Au Revoir Yellowknife

Here's the crew from The Trailbreaker, the morning show for the NWT on CBC radio. We have what we call the huddle each morning at 9 a.m. to talk about the show and what's coming up, before the main morning meeting for the station. From left to right: producer Sonja Koenig, news reader Kirsten Murphy, reporter Dawn Ostrem, fill-in reporter Joslyn Oosenbrug, ME, host Randy Henderson and director/technician Phil Morck.

Tomorrow morning I have to return my laptop to the station on what will be my last day at CBC North and, so, this is my last post from Yellowknife. When I get back to Nova Scotia I may blog some more about this wonderful adventure and add more of the gazillion photos I've taken. But for now, here's a rogue's gallery of some of the faces that I snapped at the office today.

Florence Yaxley recently switched from reception to admin. assistant. We're neighbours on the second floor. She has great taste in jewellery--check out the ring.

I've written about the adventures of Snookie Catholique, the Chipewyan reporter for TV. Here she is in full frame!

TV reporter Lee Sellick has built himself a fortress of tapes in the newsroom. And this is after the office cleanup!

Rassi Nashalik is the host of Igalaaq, the daily TV show in Inuktitut that airs before the English program.

Here's some inside info about Rassi--she's phobic about meeting a bear.

Donna Lee is the online journalist for the north, covering all three territories.

And Terri Boldt plays many roles in TV. She's up for the whackiest person award. But it's a tight race in this cast of colourful characters.

The Last Suppers

Here we are enjoying what's been for me one of many wonderful meals at the home of Aggie and Terry. (Behind Aggie are their friends Lois and Pat.) Terry had just returned from a filming project outside Kugluktuk (formerly known as Coppermine) about a cultural camp for elders and youth. He came home with Arctic Char, which we enjoyed on Saturday night.

We watched some of his footage from the trip above the treeline where the people are wearing their parkas already. During Terry's stay, they caught a bearded seal and the immense hide was spread out on the tundra, drying in the sun. He had scenes of women chewing on caribou to soften it and of the young people working on the hides. Terry pointed to one of the youth, commenting, "I'll be surprised if he's still alive in a few years time."

In one of my previous postings I showed Terry with his flute cane--one of many novelty canes in his collection. Here, his brother Steven plays one of the most unique canes --the fiddle cane.

On Sunday night Brian and I were invited to yet another feast, at the home of Magdy El-Beheiry, who recently moved to the CBC in Yellowknife from Mississauga. He's been here since January, but his wife Debbie and their children Sabrina and Tarik joined him at the beginning of July, after school ended. They cooked up dish after dish, including stuffed grape leaves, taboullah (after searching high and low for fresh parsley) and baklava to die for. Magdy is from Egypt and Debbie moved to Canada from Zimbabwe at age 15.

Magdy had invited several people to the feast, including the regional director for the north, John Agnew and his family. Here, his wife Jody and their two kids, six-month-old Jane and three-year-old George are engaged in pre-dinner play with Tonka trucks and dinky toys.

A Gaggle of Girls

I am not going to tell you what our camera person said to produce all these big grins--something about batteries and pleasure devices ... This photo was taken at the home of Erin Ward during a going away party for me, a week before departure. Yes, there were males there too, but most of the guys were in the kitchen at this moment, except Phil Morck, who offered to be the shooter. And we all know girls have more fun ....

From left to right: Catherine Pigott (Trail's End producer), Julie Green (resources reporter), Kirsten Murphy (news reader and new bride), Sonja Koenig (Trailbreaker producer), yours truly, Marie Morck (departmental assistant) and Erin (hostess and producer-at-large).

Erin and her husband Jake have carved out a comfortable life in Yellowknife, with a lovely home (and hot tub which they plan to use in winter), two dogs, canoe, snowmobile and giant tent with woodstove which they plan to park in the bush. They were married up here in what must have been one of the most stunning weddings ever--they arrived by dog sled to be married in a snow castle. Tony Below, aka the Snow King, hosts the morning show for the Native Communications Society, and he builds the castle on the lake every winter. When he found out Erin and Jake wanted to be married there, he added a chapel. Under her cape and fur and beaded caribou muff, Erin wore a gorgeous champagne evening dress, with train, and beaded kamiks. The intricate kamiks Erin had made for Jake as a wedding present are now displayed on a shelf in their dining room.

Footnote: Erin and Jake met at journalism school at King's College in Halifax!

Love and Rivalries at a CBC Station

When I arrived at News of the North in 1978, the editor Craig McInnes, was leaving, along with his partner of the time, Elizabeth Hay who worked at CBC radio. So I never really go to know them. But I read Craig's articles while he was at the Globe and followed Liz's career as a writer. Her upcoming newest work of fiction is creating a buzz up here. It's set in the 70's in Yellowknife--and, well, here's the description on Liz's website:

Elizabeth Hay's new novel is set in motion when a man hears a voice on the radio and falls in love. The story is set in 1970s Yellowknife and centres around the loves, rivalries, and entanglements of a small and unlikely group who work at the local radio station. One summer they embark on a canoe trip that takes them into the arctic wilderness, following in the footsteps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who starved to death in the Barrens in 1927. In the wilds they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. Weaving stories from the past into the present, Hay builds a fresh, erotic, darkly witty and moving tale about the power of a voice and of a place to generate love and haunt the memory. Like radio, the novel creates sudden intimacy over long distances, and like the North, it is spare, compelling, and charged with unusual life.

A lot of people will be reading this one, trying to match the characters with people from the past--even though we all know authors never base their characters on real people ... I'm just glad I arrived after she gathered her material.

Wild Time at the Wildcat

The afternoon radio show celebrated the Wildcat Cafe's 70th anniversary today with a live remote from the summertime restaurant. It was a fabulous show that ended with a live play written by the CBC's own David Miller, who also played the role of "Gumshoe". Dubbed the honey bucket caper, it featured local personalities, including the mayor, an RCMP officer and MLA Sandy Lee (above) who, Dave wrote, has "more curves than the Ingraham trail", yet sharp enough to cut a man in half.

Trail's End host Norbert Poitras went into the kitchen to interview chef Pierre LePage, who is known for using northern ingredients creatively.

Pierre cooked up a sizzling dish of muskox and cranberries, one of the menu items available for $44.

Marie Wilson and I had dinner together at the Wildcat, after the remote. We haven't connected since I first arrived; it was great to meet up again now that I've had a few weeks back in the north under my belt. Rumours are that she's running as a candidate in the upcoming territorial election but, wisely, she neither confirmed nor denied. Marie and her family live in an amazing house in Oldtown, designed by architect Gino Pin. The interior is organic, all angles and curves, with soaring ceilings, lofts, and hideaways. And it's packed with arts and crafts from the north. The yard, too, is far from conventional, with its own twists and turns and surprises. Exposed boulders share the space with trees, lawn ornnaments, perennials and plants potted in everything from buckets to shoe-shaped planters.

Wild Animals Invade Yellowknife

I've been looking for an excuse to post this photo taken on a side street in downtown Yellowknife. It's a powerful and textured mural. Real muskox may not be roaming the city; however, black bears are definitely becoming urban creatures. A bear was spotted on Frame Lake trail on Friday. When wildlife officers arrived, they saw two bears swimming in the lake. The next day a bear was found eating garbage in front of a house near a residential street--not far from my exit to the CBC. That's like seeing a bear on one of the streets near the Halifax Common or around High Park in Toronto. Another bear sighting was reported today near the Explorer Hotel and later at Niven Lake, that other trail with the fancy houses. This one wisely ran off to the ski club when wildlife officers approached. The other one near Frame Lake returned to eat more garbage and, so, it was shot, standard practice around here when a bear shows a lack of fear of people. The good news is that despite this apparent invasion of black bears, no one has been hurt--or even charged.

My entries are probably going to be random as I begin my countdown to departure on Sept. 8th and look for ways to post some of the gazillion photos I've taken. These are the sled dogs, kept by Aggie and Terry, who I've written lots about, including their indoor dog, Magic. They also keep a team of sled dogs which they use to get to their cabin in the winter. My 'hook' for using this photo now is a news item on Northbeat tonight about the challenges of Nunavut dog mushers competing in the NWT. Their dogs, which have bigger fur, have difficulty adjusting to the warmer climate (it's all relative) and to the softer snow here. The trainers have to come two months early to acclimatize the dogs. And the style is quite different: in Nunavut the riders lie down on their stomachs, but they must learn to stand to compete in the NWT. During the interview on TV tonight, the woman had a tiny husky puppy on her lap that whined until she stuffed it inside her sweater.

One of today's highlights was a conversation with Mabel English, the Gwich'in host of Nantaii.

She calls from time to time from Inuvik and today she asked what will happen to all those interviews she's done over the years. As I've posted before, Mabel is 70 and will retire in November. She wants to see those interviews with elders put on CD so their stories and the language are preserved. And, she suggested, the CBC could "give back" to the people. In the course of our chat, she told me about an interview she did at a fish camp this week with people who trap and use just what they need--"no fancy stuff". That led Mabel to recall her life growing up, when they'd pick a barrel of berries, burying some in a birch bark tray to preserve them for Christmas to share with her mother's sisters.

I'm learning to appreciate random.

Charades and an Anniversary

"Holy Crap," read the invitation for Keith and Diane's 25th anniversary party. "I've never dated someone this long." Keith MacNeill is producer of Iqalaaq, the TV program in Inuktitut that airs daily at 4 p.m. The MacNeills have a huge backyard by Yellowknife standards, filled with potted plants in all kinds of interesting containers. Their vegetable garden is impressive, with tomatoes, peas, beets and a first this year, turnips. The strawberries and raspberries are just producing fruit now. Yellowknifers, I find, are passionate about their gardens. People at the party discussed what works, what doesn't and their frustrations at not getting certain plants. Vesey's came up as a good source for seeds.

The party included a large group of young people, friends of the MacNeills three daughters. They launched into charades and I joined in, along with Judy McLinton. Judy is one of the three people I've tracked down from my stint here int he late '70's. Judy was sports reporter at News of the North, spent a few years at the CBC and is now manager of communications of Environment and Natural Resources for the territorial government.

It's been a busy summer for her with all the forest fires and anthrax outbreak at Wood Buffalo National Park.

Judy and I were left in the dust by these kids, who were not only fast at the draw, but also very intuitive. I didn't guess any of the items correctly. However, my actions for "Moby Dick" were picked up on immediately. Anyone who has played charades with me knows I'm not shy about acting these things out.

Here are Keith and Dianne opening a present. I just realized that he's wearing a polo shirt with a Lunenburg, N.S. logo on it. I must ask him where he got it. Maybe at St. Patrick's flea market, where I went Saturday morning. I got some tops for a dollar each and five novels for $1.25 (total). It's a weekly event in the parish hall, and came highly recommended by a CBC reporter and former radio host, who is smartly dressed from his flea market finds. I bumped into our HR guy, Jamie Hubbs, on the prowl for books, I expect. He was sporting an amazing tan after a 3-day fishing expedition at a resort.

By the way, I left the party just before midnight. It was still light, though the sun is now setting around 10:30 p.m.

Radio News Class Photo

Today we held a review of radio news, the first time it had been done in Yellowknife, at least as far as anyone can remember. We listened to several newscasts, then an outside reviewer offered her constructive criticisms, before everyone else joined in. Over sandwiches and fruit from the Co-op, we developed an action plan for improving news at the station. Everyone was engaged, and from what I hear, appreciated the opportunity to talk about what they do every day, and how to do it better. Here's the cast at the review:

Left to right, back row: reporter Richard Gleeson, news producer Harmen Meinders, regional director John Agnew. Middle row: news reader/reporter Kirsten Murphy, executive producer Marilyn Robak, reporter Joslyn Oosenbrug, reporter Dawn Ostrem, Inuvik reporter Marc Winkler. And in the front, reporter Julie Green.

The Road to Behchoko

The road to Behchoko is Highway 3, the route south to Alberta. Behchoko is actually north of Yellowknife on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake, then you head south to Fort Providence and the ferry. Formerly called Rae-Edzo, this community is the site of joint Dene and Tlicho assemblies this week. Our aboriginal broadcasters are doing a live remote show from there for three days, and I'm helping out.

From left to right are Alice MacKenzie, Leitha Kochon, Harriet Paul and Tony Buggins. Alice and Harriet speak Dogrib, Leitha speaks Slavey and Tony's first language is Chipewyan. They do individual shows in these languages but for this 3-hour remote they took turns interviewing guests and doing the weather and news in their own languages.

It was my job to keep things rolling on the ground, making sure the hosts had interviews lined up and everyone knew who was up next. And it's all done on the spot--none of the guests are lined up ahead of time. The hosts simply survey the crowd and grab someone who a) can speak their language and b) has something interesting to say.

The beginning of the live show was quite rocky because the wireless mics weren't working well and, at one point the computer crashed, knocking us off the air for five minutes. Then we had to pull Harriet off the show because she was losing her voice. Fortunately, Alice, who had come along as an extra to gather tape, stepped in. Harriet had arrived at the site by canoe yesterday, along with 300 others attending the assemblies. She found the dusty air was affecting her voice. It certainly was dry and sandy--much like Folk on the Rocks. For three days now I feel as though sand has entered my every pore. I hate to say it, but we could do with some rain.

Back on the road tomorrow, which is a roller-coaster of a ride. Last time I drove along the Mackenzie it was all gravel; now the highway is paved, but frost has caused heaving, while big sections have gravel patches. There are signs for bison crossing; however, the only wildlife I saw was a wolf, standing on the rocks some distance from the road.

Northern Nuptials

Dragon flies performed an aerobatic dance during the wedding vows between Kirsten Murphy and Jason Squires, two CBCers who were married on Hideaway Island. It was a warm sunny evening, with a good breeze that kept the biting bugs at bay. Rain fell later, while we ate and drank inside the geodesic tent perched on top of this large island--a 40-minute ride if you take the big pontoon boat rented for the occasion. But the precipitation didn't last long, and soon we could mill outside and a fire was started (though there's a ban on fires in Yk right now) in a pit on the rocks.


I've never seen a bride have so much fun at her wedding. Dressed in her gorgeous ivory gown, rimmed in dirt as the night wore on, Kirsten ad libbed during the vows. It was casual, yet ceremonious. Guests arrived in all kinds of attire and I ended up in sneakers and a fleecy jacket over with my long skirt, as the air cooled off.


We ate cheezies and devilled eggs and barbequed steaks and a homemade cranberry cake with strawberries and chocolate sauce. News producer Harmen Meinders played DJ, providing tunes for the dancers in the crowd, using equipment from the CBC's head technical guy who has a side business and was working another wedding. I made a couple of amazing connections, discovering two people who were also raised in Richmond Hill, including Randy Henderson, host of the morning show. I also discovered that I've been dubbed "The Hammer" at work, which I'm told is a compliment...


The first boat back left at 9 p.m. and the next was leaving at about 12:30 a.m. But I got a ride in Jeff Gardiner's power boat at midnight. (He's my rhubarb supplier.) We motored back in about 10 minutes time.


As someone at the wedding commented: YK is a wonderful place for weddings--either on an island like this one in summer or in the ice castle that's built on the lake in winter. Tuxedo parkas--love to see that.

The Sun Shines on Aboriginal Day

After a week of cool weather, the sun spread warmth on Sombe K'e Park today for the festivities. The sun sets tonight at 23:39 and rises tomorrow morning at 3:39. Already people are moaning that the days will be getting shorter.

From noon on people filled the park, and our CBC tent ran out of coffee and dried caribou by 3 p.m. I chewed on a bit of the meat, but it's definitely an acquired taste.

So many cute babies, but this one takes the prize: she's one-year-old.

The three companies mining for diamonds in the NWT
served up free fish, corn on the cob and bannock.

The smell of fish filled the air, and the lineups snaked along the long tables. However, it was well worth the wait. I sampled both the whitefish and lake trout--equally delicious.

The afternoon show closed with these Inuit throat singers.

On the right is Seporah, wife of the morning show host.

The CBC carried six hours of live programming, while live music played from the main stage. We were set up in a tiny tent, wedged between a palm reader and an artist. It was a marathon for technician Phil Morck. At one point, he had to ask host Norbert Poitras to operate the board so he could take a pee, which Norbert, gleefully reported to listeners.

It was a day of sun and celebration.

Hooping it Up

Summer Solstice activities started today in the Sombe K'e Park near city hall. I wandered over after work, on the eve of the longest day. A Cree dancer from Alberta had just begun two traditional dances. This is the Hoop dance, which the emcee said women never performed in the early days.

She also did a traditional dance, a very subtle routine, set to a "story song", about girls taken and abandoned by fur traders when they returned to their women back home. They were called "country wives".

The usual festival fare of hot dogs and cotton candy was supplemented by the surprising offering of perogies and sausage ($5) from the Yk Ukranian Association.

Tomorrow the park will be abuzz with music. And CBC will do six hours of live programming from noon to six. The aboriginal broadcasters don't book guests ahead of time--they find people in the crowd to bring into the tent for interviews. Now that's spontaneous programming! Last year none of the guests lined up for the English afternoon program showed up. So they went into the crowd, roped in some people the host knew and the show, I'm told, was terrific. I think of all the hours we put into preparation for our remote shows in Halifax...

The Deal Breaker

We have a reporter from Iqaluit doing a feature on 30 students going to Toronto from Kugluktuk for a soccer camp and to attend the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Kugluktuk is in Nunavut, and was formerly called Coppermine. So many communities in the NWT and Nunavut have changed their names since I was last here. Snowdrift is now Lutselk'e and Homan is Ulukhaktok. I'm still trying to learn all the new names...

Kugluktuk is a community of 1362 people and, like so many places in the north, doesn't have much to offer in the way of accommodations. You can easily play $150 to stay in a rundown prefab unit. The reporter and cameraperson couldn't book anything, so they found a couple willing to take them in during the shoot. But this couple indicated they didn't want cash as payment. Nope--they want dog food. So, I signed a petty cash voucher today for a 50-pound bag of dog food that the crew will lug with them, along with the camera gear, to pay for their accommodation in Kugluktuk. A real deal at $25.

Fiddling Around

Fiddles are as big in the NWT as they are in Nova Scotia. Julie Green is a novice, but she decided to play "Happy Birthday" on her violin for Darren Stewart. Darren is 29, and he leaves the CBC this fall to go to law school.

Julie and her partner Jan hosted a barbecue birthday for Darren after work today. For awhile Julie wondered who all might show up, because the afternoon radio host asked the news reader what she was doing this weekend, and she jokingly invited listeners to come to the party at Julie's house. That's about how casual the social scene is here.

It was a cool night but here it is at 11 p.m. around the firepit, the sky still bright.
From left to right are Phil Morck, the morning show tech , Jan McKenna, Harmen Meinders (King's Grad) and news producer, and his girlfriend Jasmine, who works at the magazine "Up Here".
Jan is from Antigonish but has been in Yk for 21 years, as a social worker. Jim Nunn is her cousin--just about everyone I meet has a maritime connection of some sort.

The Gang of 12

My first day of regional leaders' meetings, and I'm wondering if all CBC management sessions are this interesting. The challenges of programming in places like Iqaluit and northern Quebec, especially, are many and costly. The closest community to Montreal, which is the centre of Cree programming, is 9 hours away, making it difficult to get items in the field.

In Iqaluit, the program manager struggles to find and keep people who speak Inuktitut now that government competes for aboriginal employees. And the CBC there is pressured to preserve the language at a time when younger people aren't as well grounded in their original voice. Until I came back up here, I didn't realize how much aboriginal programming in radio is broadcast in the north.

We did some fun team development stuff too, including putting together puzzles in groups of 3. We were instructed to work as a team. Most of us interpreted that to mean our little group. But, as we discovered, the puzzle pieces had been mixed between groups and, so, to succeed you had to work with everyone in the room. There were prizes for the group that finished first--not mine.
However, I did win a giant chocolate bar in an earlier session where everyone had to tell a story about themselves that no one would already know. Of course, that was easy for me.

I revealed that Gordon Lightfoot had asked me to sleep with him when I interviewed him in Yellowknife for News of the North. I didn't give the outcome until the end of the day--gotta keep your audience wanting more...

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Very few people I hung out with 29 years ago are still in Yellowknife. However, tonight I connected with Marie Wilson, a CBC reporter back then. It was a pivotal time in the North during those days: the last commissioner left his post, the territories got its own government and the battle brewed over the pipeline. We were a bunch of young passionate journalists reporting on the transitions, both at News of the North, where I became editor, and at the CBC. (We also partied hard in between.) Marie became a national reporter in Quebec during the referendum and, eventually, regional director in the North. Meanwhile, she had married Stephen Kakfwi, who became head of the Dene Nation, and later Premier of the NWT government. At that point, Marie left her job at the CBC because she felt it would be too difficult to continue on, given her husband's political profile.

My apologies to Marie for posting Stephen's photo and not hers--that's all I could find on the web. Marie and I attempted to catch up on almost 3 decades of life, from careers to families, over dinner at Le Frolic Bistro, where Stephen joined us later in the evening. Marie and I split a buffalo burger and Fresh Great Slave Lake Pickerel. I passed on the special of the day: PEI mussels cooked 7 different ways.

Television Northern Style

This is Carol Morin, host of Northbeat, the suppertime CBC television show that broadcasts to the NWT, Yukon and Nunavut. The show was especially interesting tonight because they it included a new weekly series called 'All Over'. Snooky Catholique, an aboriginal videojournalist who has been with the show for some time, has started to do stories in Chipewyan. Her interviewees speak the language and so does she; subtitles are in English. Today's first episode was about a Metis man who harvests birch sap and makes syrup. He's done this for years and hopes someone else will learn the craft. He claims it's good for arthritis and the bark of the tree helps infertile women. It's wonderful that the TV show has taken this step of broadcasting in an aboriginal language--and they gave it a high profile in the program. Carol is an engaging host, with her own sense of style and an easy manner when she's out in the field or doing interviews.

Of Hummers and Snares

When I got to work this morning I had the good fortune to meet Mabel English before she headed back to Inuvik. She's the announcer/operator of Nantaii, a daily show broadcast out of Inuvik to the Gwich'in communities of the western Arctic and Old Crow, Yukon. Mabel is retiring from the CBC in November, after five years of hosting the show. She's 70 years old.

That five years has helped her to buy a truck and a cabin in the bush. Now, she wants to spend time with her 20 grandchildren, taking them out on the land, teaching them about their traditions, from the medicinal uses of spruce gum to how to set a snare.

The radio day sounds quite different up here, with several shows broadcast in aboriginal languages. No Jian Ghomeishi; no 'Q'. And the morning show effectively ends at 8 a.m. to make room for 3 news packages in different languages. Those who broadcast out of Yellowknife come to the morning meeting. There's lots of interchange about stories and ideas.

I got a car for the weekend--it's a Ford Focus, that looks like a dinky toy next to all the hummers and humungous pickup trucks on the road. At first, the rental place tried to give me an Escort with a crack right across the windshield.

I went to the Co-op Store to load up on groceries, where I found everything from fiddleheads to frozen Saskatoon berries. Granted, the fiddleheads looked as though they had jet lag. There were also strawberries from California for only $2.99. But they were scary--almost as big as my head. Meanwhile, I hear people at work talking about trying to grow tomatoes, a challenge given the rocky terrain, sparse topsoil and short growing season.

A workspace with a view

No, I don't have an office but I do have a big-ass desk with a TV, radio, computer, printer and window. The view isn't terrific but the light is lovely. I'm across from the radio people and the TV folks are around the corner. We're all on the same floor, but in separate sections.

It's interesting hearing the northern interpretation of some national stories, such as the one about the U.S. trying to put an end to American hunters bringing home Polar Bear trophies.
For some Inuit, big game guiding has become a way of life that allows them to send their kids to university. The chase was on today for one such guide, but he was out hunting and they couldn't get hold of him for the morning. Apparently, a cross between a grizzly and polar bear was discovered recently. The story went national but I never saw it: I guess he was one ugly dude.

The weather took a turn to the warm today--it was 28 degrees in Fort Good Hope! While the ice is gone from Frame Lake, I don't expect to be jumping into the water there anytime soon.

Today I investigated how much it would cost to swim at the pool right across the road from the CBC. It's a lovely large centre with noontime swims and adult-only swims in the evenings.

The price is right, especially if you're a senior, and apparently I qualify because a senior here is anyone over 55. I wonder if that works at the movies too. I'll have to check it out--Shrek 3 is playing.

Civility and Civilization

I was so absorbed in my thoughts as I walked along the trail this morning en route to work that I forgot to take the path that leads to the CBC. So, I had to backtrack a bit--hardly as problematical as missing an exit on the rotary. My only near miss was a fox that shot out in front of me, near the spot where I leave the trail. On the weekend, a black bear on a trail 40 km near Yk encountered a couple and their dog: the people were OK; the dog wasn't so lucky.

Working at a job that is more or less self-directed and doesn't involve filling a 2 1/2 hour program is a challenge--one that I embrace. And today I got my teeth into a special project: co-ordinating what I hope will be a radio/TV special in mid-June about the pipeline. The help is greatly appreciated because the programs run on very lean personpower. The afternoon show consists of two people: the producer and host who is an announce-operator. There's no AP, no tech, no director.

I keep running into people who know people who I know. The following greetings are to some CBC colleagues: to Kim Garrity from Sonja Koenig; to Nina Corfu from Loren McGinnis; to Mary Lynk from Catherine Pigott. And I met a fellow who thanked me for leaving the News of the North 29 years ago, because he got my job at the newspaper and then joined the CBC. This afternoon I took part in a Respect in the Workplace session that will be mandatory for every employee across the country. I am happy to report it was all quite civil.