Michael Bruce Laforet (1940 -2014)
	
Mike Laforet grew up in Brampton, Ontario. He came to the Yukon in 1966 with partner Jim Winberg to look for gold in the Tombstone Mountains. He worked for seven years as a bouncer at the Whitehorse Inn, working with the owners, members of the Canucks, and calling on his experience in martial arts and as a military policeman. For six years he had a weekly column in the //Yukon News// called “The Sourdough Sage” calling on past experience with advertising in newspapers and radio. He also had a daily morning feature on CBC Northern Service. He left the Yukon to be the chairman of the Communications Department for an Ontario college. Back in the Yukon, Mike opened Black Mike’s Gold Mines twenty miles south of Whitehorse and ran it for fifteen years. He edited and published a biweekly newspaper called //The Placer Mining Times// which championed miners’ rights. Mike was a member of the Whitehorse Toastmaster for thirty years. He worked on the Whitehorse Trolley for two years telling stories and jokes. He filled out water licenses and YESAB applications for old buddies in his later years. Mike died of complications from COPD.((//Yukon News// (Whitehorse), 31 October 2014.))