Whitehorse Daily Star

April 3, 2020

• We need to work, but we’ll keep you safe I am writing on behalf of the Klondike Placer Miners’ Association (KPMA).
• Are gold bars more important than our health? During the past few weeks, there has been a public discussion on the need to self-isolate if you have travelled outside the Yukon, and or have some of the symptoms of the COVID-19 flu.
• Camp rules wouldn’t thwart a virus outbreak Being in the category of who the First Nations call “elders” myself,
• The latest plan to quell the pandemic panic It’s a pandemic; be afraid. Be very afraid!

April 1, 2020

• Why the difference with the health care workers? Ed. note: this is a letter to Premier Sandy Silver.
• Let’s pause and inquire: how bad is it, really? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau II and U.S. President Donald Trump are promising to hand out billions, or trillions to stop the COVID-19 pandemic in North America.
• I must confess: I am one of the guilty ones! Re. “Help unveiled for renters, workers, airlines” (Star, March 27).
• They’re overlooked and need help There is a lot of talk about helping workers, businesses, residential tenants and landlords.

March 30, 2020

• Responsible placer mining in this time of crisis As operators of a small placer mine,
• Policy by tweet doesn’t cut it, Mr. Silver Ed. note: this is a letter to Premier Sandy Silver.
• What ‘public service’ means these days Service Canada is closing its counters across Canada.

March 27, 2020

• In retrospect, we were not prepared at all! On Sunday evening, I watched, as many Yukoners did, the government news conference telling us that the first two cases of COVID-19 were diagnosed in the territory.
• Keep the presses rolling! It is not unusual to read of attacks on newspapers, both physical and by governments, as the freedom of the press is under regular attack – although the latest banning of newspapers is quite unusual.
• Yukon’s COVID-19 strategy is very troubling I read with great consternation the Star’s March 23rd coverage of Dr. Brendan Hanley’s press conference of March 22.
• After a narrow escape, a city hall runaround Eighty-four-year-old Erich Stoll of Whitehorse – a veteran of 40 years of Yukon mining – feels safer in a deep mine than he does walking the streets of Whitehorse.
• We all have to help each other! Our country is in a state of health crisis, and it needs all the tools we have to protect and support our people immediately.
• Stupid is as stupid does, right, everyone? Most Canadians are so politically correct, we don’t say no to anybody anymore.
• Trudeau effectively tried to engineer a coup Ed. note: this is a letter to the leaders of Canada’s federal opposition parties.

March 25, 2020

• They’re basking in power The recent cost-crippling railway blockades caused anxiety, expense and hardship, directly or indirectly, to almost every Canadian.
• Let’s close down and rethink our child care Ed. note: this is an open letter to Dr. Brendan Hanley, the Yukon’s chief medical officer.
• Relief for renters is urgently needed! Ed. note: this is a letter to the Yukon government.
• Things won’t get as bad as 1918! I wondered how the present COVID-19 crisis compares with the 1918 flu.

March 23, 2020

• Recounting my mystifying adventures in the capital Oh shimmering lark vomit, Batman! It’s a panic-demic!
• An ASL interpreter is essential! I’m writing this letter about the press conference the Yukon government did Sunday night to announce measures being taken for COVID-19.
• Questions of self-isolation and mining camps A couple of days ago, the premier announced that, in effect, mining is essential for the Yukon while tourism is not.