Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 29, 2000.

Dateline: May 20, 2024.

    Choosing the Yukon's top 10 stories of the year is, to a large extent, an arbitrary task. It's a mixture of our judgment, of the stories which have attracted considerable media coverage, or those with the most significant effects on the largest number of Yukoners.

    Here, then, are the Star's top 10 stories of 2000.

1

    Yukoners make political history on April 17 by electing the territory's first Liberal government. The Grits take all 10 Whitehorse-area seats, sweeping then-NDP government leader Piers McDonald and ministers Dave Sloan and Lois Moorcroft out of office. Liberal Leader Pat Duncan promises to rebuild the languishing economy, encourage the settlement of land claims and bring an agenda of respect to governance. The election also costs then-Yukon Party leader John Ostashek his seat. He and McDonald soon resign (heir leaders' posts.

2

    A 4.6-billion-year-old meteorite that streaked across the southern Yukon the morning of Jan. 18 is called the most significant event of its kind in a century in Canada, The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sends two high-altitude U2 aircraft to the territory to assist efforts in researching the meteorite's size and origin. Pilot Jim Brooks finds chunks on frozen Tagish Lake in late January and reports them to authorities. In March, scientists announce the chunks from the most primitive meteorite ever found may include organics - the building blocks of life - and hold clues to the origin of the solar system.

3

    Mirroring the events of the late 1970s, early signs of natural gas pipeline fever begin to hit the territory. Soon into her mandate, Duncan makes a series of visits to Alberta's oil patch to promote the Alaska Highway route of moving the gas from Alaska to southern markets. The Northwest Territories governmert launches its own feverish attempts to sell an undersea route from Alaska to the N.W.T., then south through the Mackenzie Valley. Both governments speak of a bonanza of jobs and businesses such a multi-million-dollar venture would bring. The NDP accuses Duncan of pinning her hopes of economic renewal solcly on an $8-billion venture that's a megaproject in scope, but temporary in its major economic benefits. Gas producers indicate they'll choose a route in 2001.

4

    A Kelowna, B.C. developer's plans to build a shopping centre at the bottom of Two Mile Hill in Whitehorse galvanizes residents into pro and con forces. The city and territorial government each offer $750,000 worth of infrastructure development subsidies to Argus Properties Lid. The Star reveals in March that further city incentives could cost taxpayers up to $250,000. Angus speaks of having signed at least one major tenant to the centre, but it and the city refuse to identify the company. The Folk the Mall protest group gathers 3,286 names on a petition, but the city recognizes only 1,400. Twelve local businesses take the city to court over the agreement, eventually dropping their suit in October. Site preparation work stops in July. In September, Argus bills the city $314,000 for site work. Council grants Argus subdivision of the land in October. Argus and the two governments agree on binding arbitration, the result of which is expected in 2001.

5

    The deaths of beloved Tom Lobsinger, the 72-year-old bishop of Whitehorse, and friend Toby Spruyt, 55, after the bishop's Cessna 172 aircraft crashes onto the Fox Lake ice April 15 numbs the community. The following day, parishioners at Our Lady of Victory Church stretch the Sunday service to twice its normal length as mourners recall their friendships with the two members of the Oblate of Mary Immaculate,. An estimated 700 people jam Vanier Catholic School's large gym on April 25 to bid heartfelt goodbyes.

6

    Several weeks after the Star reveals then-mayor Kathy Watson's plan to not seek a third term, Whitehorse residents choose Ernie Bourassa as her successor. Incumbent councillor Bernie Phillips' mayoral bid, which he had announced in May 1999, goes for naught. Bourassa also defeats Tom O'Hara, Todd Hardy, Bill Rivers and Lew Piercy. From a record slate of 32 council candidates, the winners are incumbents Duke Connelly and Dave Stockdale, and newcomers Doug Graham, Linda Biensch, Dave Austin and Samson Hartland.

7

    Albert James, the 57-year-old former grand chief of the Council of First Nations, receives a conditional sentence in November for sexually assaulting a five-year-old boy in 1967. After listening to a submission from the Southern Lakes Justice Committee, deputy chief territorial Judge Cunliffe Barnett imposes a conditional sentence of two years less a day's custody time, to be served in the Carcross area. A week earlier, territorial judge Barry Stuart stepped down from the case after the Starv raised questions about his relationship with James. Stuart said he only remembered James playing a peripheral role in native land claims negotiations when the judge was involved in that field in the 1980s.

8

    Two days shy of a month after launching an illegal wildcat walkout, Whitehorse Transit employees begin a legal strike Oct. 11 that continues to this day. After the new city council is sworn in on Oct. 30, it proposes a contract that lays off four drivers and reduces the remaining ones' work hours. Bus riders' phone calls and personal testimonials to council members, letters to the Star, and riders' and drivers' spirited comments during December's town hall are to no avail in settling the dispute. The employees' union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, propose mediation for the stalemate. The city only accepts the offer on Wednesday. The sides impose a media blackout.

9

    Larry Bagnell wins a thriller of a federal election in the Yukon on Noy. 27, narrowly defeating incumbent New Democrat Louise Hardy to become the first Liberal to snare the seat since 1957. The Canadian Alliance's Jim Kenyon finishes third, the Conservatives' Don Cox fourth and the Christian Heritage Party's Geoff Capp fifth. Within days, Bagnell is in Ottawa meeting Prime Minister Jean Chretien and cabinet ministers.

10

    The murder of a Vancouver woman in Whitehorse shocks and horrifies the community, The body of 35-year-old Regina Irena Thyrone is found April 21 by the Robert Service Way ball diamonds. The federal Department of Justice employee had been working temporarily for the department's Whitehorse offices. More than 100 people, including her Vancouver boyfriend, attend a memorial service for her on April 28. Whitehorse resident Daniel Hummel, 38, is charged with her murder and is bound over for trial in January.

+

    An expanded list would surely have included the controversy over naming Mt. Logan after former prime minister Pierre Trudeau; January's massive drug bust in Whitehorse and Vancouver that saw six Yukoners charged with conspiracy to traffic narcotics; August's deaths of two RCMP officers in a Teslin Lake plane crash; the naming of Jack Cable as commissioner; the Grennan family's civil suit against Whitehorse physician Allon Reddoch; and the loss of 125 jobs with August's shutdown of the Watson Lake sawmill.