Highlights of History from The Whitehorse Star

Published by The Whitehorse Star on December 31, 2001.

Dateline: May 19, 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 2001.

1

    The terror of the Sept. 11 attack on New York City and Washington, D.C. came close to home in Whitehorse. The sheer drama and the simultaneous impact on so many thousands of Yukoners have to make it the most important story of 2001.

    The United States closes its airspace to foreign planes, causing most to land in Canada. One plane, a Korean Air flight between Seoul, South Korea and New York City, is redirected to Whitehorse instead of Anchorage, where it was supposed to refuel.

    Before entering Canadian air, U.S. officials are alerted that there is an indicator that the Boeing 747 jumbo jet is hijacked.

    Whitehorse RCMP are later warmed the aircraft could be hijacked. Well before the plane arrives in Whitehorse, military personnel inform Alaskan officials the plane has not been comandeered but is low on fuel.

    Still concerned the plane may be hijacked, the RCMP order all schools in the city to evacuate. Bedlam ensues as many people leave work hunting for their children. The streets are clogged with traffic as the first plane, a Korean Air 747 cargo jet, lands at Whitehorse airport.

    The allegedly-hijacked plane arrives a few minutes later and receives an escort from U.S. and Canadian military fighter jets. The RCMP speak with people from the plane and determines it is not hijacked but low on fuel.

    The people on the flight stay in Whitehorse for a couple of days before heading south, when U.S. airspace is reopened.

2

    The April 28-30 visit by Prince Charles attracts the attention of thousands of Yukoners who turn out at different locations in Whitehorse and Mayo to catch a glimpse of His Royal Highness, perhaps shake his hand, or even talk briefly with him.

    The first royal visit since Princess Anne's 1982 visit to Whitehorse and Haines Junction is largely comprised of casual receptions and public walk-abouts but for a lavish, invitation-only Sunday evening dinner hosted by the Yukon government.

    The prince arrives on a Saturday evening and begins his visit here on the decks of the S.S. Klondike, where he is officially welcomed to Whitehorse by Kwanlin Dun Chief Rick O'Brien, Ta'an Kwach'an Chair John Burdek, Grand Chief Ed Schultz of the Council of Yukon First Nations and Premier Pat Duncan.

3

    After more than a year of unsuccessful negotiations, the Yukon's approximately 700 teachers strike for the first time in history in late February. The last straw is a conciliator's proposal for a final contract that 56 per cent of the teachers reject.

    Instead of a full strike, the Yukon Teachers' Association organizes a series of rotating sirikes at schools throughout the territory.

    A settlement is reached in early March which gives the teachers a 9.8-per-cent mise over three years.

4

    In late March and early April, questions arise about whether Premier Pat Duncan was involved in any dealings her brother's companies had with her departments. An anonymous e-mail read in the legislature by Yukon Party Leader Peter Jenkins alleges she downplayed the indebtedness of her brother's com- pany while trying to single out a debt held by Jenkins' business. The accusations in the e-mail are at the beart of a complaint filed by Jenkins with conflicts commissioner Ted Hughes. Hughes completes his four-month investigation in November with a report that completely clears Duncan of any wrongdoing whatsoever.

5

    The first legal bus strike in the city's history ends in early February after four cold months when the city and local union under the Public Service Alliance of Canada reach an agreement. For passengers, it means transit is back on the road, but the bus schedule is changed. The schedule is to be entrenched for 20 months from the time the agreement was reached. For the bus drivers, the deal means they'll continue to be paid for their lunch breaks, and have their benefits brought up to par with other city workers.

6

    The collapse of the Iron Creek culvert - once heralded as the largest of its sort in the world - remains unrepaired after its June 5 failure forces the closure of the Alaska Highway for 53 hours.

    Continuing to serve as the temporary creek crossing just a hair inside the B.C. border 51 kilometres south of Watson Lake is a one-lane Bailey bridge controlled by a traffic light on each side.

    Public Works Canada, the federal department responsible for maintain- ing that stretch of highway, has yet to announce any plans for the culvert's replacement. Nor has it released the cause of the $2-million structure's collapse.

    There are no injuries in the mishap. It was widely felt, however, that had it collapsed in the middle of the night instead of in broad daylight beginning around 7 a.m., motorists would easily have been caught unaware of the 19-metre (62-foot) hole and driven straight into it.

7

    Whitehorse residents were left reeling for weeks after a young woman is hauled off Mountainview Drive in broad daylight in August and beaten badly enough to put her in hospital for weeks. Tania Gilbey had been living in Whitehorse for the summer, working at a travel agency and a video store. She'd been walking home ona Saturday afternoon when she was attacked.

    After 30-year-old Gilbey's attack by an unknown assailant, hundreds of women sign up for the RCMP's Lady Beware self-defence course.

    After the attack, more than 200 tips pour in from the public, and the community raises more than $7,000 for a reward and several more thousands to help the Gilbey family. No one has been arrested for the assault.

8

    Someone is convicted of first-degree murder for the first time in the Yukon in February. Daniel Hummel, 38, is convicted of murdering Regina Irena Thyrone by a jury and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

    Thyrone was an employee of the federal Department of Justice and came to the Yukon in April 2000 to help with the year-end accounting when she disappeared. After searching for five days, Thyrone's body was discovered near the Robert Service Way baseball diamonds.

9

    They came, they saw, they bought. The controversy between Argus Properties Ltd. of Kelowna, B.C., the city and the territorial government continues in 2001 as the three signatories to the development agreement enter into mediation.

    After months of those talks, an assignment agreement is reached between Skookum Asphalt and the territorial government for Skookum to put in the municipal infrastructure in early June. Although Premier Pat Duncan approaches city council to contribute close to $1 million to the agreement, council opts to stick to the original development pact.

    The city does, however, approve a development permit for Wal-Mart to be built on a lot on the land and, on Nov. 15, the department store opens its doors, ushering in a new era of Yukon consumerism.

    However, under the agreement, the property taxes from the site will go to the territorial government up to a maximum of $750,000 or seven years.

10

    Beleaguered Whitehorse doctor Allon Reddoch receives his first victory in a long battle against the Yukon Medical Council's ruling that he didn't provide the required standard of care for 16-year-old Mary-Ann Grennan. The girl had died in April 1996 after months in a botulism-induced coma. Since then, Reddoch has been fighting the council's decision through the courts, and in December, the judges overseeing his court appeal agreed the doctor hadn't done anything wrong.

    A civil suit against Reddoch and the Whitehorse General Hospital is still under appeal and is expected to be heard in the fall of 2002.