Olympic torch carried through Yellowknife
Last Updated: Thursday, November 5, 2009 | 6:59 PM CT
CBC News
Jeff Gardiner, left, passes the Olympic flame to Jerry Sweet at Forrest Drive and Taylor Road in Yellowknife on Thursday. (CBC)The Olympic flame made its way around in Yellowknife on Thursday as part of the northern leg of its 106-day cross-Canada tour leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games.
An Air North jet transported the flame to the Northwest Territories capital from Kugluktuk, a hamlet of 1,300 in western Nunavut.
Torchbearers in Kugluktuk were treated to an Inuit cultural showcase that involved music and dancing.
The flame, which was enclosed in a lantern, landed at Yellowknife at 2 p.m. MT and was taken to the nearby communities of Dettah and N'dilo.
Carrying torch 'felt awesome'
In Dettah, first torchbearer Ryan Charlo, 19, held the torch firmly as it was blessed by Chief Eddie Sangris and Dene drummers in a "feeding of the fire" ceremony for the Olympic flame and athletes.
Charlo then ran slowly for his leg of the relay, making eye contact with people lining the road to watch him.
"Felt awesome carrying the torch," Charlo told CBC News. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience. All these kids are looking up to me."
Charlo passed the torch to 18-year-old Kelly Boucher, who, like Charlo, is from Akaitcho Dene territory.
"I'm representing Fort Resolution; in my language, that's called Deninu Kue," Boucher said. "I really, really felt proud."
The Olympic flame made its way through Dettah and N'dilo, and eventually to Yellowknife, where local and visiting torchbearers took turns running with the flame.
One of the final legs of the Yellowknife relay looped in front of the Northwest Territories legislature, as a group of 20 torchbearers from the four Tlicho communities ran together.
"Everybody was singing a traditional song like we sing in the round dance back home, right? So that way, we'll keep calm," said Dave Lafferty, a member of the group.
Lafferty said they were also telling each other not to fall and to keep up the pace, as a lot of people were watching.
A community celebration, complete with fireworks, took place at the end of the relay.
On Friday, the torch will head to northern Alberta, stopping in Grande Prairie, Fort McMurray and Cold Lake.
It will then spend Saturday and Sunday in northern Saskatchewan and Manitoba before travelling way up to Canadian Forces Station Alert, the most northerly stop on the torch relay route.
