John Anderson Thomson was born on April 30, 1900 in Glengairn, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He served in the Royal Flying Corps. during World War I, joining in 1917 at the age of 16. After being wounded and spending time in recovery, John immigrated to Canada in 1920, settling in Unity, Saskatchewan. He spent the next several years farming sheep and teaching school. In 1926, John returned to Scotland and married Janet Paterson, from Braemar, who had been born June 18, 1902. The Thomsons returned to Saskatchewan after their marriage. In the 1930s, John attended the University of Saskatchewan and in 1934 was a student assistant with the Geological Survey of Canada in the Arctic. In 1936, he graduated with a degree in geological engineering. John worked at the De Santis Gold Mine in Timmins, Ontario from 1937 to 1941 as geologist, mine engineer, and mine superintendent. From 1941 to 1942 he was Chief Engineer at Delnite Gold Mine, also in Timmins.
John served as an RCAF navigation instructor in Manitoba during WWII, from 1942 to 1944. On April 6, 1944, while still in uniform, he arrived in the north, employed by the General Engineering Company of Canada as a field engineer and geologist. Janet followed soon after. General Engineering had a contract to evaluate the mining properties of Yellowknife Gold Mines and Yellowknife Bear Mines. By 1946, General Engineering was no longer active in Yellowknife, but John decided to stay, gaining a contract with Negus Mines. Together with J. A. Buchanan, Dominion Land Surveyor (DLS) of Edmonton, he formed Thomson & Buchanan Engineers, Geologists and Surveyors. John articled under Buchanan and earned his own DLS commission in 1956. John also filled in as Mine Superintendent at Negus in 1949 when the regular superintendent was on leave.
John’s surveying and geological investigation work took him all over the Northwest Territories and what became Nunavut, to mining claims, communities, and larger centres such as Fort Smith, Fort Simpson, Hay River, Iqaluit, and Yellowknife. His work included water and sewer main layouts, roads, power line rights-of-way, lot and block surveys, site certificates, legal mineral claim surveys, and surveys for mining companies. John undertook many significant surveys over the years, including surveying the power line from the Discovery Mine to Bluefish Hydro, laying out the route of the Mackenzie Highway proposed by the Federal Government in 1947 and suggesting a better route, doing DEW line surveys and laying out airstrips in 1954, finding river crossings for a pipeline from Alaska to Alberta in 1969 (not constructed), surveying a pipeline from Norman Wells to Zama pipeline in 1979, and surveying and investigating the Slave River as part of a hydro feasibility study.
When John broke his knee-cap in the spring of 1958 and was unable to do fieldwork for the rest of the season, he took the opportunity to teach geology and surveying at the University of Saskatchewan. From 1958 to 1966, John spent summers doing field work in the north and winters teaching in Saskatoon and drafting plans. This winter/summer transition led to the Anderson-Thomson being the first travellers on the unfinished highway between Fort Providence and Yellowknife when they left too late in the season to bring their vehicle back to Yellowknife by ice road.
John Anderson-Thomson’s business was run under the banner of “Thomson and Buchanan” for a number of years, then as “John Anderson-Thomson”, and “John Anderson-Thomson Engineering & Surveying Ltd.” as of April 30, 1976. After working in cooperation with Underwood McLellan Associates, out of Edmonton, for a few years in the late 1970s, John Anderson-Thomson officially sold his business to them as of December 31, 1981 and retired from official practice in 1982, although he remained on retainer as a consultant. The name of the Yellowknife business became Thomson Underwood McLellan Surveys Ltd.
John was involved with a number of organizations and had many interests outside of his business. The Yellowknife Branch of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy was established at the Anderson-Thomson house in 1945. John was also a member of the Saskatchewan Land Surveyors’ Association, Canadian Institute of Surveying, Association of Professional Engineers of Saskatchewan, and Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of the NWT. John received a Canadian Engineers’ Gold Medal Award from the Canadian Association of Professional Engineers in 1983.
In 1952, John assumed command of the No. 7 Company Canadian Rangers, on the request of the Governor General, Lord Alexander of Tunis. The Rangers participated in Exercise Bulldog III, a scenario to defend Yellowknife, in 1954, with great success. In 1954, he was appointed as Magistrate and Justice of the Peace, a position he held for the next 22 years. He earned himself the reputation of being a “hanging judge”, but received a special award from the RCMP at the end of his service. In 1959, John was invited to join the Royal Commission to determine the route for the Great Slave Lake railway from Pine Point to the current end of steel in Alberta. One of three commissioners, his minority report in favour of the western route, managed to convince Prime Minister Diefenbaker.
John also had a founding role in the layout of the Yellowknife Golf Course in 1947 and was a member for several years. He was also enjoyed shooting and curling.
Janet Anderson-Thomson was also influential, assisting John in his work, designing the NWT tartan, and accompanying the junior and senior choirs at Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Avid supporters of the NWT Pipe Band, the Anderson-Thomsons were given honourary membership in 1979. John and Janet were also joint recipients of the Commissioner’s Award for public service in the NWT in 1975.
Janet Anderson-Thomson died 1983. John passed away two years later on September 15, 1985 at his daughter’s home in Ontario. Their two daughters, Mary and Myrtle were each already married and had families of their own in Ontario.
John U. Bayly was born on April 20, 1945 in Toronto, Ontario. He has enjoyed a long and varied career in the North and worked as both a Crown Attorney and private counsel in the communities of Kuujjuarapik or Great Whale River (Quebec), Rankin Inlet, Inuvik and Yellowknife. He was the founding partner of what later became Bayly Williams where he practiced between 1983-2000. Between 1984 and May 1985, Mr. Bayly chaired the NWT government's Task Force on Spousal Assault. Between 1981-1987, he served as Counsel and Negotiator for the Dene/Metis Land Claim Agreement-in-Principle. He served as the first Executive Director for the Legal Services Board of the NWT and was responsible for the delivery of legal aid public legal education and services throughout the NWT. In 1990, John U. Bayly was retained as Inquiry Counsel for a Judicial Inquiry into the conduct of Judge R.M. Bourassa (the Bourassa Inquiry). The inquiry was established following public outcry to remarks attributed to Judge Bourassa in a 1989 Edmonton Journal article suggesting that sexual assault among northern natives was less violent than in the south. Mr. Bayly was also a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Public Complaints Commission for 12 years and he has represented a variety of aboriginal peoples organizations, including the Dene Nation, Committee for Original People's Entitlement (COPE), Inuit Tapirisat and Nunavut Tungavik Incorporated (NTI). Before there was a Law Society of the Northwest Territories, Mr. Bayly was the president of the NWT Bar Association for two years. He has been an active member of the Law Society of the Northwest Territories since 1978 and for 21 years he was the Chairman of its Discipline Committee. He is also a member of the Law Society of Upper Canada and the Law Society of Nunavut, the Canadian Bar Association and a director of the International Commission on Folk Law and Legal Pluralism. He is a past chairman of the Denendeh Conservation Board (1988-1991), a past member of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (1988-1991) and the Canadian Arctic Resources Committee (1986-1989). Mr. Bayly served for seven years as the Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of the Arctic. In March 2000, he was appointed to the position of Principal Secretary for the Government of the Northwest Territories. John Bayly died in Yellowknife February 17, 2004.
In 1965, on the recommendation of the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources, the Committee of the Privy Council, via Order in Council 1005, established the Advisory Commission on the Development of Government in the Northwest Territories. The Commission headed by A.W.R. Carrothers, was commonly referred to as the Carrothers' Commission. The mandate of the Commission was to consider the political development of the Northwest Territories and to advise the Minister of Northern Affairs and National Resources via a report. In 1966, after holding hearings in northern communities, the three-member commission recommended that the issue of dividing the Northwest Territories be further examined in 10 years.
In 1967, a Royal Commission, authorized under The Inquiries Act, Part One, investigated and reported on the administration of justice in the Hay River area. The investigation was authorized following allegations that not all individuals were receiving equal treatment in the courts, that the courts were not open to the public and that the press was being censured on matters concerning the proceedings in the courts. The Commissioner for the inquiry was the Honourable W.G. Morrow.
On March 21 1974, Mr. Justice T.R. Berger was appointed by the government of Canada to conduct an inquiry and report on the terms and conditions that ought to be imposed on a proposed Mackenzie Valley Pipeline. Berger's first action was to visit communities up and down the Mackenzie River and over the mountains to the Yukon Territory, in order to meet the people whose lives he was going to inquire into. It was a 10,000-mile trip by helicopter, canoe, jet and bush plane that took Berger to Tuktoyaktuk, Aklavik, Fort McPherson and almost all of the 27 communities that would be affected in some way by the proposed pipeline. The inquiry commenced with preliminary hearings in Yellowknife, Inuvik, Whitehorse and Ottawa in April and May 1974. The formal hearings began in March 1975 and lasted until November 1976. Community hearings were also held in the Northwest Territories and almost all of the provinces between April 1975 and August 1976. Mr. Justice Berger's report was submitted to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development in 1977.
The Task Force on Personnel Policy and Management was established in November of 1973 by the Commissioner. Its mandate was to evaluate the efficiency of the Territorial Government's administration. The Task Force was lead by Assistant Commissioner Ewan M.R. Cotterill. Participation of the members of the civil service was encouraged via a letter from the Commissioner asking for input on all aspect of organization and personnel management. The responses received formed the basis of the report of the task force and it was presented to the Commissioner in August 1974. The Executive Committee subsequently released a report based upon the nineteen recommendations of the August 1974 report. The Commissioner released his final report on the matter in 1976. One outcome of the work of the Task Force was creation of a new classification system and the re-classification of all positions.