Latest news with #Kitikmeot
CBC
a day ago
- Health
- CBC
Cambridge Bay health centre on reduced services until end of month
Cambridge Bay's Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre says it is offering only emergency services until Aug. 30. The decision was forced by staffing shortages, according to a post on the Cambridge Bay community Facebook page made by a community health nurse recently. Some services will still be available, the post said, including midwifery, doctors visits, lab work and x-rays, depending upon urgency. CBC contacted the centre for clarification and was told that staff are asking people to call ahead if they have any health concerns.
Edmonton Journal
17-07-2025
- Edmonton Journal
Two Edmonton men charged in brutal Cambridge Bay assault
Article content Angulalik said her family is grateful her brother is healing, and happy that he didn't die. Article content She's hoping for more prevention of drug-related crime in the small Arctic community. Article content 'I think they should be making sure, like at the airport, they have things that could detect drugs and handguns before they come to Cambridge Bay,' she said. Article content 'This is our hometown.' Article content Packed town hall Article content At a town hall meeting this week, more than 90 community members in attendance shared their concerns with Mayor Wayne Gregory, MLA and Justice Minister Pam Gross and Acting RCMP Supt. Kent Pike and other RCMP representatives, according to the Kitikmeot Inuit Association. Article content 'The KIA appreciates the openness of these officials and urges them to act upon what was shared with them quickly and efficiently to avoid a repeat of similar events and the fear they caused. The KIA is a working member of the Cambridge Bay inter-agency team that will be tasked with developing and implementing some of the measures that are needed to protect Cambridge Bay,' the KIA posted. Article content Article content 'The KIA is committed to working towards solutions as part of this team that not only protect Cambridge Bay from the damage and fear caused by the free flow of narcotics and criminals into this community, but to also develop measures that will protect all Kitikmeot communities. Article content 'Fear and criminal activity have no place in Cambridge Bay and/or the Kitikmeot.' Article content Points arising from the town hall event included a community ready alert test for important safety updates, bringing in an RCMP drug detection dog, working with territorial and federal partners, including the Northwest Territories and federal ministers, to improve security for mail and travellers through Yellowknife. Article content A second community meeting is expected to be held soon. Article content Charges laid Article content Police have charged Ly Gabriel Galido, 22, and Ayaan Kamran Warsi, 18, both of Edmonton, and Hadi Alhashesh, 19, of Chilliwack, B.C. Article content Article content Their charges included two counts of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm without a licence, two counts of forcible confinement, two counts of pointing a firearm, trafficking a controlled substance, possession of property obtained by crime, robbery with a firearm. Article content Police have also charged Joshua MacPherson, 19, of Cambridge Bay with two counts of assault in relation to the July 8 incident. Article content Alhashesh, Galido and Warsi were remanded into custody with their next court appearance scheduled for July 29 in Iqaluit. Article content Galido has recently faced other charges in the North. Article content According to multiple media reports, after RCMP surrounded a Hay River home on Feb. 18 on reports of alleged forcible confinement, Galido was remanded to RCMP custody for firearms charges, including possession of a firearm while knowing possession is unauthorized, possession of weapon for dangerous purpose, and unsafe storage of a firearm.
CBC
12-04-2025
- Science
- CBC
Students in Ulukhaktok, N.W.T., building app to preserve Inuinnaqtun language
'I'm hoping that it revitalizes [Inuinnaqtun], the speaking of it in our younger generation,' says elder Students at a school in Ulukhaktok, N.W.T., have teamed up with the British Columbia Institute of Technology to develop an app to help preserve the Inuinnaqtun language. An official language of both the N.W.T. and Nunavut, Inuinnaqtun is the primary Indigenous language spoken in Ulukhaktok and is also spoken in western Kitikmeot communities of Cambridge Bay, Kugluktuk and Gjoa Haven, Nunavut. But the small number of residents who speak it are growing older in both territories. In the N.W.T. alone, the territory said back in 2019 there were just 259 speakers. That's part of the reason it became a topic of conversation at a parent-teacher night at Helen Kalvak School. David Leitch, a teacher there, said parents and students wanted to do more with the language and together they came up with the idea last year to create a simple translation app. "As soon as we got into it, the kids had some pretty fantastic ideas about what they wanted to do, and one of the biggest ones was they wanted to capture the voices of their elders." Leitch said students started working on the project this year, and it quickly exceeded his capacity for programming – but there was a big breakthrough when they reached out to the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) for help. A group of students in a computer technology program there agreed to take the project on, said Leitch, and they're creating a large language model – a type of artificial intelligence – that's learning Inuinnaqtun now. The app is being called Echo of the North and once it's done, Leitch said it'll translate full sentences and will also feature recordings of elders speaking. When someone asks the app for a translation, it'll use that large language model to respond. Joanne Ogina, an elder in Ulukhaktok who has done some translations for the app, said she likes that it's preserving her language. She said Inuinnaqtun is rarely spoken, unless conversing with someone who is older. "I'm hoping that it revitalizes it, the speaking of it in our younger generation, because a lot of them rarely speak the language or even have a chance to hear it," she said. A lot more work to do Leitch said now that BCIT is helping out, students in Ulukhaktok are focusing their time on interviewing elders, recording their voices, and also uploading "every bit" of Inuinnaqtun to the internet so the AI program can learn it. "There's actually different dialects of Inuinnaqtun…. Depending on where you are or where you're from, where your family is from." To reflect those differences, Leitch said users will be able to flag a word in the app and add more information about how it's spelled or pronounced in another dialect – and those details will appear to users as well. Although students have been working hard on the project, Leitch said there's a long way yet to go. The artificial intelligence has learned the entire Inuinnaqtun dictionary but that means it can only translate word-for-word. "To really function, it's going to take months and years of our students and our community and elders putting the language, the sentences, the sentence structure, into the database [so] that the AI can learn the language well enough to translate it," said Leitch.
