Northwest Territories

A 25-year-old is facing charges following multiple alleged break-ins at Mildred Hall. Yellowknife police reported that they are investigating this incident along with “several” area break and enters in the downtown area. Officers reported that the suspect was facing previous charges including for an alleged break in at the same school earlier this month.

Education Minister Caitlin Cleveland says she is reviewing the final report into the Dehcho Education bodies before deciding how it could be made public. The minister said she agrees with the findings of the report “in principle” but does not plan to act “unilaterally” on them. “It is important that we take the next steps together and determine how to move forward collectively,” said Minister Cleveland.

“I don't think the whole truth has come up, they’ve barely scratched the surface,” says Bob Overvold, who is a Residential School Survivor and co-founder of the group, We Always Remember (WAR). This week, Dec. 15 marked the 10 year anniversary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s release of their Final Report.

Water testing at two more schools in the territory indicated elevated levels of lead for some of the schools' fixtures. While water testing at the Diamond Jenness Trades Centre in Hay River showed lead levels below Health Canada’s guidelines, testing at two other schools showed elevated levels. Water testing at Princess Alexandra School and Diamond Jenness Secondary School showed that water samples for some fixtures tested above the guidelines.

Yesterday, family and friends gathered to remember Bronwyn Watters, a local Yellowknifer, who touched the lives of many people. Watters was honoured with a commemorative library at AVENS in the city of Yellowknife. In over 30 years working in public service, Watters took on many leadership roles including as deputy minister of the Department of Justice, but was also remembered by her family and friends for her work as a volunteer, a poet, photographer and an avid reader of books.

A communications outage is effecting landline telephone calls in Tuktoyaktuk, said RCMP in an announcement issued this afternoon. Police are advising anyone in the area in need of police services and unable to use their phone, to go directly to the police station The communications company is working on the issue but it is unclear when telephone landline access will be restored.

A 30-year-old suspect is facing charges after an alleged knife assault involving a security guard yesterday in the city of Yellowknife. “On December 18th at approximately 12:03 p.m. Yellowknife RCMP received a report that a security guard had been attacked by a person with a knife at an apartment building in the downtown area of Yellowknife. The security guard was able to escape uninjured,” said police.

On Saturday Ecology North is hosting the annual Christmas Bird Count, a community event led by local bird expert Reid Hildebrandt. Last year, the count recorded nearly 3,000 individual birds during the daytime, including 14 different bird species and two rare species in the Yellowknife area alone. The count has been going on for nearly 40 years, explains Dawn Tremblay, who is the executive director of Ecology North. “The results from last year showed 2783 individual birds,” says Tremblay.

The sun last rose on Dec, 4 in Inuvik and with full darkness covering the haunting beauty of the Arctic landscape, the community has decorated their homes and the town with outdoor lights for the winter festivities. “We enjoy seeing the lights here in the community, it's pretty dark this time of year, so it really brightens up the whole group, the whole town,” Amanda Szedo, who is a special projects and events coordinator with the town of Inuvik.