Here’s to the passing of 2023, which for me was a year full of work and other challenges.

Let’s go back 25 years to New Year’s Eve when an avalanche toppled down the hill in Kangiqsualujjuaq in Nunavik into a school where everyone was celebrating: the disaster that killed nine and traumatized many more would occupy my thoughts for months and still brings heartbreak to recall.

You can read about the avalanche here on this blog and more again here.

The avalanche took place during the period when I was spending nearly all my time in the North, unlike this past year which saw me working for CBC Quebec, using my northern journalistic experience in the South (which actually went well.)

In 2023, I did go to Iqaluit in May and early June, but not for work, just mainly to see friends and the bench I bought for Jim Bell, my dear friend and former editor of Nunatsiaq News who died in 2021. Now he always has access to the view he loved through those that take a break on the bench in Rotary Park in Apex.

I went to Iqaluit at the most beautiful time of year, which helped make up for all the days I wasn’t there. I’ll leave you with this image as 2024 starts to take off, hopefully as a good one for all!