On Monday May 1, 2017, at around 5:30 a.m., a magnitude 6.2 earthquake landed near the B.C.-Yukon border, followed by another slightly stronger one at around 7:30 a.m. The rare event got a lot more people talking about seismic activity in the region, and a few murmured their fears of an eventual “big one.”
This month, Yukon Pride: 24 Hours of Gaylight is happening for the sixth year in a row—and it just gets bigger every year.
The Yukon is a pretty incredible place, but with so much wide, empty wilderness, few people and limited technology capacity in backcountry areas, it’s important to remember to prepare, plan and train before you venture out there.
There’s a furry addition to Team Yukon’s uniforms as they march into the opening ceremony of the Arctic Winter Games in the Northwest Territories on March 18. Athletes will sport fur pom-poms made from wolf pelts harvested in the Haines Junction area and sewn onto their hats by members of the community.
Motivational speaker Mike Scott of the Sturgeon Lake First Nation in Saskatchewan has a created the “Sober is Sexi” social media campaign and will present a talk called “Finding the Warrior Within” The Yukon Aboriginal Women’s Council (YAWC) will host the Gathering of Youth-Family members of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls Kick Off …
The discovery of Gold in the Klondike region in 1896, brought huge numbers of people to the Yukon. All these people had to be fed.
According to the Yukon Commissioner’s office, the New Year’s Levee is an old tradition that dates back to King Louis XIV of France and was first introduced in Canada when fur traders would pay respect to their government representatives on New Year’s Day. The annual event has evolved from these beginnings and the levee this …
With over 280,000 visitors and 1,000 authors, the Frankfurt Book Fair is the largest book fair in the world and an important event for international trade deals, with over 7 000 exhibitors from 100 nations, according to the fair website.
The 15th annual Northwestel Festival of Trees will kick off on Thursday, Nov. 23 with the Business After Hours (BAH) Humbug event at the Yukon government Main Administration Building foyer. The annual fundraising event for Yukon health care concludes on Dec. 2 with the Alkan Air Grand Ball, a formal seated dinner that is already …
Philip Fitzgerald was embarrassed when he is asked about his greatest sense of accomplishment as the chair of the Yukon Hospital Foundation.
An excerpt of Manfred Hoefs’ recently released book Yukon’s Hunting History. Yukon’s history, time scale & events are unique.
The biannual Haa Ḵusteeyí Celebration and community gathering in Teslin this month presents a unique opportunity for Yukoners of all backgrounds to connect with the Tlingit community. “Everyone is welcome. We want everybody here. We want to share and showcase our culture to the world,” says Melaina Sheldon, community arts and events coordinator at the …
Celebrate National Tlingit Day with a Fun Packed Weekend in Teslin Read More »
… et des célébrations Pour la 11ème édition, l’AFY et ses organismes partenaires, bien rôdés dans l’organisation de l’événement, ont voulu apporter de la nouveauté. Finis les longs discours de remerciements, ces derniers, raccourcis au maximum, laissent dorénavant place aux festivités : vendredi 12 mai, dès 16h15, une réelle chasse aux trésors, destinée aux familles, …
Applications are open until March 12 for the third annual Yukon Innovation Prize. The contest, which is hosted by the the Yukon College’s Cold Climate Innovation program and the Yukon Department of Economic Development, is seeking health and wellness-related entrepreneurial ideas related to the unique challenges posed by living in the North. Previous themes have …
Joe Sparling, the co-founder and president of Air North, says he hears many of these stories through the comment cards. “The one that catches my eye over and over is, ‘It feels like you are home before you get home.’” Sitting in his office, at a desk his father used before him, he says, “I …
Jennifer Tyldesley has spent her life behind the controls of aeroplanes: in the Air Force, flying search and rescue and most recently for Air North. I imagine her in a crisp white shirt with epaulettes gleaming, watching the Klondike Valley sweep away beneath an old Hawker Siddeley when she is struck by an epiphany: “One …
For many Yukoners, enjoying the backcountry is an integral part of their lifestyle whether they love to ski, snow machine, snowshoe or run sled dogs. They rely on their own experiences and common sense to keep themselves safe. Some have tuned into avalanche forecasts that have been available since 2011 on the Canadian Avalanche website …
The nomination package has been prepared under the watchful eye of a local advisory committee, including representation from Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in, the City of Dawson, the Yukon Government, the Klondike Placer Miners Association and citizen reps from both Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in and the Dawson community. There is also a project management team, and much of the actual …
The Klondike Continues to Prepare for World Heritage Status Read More »
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to Action task all sectors of Canadian society to make changes that will affect “the way things are done” between First Nations people and non-First Nation Canadians. The TRC came about as a way to address the legacy of residential schools, and to help to reconcile relations between …
Community in the Yukon is small. For filmmakers, it’s even smaller. That sometimes causes competition between people in the territory who try to make it in the industry. But, filmmakers can’t be islands. That’s what filmmaker Naomi Mark thinks — it should be about collaboration; bringing a small group of people together to push projects …
At the downtown community garden in Whitehorse, a beekeeper tends to the newly built beehive in the fading evening light. Nearby, a gardener waters his small plot of potatoes, beans, and lettuce – a zucchini plant takes up a quarter of his raised bed box. Vegetables grow in plots on the other side of the …
Kid Vicious, Starbuck’s Revenge, Goat. No, not my favorite B-movies, but mountain bike trails christened by those who build and ride them. All of these routes, some gnarly and others more family-friendly, can be found up on Mount McIntyre, where years of volunteer labour is culminating this summer in a grand venture by the Contagious …
The late Alex VanBibber had a favourite refrain: “An outdoor life is a healthy life.” This is according to his friend, Harvey Jessop. Jessop wrote some remarks about VanBibber’s life for the Yukon Fish and Wildlife Management Board, pertaining to a new scholarship it is offering in VanBibber’s legacy. The Alex VanBibber Sharing the Land …
Yukon artist Lawrie Crawford imagined a gallery, an airy space with high ceilings and big beautiful windows. She could picture Suzanne Paleczny’s sculpture of Icarus hanging there. With that vision an idea was born. Crawford and her colleagues in the Southern Lakes Artists Collective were inspired to create a gallery space filled with a wide …
The ATCO technician was confused. Normally reading meters is the simple part of the job, but this one seemed to be running, well, backwards. Time to call in the supervisor. Now there were two of them scratching their heads, and it wasn’t until they looked up that it all became clear. This is how I …
Kids and horses, life doesn’t get much better than that. 4-H is thriving in the Yukon. We are the Spirit Riders 4-H Horse Club, based in Whitehorse and loving everything. We are a district club operating under the umbrella of 4-H Yukon and regionally under 4-H British Columbia. 4-H has been around the Yukon for …
A quarter century is a long time; however, 25 years ago the building the Yukon Transportation Museum (YTM) calls home was already old. The structure was originally built during World War II as a recreation centre for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After the war it was turned over to the territorial government. From the …
I recently listened to a court debate concerning the streets connected to 2nd Avenue in the north end of town, and which turn you would have to make to get back to Front Street, depending on which direction you were travelling. There were street names involved, but using them just seemed to confuse the matter. …
The Yukon Supreme Court returned to the Old Territorial Administration Building (OTAB in local slang) late in January. It will continue to occupy space there until March, at the rate things are moving. The subject of the trial is not fodder for this column, but I’ve been spending so much time in the building lately …
My name is Jay and I’m a stay at home dad. It wasn’t always this way. A few months ago my wife and I were working full-time in Whitehorse and our two-year-old daughter Emily was whisked off to daycare, where she played and learned with other toddlers. I saw Emily about an hour a day, …
So… have you gone to the Yukon Government Main Administrative Building to see your art yet? I understand, life gets busy. But I bet you’re on Main Street once in awhile. There, you’ll find three Yukon Government offices that serve as public exhibition spaces from the Yukon Permanent Collection — art that belongs to the …
The bi-annual Myth and Medium symposium runs from February 24 to 28 this year, the week after the territorial Heritage Day holiday. Heritage Day originally inspired the idea of Myth and Medium about a decade ago. The first symposium tied in nicely with both a display of the Cameron Collection, brought here by Ken Lister …
In two previous columns I have given some background behind Dawson City’s interest in UNESCO’s World Heritage Status designation. The Klondike region was placed on the national short list for this status in 2004, and I have outlined some of the earlier attempts to realize this goal. The latest project is called Tr’ondënk-Klondike: Future World …
When I was a wage slave, the call of Friday happy-hour escapism was like aural honey to my ears. After a few years in the YTG system, I could proudly say my paper-shuffling skills were unmatchable. (I can make it look like I’m furiously working while doing nothing at all.) It also helped that no …
Congratulations to the Yukon government, in general, and to the Yukon Liquor Corporation, specifically, for passing regulations that put the new Liquor Act in play. It goes a long way toward normalizing alcohol consumption in our lives. We feel that a program of accepting the presence of alcohol in everyday situations, coupled with stronger disincentives …
The Liquor Corporation in New Brunswick has created a wee bit of a stir lately (pun intended). It seems it is losing a lot of beer sales in border communities. Not to the U.S., as you might think, but to Québec. Every province and territory in Canada has their own approach to beer pricing. As …
Florian Lemphers sits on the back porch of his Lake Laberge home. This vantage point offers a glorious view of the lake and the fall colours, which are in full bloom. Lemphers rests his feet on a bench and casually sips a cup of coffee (he’s wearing a pair of Carhartts and a broad smile). …
There’s nothing like the fun of picking out and decorating the perfect Christmas tree to put you in the holiday spirit. But if one tree can put you in the holiday spirit, what will 30 do? The NorthwesTel Festival of Trees is gearing up for their annual kick-off to the holiday season from Nov. 22 …
Festival of Trees Offers Several Events to Light Up the Season Read More »
“I think we should take a break.” When slapped together, those can be the most dreaded words in the English language. And so, it was with an appropriately heavy heart that I had to say this phrase to my morning coffee. Some might say I looked a fool, with tears in my eyes, cradling the …
Now that the snow is completely gone, it’s a little bit depressing to see how much garbage it was hiding. We had begun to notice this in a cursory sort of way once the warmer weather began transforming our dog-walking from a necessary chore to a pleasant outing. Later we took it more seriously, but …
