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| Hall Beach |
Last week I went to Hall Beach and Igloolik for a double
circuit. A double circuit is when two
communities have court in one week. Like
any other circuit, the lawyers, judge, clerk, interpreters, reporter, in-custody
accuseds and out-of-town witnesses all have to manage to get to a small arctic
community, at the same time. But for a double circuit, in the middle of the
week, everyone has to pack up and manage the same feat all over again in a second community.
After we finished court in Hall Beach, the entire court
party and everyone’s luggage was taken to the airport in the back of an open
Co-op cube van. It was a dusty ride, but
it was fun.
After we got to the airport, things got less fun. Somehow,
the court and all of the lawyers ended up on two different flights to Igloolik, and both were delayed due to a low cloud ceiling in Igloolik. After a couple of hours, Canadian North (the airline that all of the lawyers were booked on) decided that they weren’t going to attempt to
land in Igloolik but would instead fly everyone to Iqaluit, and then try to go
again the next day. First Air (the airline that the judge and the rest of the court were booked on) decided that
they were going to fly to Igloolik and hope that it would be possible to land.
You can probably guess what happened. The court ended up in Igloolik without any lawyers. The lawyers ended up with an unanticipated
night back in Iqaluit.
The next day we went to the Iqaluit airport to try again. When
we checked in, the boarding passes were green-stickered with the dreaded “LANDING
SUBJECT TO WEATHER.” Things were really
not looking good for the Igloolik circuit.
If we didn’t land in Igloolik this time, we’d lose the one remaining
circuit day, and court in Igloolik would have to be delayed until the next circuit
at the end of September.
Somehow, we made it in.
There was fog, but incredibly there was none over the runway when it was
time to land, and the Igloolik circuit was saved.
Of course the weather was beautiful the next day.
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| Igloolik |
Songs:
The Prayer of Francois Villon - Regina Spektor
Northmart - The Jerry Cans
I Gave You All - Mumford & Sons
The Wine Song - The Cat Empire
