assembly SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE SAFE OPERATION AND USE OF OFF-ROAD VEHICLES

PUBLIC MEETINGS The Select Committee on the Safe Operation and Use of Off-road Vehicles is holding public meetings in the following locations to hear the views and opinions of Yukon residents on the safe operation and use of all-terrain vehicles and snowmobiles in the territory.

Faro

Tuesday, November 23 7:00 p.m.

Sportsman Lounge

Dawson City

Wednesday, November 24 7:00 p.m.

Downtown Hotel

Carmacks

Thursday, November 25 7:00 p.m.

Rec Centre Meeting Room

Mt. Lorne

Monday, November 29 7:00 p.m.

Mt. Lorne Community Centre

Teslin

Tuesday, November 30 7:00 p.m.

Rec Centre

Westmark Whitehorse Ballroom For more information call 667-5494 or toll free 1-800-661-0408, ext 5494 or visit the Committee’s web page at www.legassembly.gov.yk.ca/681.html Whitehorse

Wednesday, December 1 7:00 p.m.

page 15

large breeding territory.

They nest close to ponds on the tundra, and when the cygnets are hatched, the parents teach them to find food in the shallow waters.

Tundra Swans feed by reaching their head and necks down into the water, sometimes tipping up but rarely fully submerging.

Their diet c o n s i s t s primarily of aquatic plants, and sometimes mussels and clams. In recent years, their diet has begun to include some photo by Tara Borin grains, like corn or wheat, left of 12 000 km. They winter scattered on the ground in very specific regions after harvest-time. This of both the Atlantic and change in diet is perhaps a Pacific coasts. Their summer reaction to the destruction breeding grounds are in the of their traditional food high Canadian Arctic and sources through pollution, Alaska. Tundra Swans form and leaves them vulnerable long-lasting pair bonds, should these crops change, spending the first few years too. of life in courtship before selecting and defending a This is absent in Trumpeter Swans.

Tundra Swans are also smaller than the Trumpeter.

Over the course of a year, Tundra Swans migrate a total

This Column Has Seven Days Monday, November 15 – W.L. Mackenzie King resigned as prime minister in 1948. He was succeeded by Louis St. Laurent the same day.

Tuesday, November 16–Louis Riel was hanged for treason at the Regina jail in 1885. He had been convicted after a trial held in Regina from July 28 to August 1.

Macdonald’s refusal to grant leniency made Riel a symbol of English-Canadian oppression.

Wednesday, November 17 – Brent Carver, who has turned in critically acclaimed performances in musical theatre, cabaret and film, was born in 1951 at Cranbrook, British Columbia.

Thursday, November 18 – Novelist Margaret Atwood, who is one of Canada’s major contemporary authors, was born in 1939 at Ottawa.

Friday, November 19 –Canada’s first theatre was opened in Montréal in 1804, by a Scottish actor named Ormsby.

Saturday, November 20 – Prime minister Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who was the first French-Canadian PM and who held the longest unbroken tenure as PM, was born in 1841 at St-Lin, Canada E. Sunday, November 21 –In 1921 King George V authorized the use of the maple leaf as Canada’s emblem.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Roache’s Corner by Mike Roache

Cartoons!

Elwood by Bryley

Nemo’s Notions

Tundra by Chad Carpenter

We don’t have permission to use Tundra online.

Climate Report Temperatures for October

Mean Max 0.8 Normal mean max -0.5 Extreme max 17.7 (4th 1988) Warmest day 15.0 (1st) Mean Min -6.5 Normal mean min -9.4 Extreme min -36.5 (27th) 1996 Coldest day -18.0 (31st) Mean temp -2.8 Normal mean temp -5.0

Precipitation for October

Rain for October: 1.2mm Normal rainfall for October: 8.7mm Record rainfall: 21.2mm (13th 1981)

Snow for Oct: 15.0cm (11.4mm water equivalent) Normal snowfall: 27.0cm Record snowfall: 19.0cm (25th 1997)

Total precipitation for month: 12.6mm Normal total precipitation for month: 31.6mm Extreme one day total precipitation for month: 22.4mm 13th 1981

Most precipitation on one day for Oct 2010: 4.8mm (5th)

Snow on ground on last day of month: 11cm Normal snow on ground on last day of month: 13cm Record snow on ground last day of month: 33cm

Lest we Forget

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

page 17

Doyle’s Personal Yukon Quest Brought Back Memories Story & Photo

By Dan Davidson

Teresa Doyle remembers being in Dawson back in the 1970s before she really got started on her musical career.

“To say that I am thrilled to be in Dawson again is just an understatement,” she told her audience of about 30 folks crowded into Peter Menzies’ home for the latest in the Dawson House Concert series.

This musical tour, which she called her own Yukon Quest, had taken her all over the territory during a two-week stint, which ended in Dawson, where she once lived for a few years. During those years she participated in the very first Dawson City Music Festival and also managed to perform at the 1979 edition of the late, lamented Farrago Folk Festival in Faro.

Subsequent to those events she played in Winnipeg with Dawson’s Harmonica George McConkey, who joined her for several numbers at last Sunday evening’s gathering.

Doyle says her memory of the Klondike seemed to be more in her body than in her mind, and proceeded to give an example of why this might be so.

Apparently there was an early summer day when she and a friend decided to canoe the Klondike River, which seemed, at first, as if it would not be a great challenge.

That was great with her, since she

had no experience with canoes, but both of them failed to take into account the speed and height of the spring run-off.

When they hit the rapids they both got soaked and were badly scared, but thought they might feel a bit better if their clothes were dry, so (“this was the seventies,” she said) they stripped down and eventually continued on their way in the buff, expecting a combination of sunshine and the breeze to dry their clothes before they got to town and that they would have time to get dressed.

They forgot that the Klondike picks up speed before it enters the Yukon.

“And then you’re downtown,” she said. “So that’s what happened.

I never got that opportunity…

“I thought, I can either ride buck naked to the ferry dock or I can stand up and try to pull my tight jeans on my wet body.”

She went for that option, and was in the midst of those contortions when who should happen by but Capt. Dick Stevenson and the Yukon Lou tour boat full of passengers.

“He outs with the megaphone and says, ‘Well, we’ve got a little local colour here, folks.’”

There were some other anecdotes along those lines, and told in quite some detail for someone who claims her memory is failing, but the main event of the evening

was the music, a variety of tunes from across the range of her career, from Celtic to kids’ tunes, to folk and country.

Whether accompanying herself on the guitar, jamming with George, foot tapping while singing a cappella, or using the unpro-

nounceable Indian drone box (more reliable than a bagpiper because it doesn’t drink) to set the tone for a Celtic melody, Doyle kept her audience happily engaged for the entire evening. She even managed – nay, insisted – that they sing along.

Photo captions:

* Teresa Doyle wrote a song about Air Canada losing her guitar three times in one year, and hopes to make it into a video. * It looks like a briefcase, but it sounds like the drones of a bagpipe.

Pierre Berton was an Inspiration, says young Historian Story & photo

By Dan Davidson It’s not unusual for visiting writers to find staying at Berton House inspirational, but for Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, the inspiration began before arriving. On a very busy Friday night in Dawson the audience of 8 arrived at the Dawson Community Library to find a photo of Pierre Berton and his autobiographical writing manual, The Joy of Writing, projected on the wall.

The 28 year old historian and writer with the mixed heritage hyphenated name that defeats speakers in both official languages says she was turned on to her current career path by reading Berton’s book.

“I’ve been a creative writer for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I started as a kid and worked in youth ‘zines.

Arts magazines, editing at the local newspaper when I was in grade 6 … and just got the bug really early on.”

With a B.A. in Canadian Studies and History from McGill Univer-

sity and an M.A. in History from the University of British Columbia, it seemed at first that a career in academia might have been her path. Her Masters experience discouraged her from pursuing it.

Berton’s book suggested another way. “(It was) the advice he gives to young writers and the excitement with which he launched himself at these amazing stories.”

The other factor was the advice of her mother, who told her that writing was a craft, and that she should get out there and find something to write about.

‘This was very sage advice from a mother, who probably didn’t want me to starve to death as a creative writer.”

That something turned out to be aviation history for starters.

Though surrounded by flyers, Metcalfe-Chanail is not one herself and prefers to be a passenger.

Her father-in-law wanted her to do some family history for one of his cousins. John Bogie, an 82 year old former pilot with Laurentian Air Services. What started out as an oral history project turned into a book when her subject turned out to have boxes of documents as well as personal tales.

She became convinced there was a book and managed to market it to a publisher. Just last year For the Love of Flying: the Story of Laurentian Air Services, was published

by Robin Brass Studio.

“It was an amazing gift that fell into my lap.”

It has led her to her next ma-

jor project, which is a history of Northern Aviation. During her stay at Berton House she has used Dawson as her base for travelling around the Yukon to do interviews and research, including visits to the Yukon Transportation Museum, Watson Lake, Haines Junction, Old Crow and Inuvik.

She said that, while she didn’t set out to focus on disasters, it seems that a lot of the Northern stories have to do with crashes and disappearances.

Metcalfe-Chanail read several short sections from her book, including reminiscences of some of the oddball and famous passengers who had flown with the airline.

She hasn’t given up her dream of creative writing, and so she is also working on a novel, the story of a female bush pilot in the 1930s and 1940s. She read from a bit of that manuscript as well as a poem, “Wyoming Love Song”.

The first three lines of the poem, “A sweet country / ignored by most / lost on the map intentionally…” is about Wyoming, where she and her husband lived for a few years before relocating back to Canada, but it could as easily describe the North. You can read the whole thing on her blog at http://www. danicanuck.com/2010_02_01_archive.html.

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Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

Klondike Sun Classifieds Churches ST. MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH Corner of 5th and King Services: Sunday mornings at 10:30 am, Sat. & Tues. 7 pm, Wed. to Fri. 9:30 am All are welcome. Contact Father Ernest Emeka Emeodi for assistance: 993-5361 DAWSON COMMUNITY CHAPEL Located on 5th Ave across from Gold Rush Campground.

Sunday worship at 11 am.

Everyone is welcome.

Pastor Ian Nyland 993-5507 ST. PAUL’S ANGLICAN CHURCH

Sunday Services 1st and 3rd Sundays: 10:30 am - Morning Prayer 2nd and 4th Sundays - 10:30 am - Holy Eucharist 5th Sundays - 10:30 am Special service.

Support

Real Estate

Many Rivers

Counselling and Support Services

Individual, couple, family, or group counselling. A highly confidential service located in the Waterfront Building.

We are a non-profit organization with a sliding fee scale. To make an appointment call 993-6455 or email dawson@manyrivers. yk.ca. See our website at www. manyrivers.yk.ca/.

Alcoholics Anonymous New Beginnings Group meets Thursdays 8 pm, St. Paul’s R. Martin Chapel kitchen, Church St. North Star Group meets Saturdays 7 pm at the Community Support Centre, 1233-2nd Ave, 2nd floor (use outside stairs). Call 993-3734 or 5095 for info.

FOR SALE BY OWNER 1 1/2 COMMERCIAL LOTS On 3rd Ave next to the Westminster Hotel.

Call 993-5346

This Could Be Your Classified Ad!!

Only $6 per 50 Words.

Additional TV Channel Listings

7 - Dawson Dome Camera 9 - Preview Guide 11 - Rolling Ads

K londike Outreach Job Board Open Positions: Automotive Mechanic Carpenters (anticipatory) Commercial Sewing Machine Operator Custodial Staff General Assistant Housekeepers HVAC – journeyman Outreach Family Support Worker Plumber – journeyman Tutors Klondike Outreach is open Monday to Friday, 9 am to noon & 1 to 5 pm Tel: (867) 993.5176 E-mail: info@klondikeoutreach.com Web: www.klondikeoutreach.com

12 & 13 - Possible Local Programming

We are the Klondike’s year round employment support service; drop by or give us a call

Business Directory

For more information on these and other positions, come into the Klondike Outreach office next to the Territorial Agent/Liquor Store (853-Third Street).

Klondike Outreach hours: Monday-Friday 9-noon and 1-5 pm Closed weekends and Stat. Holidays Phone: 993-5176 ~ Fax: 993-6947 Website: www.klondikeoutreach.com E-mail: info@klondikeoutreach.com

Advertise your business and services with The Klondike Sun! Submit your business card at a normal size of 2” x 3.5” Cost is $20.00 per issue and yearly billings can be arranged.

Your Business Card Ad could be in this space

In need of free furniture?

The Klondike Sun is looking to find a new home for one of our newspaper stands. It could make a great drawing table or shelving unit.

To learn more, email

klondikesun@northwestel.net

or phone 993-6318.

The Klondike Sun’s deadline for ad and story submissions is 12 noon, Friday, November 17, 2010 for the Wednesday, December 1, 2010 edition.

Ad rates available upon request. Classified ads are $6 for 50 words per issue.

Email: klondikesun@northwestel.net Telephone: (867) 993-6318 Fax: (867) 993-6625

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

THE KLONDIKE SUN

page 19

P.O. Box 308 (1336 Front Street), Dawson City, Yukon Y0B 1G0 Tel: (867) 993-7400 ~ Fax: (867) 993-7434 NEW WEBSITE: www.cityofdawson.ca (updated regularly)

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

PUBLIC NOTICE

Building Maintenance Technician

Council for the Town of the City of Dawson would like to inform you that it has passed First Reading on a bylaw to amend Business License Bylaw #09-08. Section 7.10 Street Vendors, states:

The Town of the City of Dawson is seeking applications for a full-time Building Maintenance Technician. Reporting to the Superintendent of Public Works, this position is responsible for all aspects of City of Dawson Building Maintenance.

Qualifications: • Experience and formal training in all aspects of building maintenance with a heavy emphasis on mechanical, heating, ventilation and pumping systems.

• Knowledge and experience in carpentry • Confined Spaces Training • Current First Aid and CPR Tickets or willingness to obtain.

Salary: Salary is commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Closing Date: A current resume and covering letter must be received at the City of Dawson Administration Building on Front Street by 3:00 PM, December 17, 2010.

For more information, please contact Norm Carlson at 867-993-7400

RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE RECEPTACLE RELOCATION The City of Dawson wishes to provide a safer and more efficient solid waste collection service. Collection in the alleys has proven to be difficult and at times unsafe due to the limited width of our alleys. Because of this, the City of Dawson has commenced a program to aid residents in moving their receptacles to locations adjacent to streets and avenues. The City will be contacting residents to aid in this transition. For more information, please contact the City office at 993-7400.

WINTER Hours at the QUIGLEY LANDFILL

Beginning October 27, 2010 Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday 11AM to 6PM. Remember...we have a community compost available at the landfill AND compost bins will be placed at three locations begining at the Dome , followed the Town (Recreation Centre Parking Lot) then Dredge Pond Subdivision.

Recycling Depot is open Friday and Saturdays only.

“Mobile refreshment stands will be limited to 1 per 1-block radius and licenses will be approved on a first come first served basis upon meeting all requirements and may operate only between the hours of 9:00 PM and 5:00 AM.” The proposed amendment would replace Section 7.10 with the following: “Mobile refreshment stands will be limited to 1 per 1-block radius and licenses will be approved on a first come first served basis upon meeting all requirements.”

You will note the effect of this amendment permits mobile refreshment stands to operate outside of the hours of 9:00 PM to 5:00 AM. Should you wish to provide any comments to be considered prior toi Council considering Second of Final Reading, please provide them in writing by 4:00 PM on Wednesday November 17, 2010.

Please direct your submissions to Chelsea Parent, Executive Assistant at 1336 Front Street, (City Hall), or by email to cparent@cityofdawson.ca.