Narwhals: the new baby seals

By John Geddes - Wednesday, December 21, 2011 at 10:30 AM - 0 Comments

Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Stock/WWF-Canada

Narwhals made a surprise appearance this year at Cambridge Bay, on the south coast of Victoria Island in Canada’s High Arctic. The whales, famous for the single, spiralling tusk sported by the adult males, don’t usually venture that far west. So when dozens of them showed up offshore in late August, the mostly Inuit community of about 1,500 rejoiced. Hunters took to their boats with rifles and harpoons, and landed about 10. Fresh muktuk—the vitamin-rich outer layer of skin and blubber—was, as old ways dictate, widely shared. And photos of smiling hunters posing by dead narwhals were, as contemporary culture demands, posted on Facebook.

That social-media celebration of hunter-gatherer tradition might suggest that narwhal hunting is fitting in surprisingly well in the 21st century. But Inuit groups and federal officials are bracing for international scrutiny of the killing of about 500 of these photogenic marine mammals every year. Unless Canada can prove they are being protected, outcry from abroad is all but certain to become an issue. “Things may not have changed for the people living in the North,” says Steve Ferguson, a federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans scientist, “but there’s a lot more worldwide attention being given to Arctic mammals.”

The key reason for that concern is climate change. As Arctic sea ice shrinks, attention has focused on the fate of polar bears. But a study in the journal Ecological Adaptations, which rated the risk of global warming to 11 Arctic mammals, argued narwhals are more vulnerable. Ferguson, a co-author of that 2008 report, says the narwhal’s unique adaptation to living under the ice makes it especially vulnerable to its disappearance.

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Frozen assets

By Hannah Hoag - Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments

Hakan Samuelsson

In a nondescript government office in the middle of Ottawa’s downtown core lie more than 10,000 years of the Arctic’s climate history. Ice cores drilled from Canada’s northernmost ice caps and ice fields are packed into dog-eared, insulated cardboard boxes and loaded onto floor-to-ceiling shelves in a walk-in freezer in a government building on Booth Street. Notes duct-taped to the outside divulge the distant origins of their contents: Agassiz, Prince of Wales, Penny. There are more boxes stashed in freezers outside the walk-in at the offices of the Geological Survey of Canada, and still more in rented commercial space, stored between frozen fish and ice cream.

Each core contains the sea salt, dust and air caught in the snow as it fell on the glaciers over thousands of years. They contain the records of past environmental changes, a history of human impact on greenhouse gases, atmospheric pollutants and global temperatures. And they have been collected over four decades at great expense.

But the ice core library’s future is far from certain, as the Geological Survey of Canada’s research priorities have changed and the Booth Street building is slated to be sold.

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How will we repel an imaginary Russian invasion?

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, October 24, 2011 at 8:30 AM - 15 Comments

The new F-35s will be state-of-the-art in every way except one.

Canada’s new multibillion-dollar stealth fighters are expected to arrive without the built-in capacity to communicate from the country’s most northerly regions — a gap the air force is trying to close.

The F-35 Lightning will eventually have the ability to communicate with satellites, but the software will not be available in the initial production run, said a senior Lockheed Martin official, who spoke on background. It is expected to be added to the aircraft when production reaches its fourth phase in 2019, but that is not guaranteed because research is still underway.

Harper delays Arctic trip after deadly crash

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 22, 2011 at 11:08 AM - 4 Comments

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has delayed plans for his sixth annual Arctic visit in the wake of a deadly plane crash in Nunavut. Twelve people were killed Saturday when a First Air jetliner crashed two kilometres short of the runway at Resolute Bay Airport. Three people survived the wreck; military rescue workers are being praised for their quick response. Harper had planned a two-day stop in Resolute, a small town on an island north of the Northwest Passage. Instead, the PM now plans a shorter stopover starting Tuesday. Harper is being urged to tweak his northern strategy—researchers are calling for more of a research focus and French officials argue that Canada is falling behind the Russians in Northern shipping.

CBC

Postmedia

Russian prepares to issue claim over Arctic territory to UN

By macleans.ca - Monday, August 15, 2011 at 10:42 AM - 1 Comment

Russia is expected to submit a claim to the UN within a year in the hopes of annexing a massive swath of the Arctic that is currently under international control. The area, which covers nearly one million square kilometres, would see an estimated 25 per cent of the world’s untapped hydrocarbon reserves as part of Russian territory. The scramble for claims over the Arctic has largely been waged between Canada, Russia, the United States, Denmark and Norway. In July, Russia sent a nuclear-powered ice-breaker and a ship to map the bottom of the ocean in order to support their contention that the Siberian continental shelf is connected to the sea-bottom beneath the Arctic ice. The country has also announced the creation of an Arctic military force, and a US$33-billion port on its Arctic coast. For its part, Canada will hold a military exercise called Operation Nanook in the region this month, and is also preparing a territorial claim of its own.

Business Insider

Good news, bad news: June 30 – July 7, 2011

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 7, 2011 at 1:45 PM - 0 Comments

Good news

Taliban hostages for 18 months, two French TV journalists return home. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters)

Boots on the snow

Canada is planning its biggest summer military exercise in the far North. More than ever, a grand show of force in the Arctic is vitally important. Russia recently announced that it plans to send two new military brigades to the Arctic and is boasting of plans to build a year-round port there. Tensions between Arctic nations are on the rise over the drawing of borders in this resource-rich part of the world. And while flag-planting displays may seem trivial, when it comes to Arctic sovereignty, Canada needs to use it or risk losing it.

Adult intervention

The Greek government has prevented a likely tragedy by stopping a flotilla of pro-Palestinian protesters from embarking for Gaza. An attempt to break the Israeli blockade last summer ended in a confrontation on the high seas that left nine dead. With both sides bent for a repeat showdown, the results this year could have been even worse. The Greeks are offering to work with the UN to ferry the ship’s cargo—food, medicine and building materials—to the Gaza Strip’s many needy. A bit of reasonableness that should serve as an example to the radicals on both sides.

A liberating decision

Ottawa reversed course and approved trials for a controversial procedure used to treat multiple sclerosis called “liberation therapy,” which involves opening blocked neck veins. Canada, which has among the highest rates of MS in the world, said last year it would not fund the trials due to concerns about the procedure’s efficacy and safety. Advocates, though, argue it is life-saving. The trials may finally provide some much-needed answers.

Loose connections

Cellphones don’t cause cancer after all, according to a major academic review of research by experts in Britain, the U.S. and Sweden. The report comes two months after the World Health Organization said the devices should be classified as “possibly” carcinogenic (along with pickled vegetables and coffee). Such cancer scares haven’t curbed appetite for the technology. The last wireless patents held by Nortel were bought for US$4.5 billion by a consortium including RIM, Apple, Ericsson and Microsoft.

Bad news

Ongoing efforts to fight flooding in Manitoba will cost over $550 million. (Tim Smith/Brandon Sun/CP)

Crackdown

Bashar al-Assad’s Syrian dictatorship, one of the Middle East’s most repressive regimes, continues to plumb new depths as it confronts pro-democracy protesters. This week its security forces opened fire on peaceful crowds in several towns, wounding dozens and killing at least three. With the West focused on removing Moammar Gadhafi from power in Libya, Assad seems to feel untouchable. And to our collective shame, he appears to be right.

Upper-class twit(ters)

A couple of months back, Treasury Board President Tony Clement was criticized for tweeting a comment on a CRTC decision that was effectively a change in government telecom policy. Now he’s been caught out sharing photos of Will and Kate snapped at a private reception. Clement says he’s done nothing wrong, but clearly his desire to self-publicize is getting the better of him. Facing similar aggrandizers, the BBC is reportedly considering adding a clause to its contracts with its talent to prevent tweeted leaks and spoilers. But it all pales compared to the numbskull who hacked the Fox News Twitter account on July 4 and shared the “news” that Barack Obama had been assassinated. Can’t we all find better things to do with technology?

This case has no clothes

An Ontario court this week heard arguments about whether laws preventing public nudity are unconstitutional. Lawyers for Brian Coldin, who was arrested when he showed up naked at a Tim Hortons drive-through, argue police should have discretion when enforcing nudity laws. In Coldin’s case, restaurant employees testified they felt “uncomfortable” seeing his genitals on display. If anything, this case offers an all-too-clear example why nudity laws exist and shouldn’t be fiddled with.

Social ills

Researchers writing in the American Journal of Public Health say they have calculated how many deaths may be caused by poverty each year: 133,000 in the U.S. That’s not to say money guarantees good health. A Canadian study found low-income, urban children are more likely to walk or bike to school and are therefore in better shape than their more privileged counterparts.

The Russians are mocking

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 27, 2011 at 12:02 PM - 25 Comments

Russia’s Arctic ambassador questions the Harper government’s fears of invasion.

“It could come from lack of knowledge of reality,” Vasiliev told The Canadian Press during a major conference on Canada-Norway-Russia Arctic co-operation at Ottawa’s Carleton University. ”I think that time and reality proves that this is all wrong.”

'A good working relationship'

By Aaron Wherry - Friday, May 13, 2011 at 10:58 AM - 33 Comments

Another leaked cable sheds light on our pitched battle with the Russians for the Arctic.

One cable drafted by U.S. diplomats in Ottawa portrays Mr. Harper as dismissing the need for a military response to Russia over the Arctic. It includes an account from a Canadian official of a January, 2010, meeting between Mr. Harper and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen in which the PM said NATO has no role in the Arctic.

“According to PM Harper, Canada has a good working relationship with Russia with respect to the Arctic, and a NATO presence could backfire by exacerbating tensions,” the cable states. “He commented that there is no likelihood of Arctic states going to war, but that some non-Arctic members favoured a NATO role in the Arctic because it would afford them influence in an area where ‘they don’t belong.’ ”

Policy alert

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, April 21, 2011 at 1:48 PM - 25 Comments

The Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami sent a questionnaire to the five major political parties.

Four of the five have now responded.

Why Laureen Harper might need a professional lobbyist

By Mitchel Raphael - Monday, February 14, 2011 at 10:29 AM - 3 Comments

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

For the second year, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami presented A Taste of the Arctic, this time in  the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Canada. While there were long lineups for the muskox, halibut and shrimp stations, the one featuring seal meat was less popular. Evan Solomon, host of CBC’s Power & Politics, claimed the seal meat was delicious, if hard to taste because of the heavy sauce. ITK president Mary Simon arrived with her leg in a cast. (Ottawa is plagued with leg injuries: not only is Treasury Board President Stockwell Day in a cast, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn injured his leg in a snowmobile accident.)

The keynote speaker for Taste of the Arctic was former governor general Michaëlle Jean, now a UNESCO special envoy to Haiti. This was Jean’s first official event since stepping down as GG. Jean, who has bought a house in Ottawa, is happy she was able to stay there for work as it allows her daughter to continue at her school and keep her same friends. Also in attendance was Nick Javor of Tim Hortons, who noted that the company recently opened three kiosks (offering a limited menu) in Nunavut.

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

The entertainment included Inuk singer Elisapie Isaac. During Isaac’s set, which closed the evening, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq starting rocking out on the dance floor and got people moving. Laureen Harper was so impressed with the singer she quipped she was going to “lobby” Heritage Minister James Moore to have Isaac perform for Canada Day on Parliament Hill. Mrs. Harper joked she might have to hire a professional lobbyist because last year she tried to recommend a band she saw in a bar but nothing happened.

How can I be cool if…

Last week, Liberal MP Massimo Pacetti received his new BlackBerry Torch, the latest handheld device to offer both a keypad and touch-screen option. Pacetti was told by the Commons telecommunications department he was the first MP to get the Torch, which made him feel pretty hip—until he was also told senators had been getting Torches since the end of 2010.

Liberal conspiracy theory

There was much grumbling by Liberals on the Hill when news hit that Rocco Rossi, the former national director of the Liberal party who helped recruit Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff into federal politics, was going to run provincially for Tim Hudak’s Progressive Conservatives in Ontario. At the same time, federal Liberals say quietly that should the Ontario Liberals be defeated before the next federal election it would bode well for them because Ontario would be looking to balance provincial and federal power. Was Rossi’s move all part of some secret plan?

Photograph by Mitchel Raphael

In the last election, Liberal MP Justin Trudeau took the riding of Papineau from Bloc MP Vivian Barbot. With election fever in the air, Barbot, who still works on the Hill  for her party, says she plans to go for round two against Trudeau, but only if there’s an election before she turns 70 on July 7.

Harper’s card to Helena

Officials in the PMO say that when they told Stephen Harper that Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer had a baby, the PM instructed his staff to send a card, which they did, sometime in December. (A recent item in Capital Diary had Jaffer reporting he did not get any congratulatory message from the PM.) Jaffer explains that when he and Helena collected items, including flowers from Green party Leader Elizabeth May from Guergis’s Hill office on Jan. 18 (the day Capital Diary went to press), there was no card from the PM, but that one arrived a few days later. It was much appreciated, he says. Apparently there are no hard feelings: his wife, he notes, has put out signals she would be willing to come back to the Conservative party if the PM invited her.

Stephen Harper and Canada, a love story (III)

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, February 8, 2011 at 10:13 AM - 46 Comments

From Paul and John’s consideration of the Harper Era, insight into the place of patriotism in the new Conservative party.

“We didn’t have a competing narrative,” one of them says now. “What are the symbols people talk about when they talk about Canada? Health care. The Charter. Peacekeeping. The United Nations. The CBC. Almost every single example was a Liberal achievement or a Liberal policy. We had gotten to a point in Canada where the conservative side of politics had been marginalized—where we weren’t even recognized as legitimately Canadian.”

… Harper had to carve out a patriotic vocabulary that was different from the Liberals’. “We didn’t have any illusions about displacing the Liberal vision and the Liberal narrative of Canada,” the strategist says. “But we needed to give the conservative side something to rally around.” So almost from the beginning, Harper started building a distinct right-of-centre, patriotic new vocabulary. “It’s the Arctic,” this strategist said. “It’s the military. It’s the RCMP. It’s the embrace of hockey and lacrosse and curling.” In policy terms, it included the child care cheques and the accompanying rhetoric of families able to make their own choices.

See previously here and here.

Ottawa announces creation of new Arctic sanctuary

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, December 7, 2010 at 12:55 PM - 9 Comments

On Monday, Environment Minister John Baird announced the federal government would give up a potential gold mine of oil riches in Nunavut’s Lancaster Sound, a body of water twice the size of Lake Erie, to designate the area as an environmental sanctuary. The announcement comes after months of controversy and lobbying from environmental and Inuit groups. “Our government is sending a clear message to the world that Canada takes responsibility for environmental protection in our Arctic waters,” Baird said. As well as an important resource for Inuit communities, Lancaster Sound is home to, among other species, seabirds, polar bears, and narwhals.

Ottawa Citizen

Treasure island

By macleans.ca - Thursday, October 7, 2010 at 10:20 AM - 0 Comments

Getty Images

While the future of Saskatchewan’s potash industry is grabbing attention around the world, the real hub of Canada’s resource sector may be emerging in an unlikely place: Baffin Island. The remote and sparsely populated Arctic island could soon be home to companies extracting everything from diamonds to oil to gold.

Among the largest projects being studied is Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s plan to build a huge open-pit iron ore mine at Mary River, about 1,000 km northwest of Iqaluit. The $4-billion project would allow the Toronto-based company to tap a site that’s believed to hold some 500 million tonnes of high-grade reserves.

Just who gets to develop the site, however, remains up in the air after rival Nunavut Iron Ore put in an unsolicited offer last week to buy out Baffinland for $274 million in cash.

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An Arctic accident

By Kathleen Winter - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

REUTERS; PABLO S./ DANNY CATT

To distract my fears when the Clipper Adventurer ran aground on Aug. 27 on an uncharted rock in Nunavut’s Coronation Gulf, I asked on-board geologist Marc St-Onge if he knew what kind of rock it was. As an instructor with the Canadian tour company Adventure Canada, St-Onge had told passengers the history of every rock we had encountered in our expedition through the fabled Northwest Passage. This was a gabbro sill, a submerged version of formations that rose around us onshore. “I think,” he said, “this one will be well charted after this little incident.”

As it turned out, the Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen, deployed to rescue us from 500 miles west on the Beaufort Sea, was full of geologists mapping the ocean floor to assess the environmental impact of proposed deepwater drilling. They had barely begun when they got our distress call and found themselves drafted to rescue duty. While they shared their couches and chowder with us, they conducted soundings and began mapping the rock that had until now evaded every Arctic chart leading back to Lord Franklin and beyond. Research team member Steve Blasco told Clipper Adventurer passengers, “You’re part of the charting.”

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'We would like to express our deepest sorrow'

By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 11:08 AM - 0 Comments

The government’s apology, delivered by Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan, to Inuit who were forcibly relocated in the 1950s.

On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, we would like to offer a full and sincere apology to Inuit for the relocation of families from Inukjuak and Pond Inlet to Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay during the 1950s.

We would like to express our deepest sorrow for the extreme hardship and suffering caused by the relocation.  The families were separated from their home communities and extended families by more than a thousand kilometres.  They were not provided with adequate shelter and supplies.  They were not properly informed of how far away and how different from Inukjuak their new homes would be, and they were not aware that they would be separated into two communities once they arrived in the High Arctic.  Moreover, the Government failed to act on its promise to return anyone that did not wish to stay in the High Arctic to their old homes.

Hot on Sir John Franklin’s tail

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, July 29, 2010 at 5:43 PM - 0 Comments

Parks Canada researchers came upon one of the most fabled shipwrecks in marine archaeology this week in Canada’s Arctic. The HMS Investigator sank in the frigid waters of Mercy Bay 157 years ago after it was abandoned by its crew when it became locked in ice during a search for a legendary expedition headed up by Sir John Franklin.

Environment Minister Jim Prentice was among the first people to get a close-up view of the wreck of the HMS Investigator just a few days after it was found by the Parks Canada team.

“We were able to position our Zodiac immediately above the Investigator to peer down in the icy Arctic water, which is crystal-clear,” Prentice said in an interview from Mercy Bay. “It sits perfectly upright in 11 metres of water. When you look down on it, you’re able to see in exquisite detail all the decking and the ship’s timbers and so on. It’s an incredible thing to see.”

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The Ignatieff doctrine

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, June 15, 2010 at 1:30 PM - 108 Comments

The Liberal leader is presently outlining his foreign policy in a speech to a Toronto audience. Simultaneously the Liberals have released a policy paper outlining the vision and various tangible proposals: emphasis on China, India and Africa, a post-combat training role for Canada in Afghanistan, a special envoy to the region, an overarching emphasis on empowering women in the developing world, a Canada Youth Service program, a new ambassador for circumpolar affairs, a permanent G20 secretariat, global scholarships for student from lower and middle income countries to study in Canada and a Branding Canada initiative.

Much of it links back to a notion of networked governance that Mr. Ignatieff mused on in Montreal.

Do we really own the Arctic?

By Brian D. Johnson - Monday, May 17, 2010 at 7:32 AM - 13 Comments

Photography by Andrew Tolson

Arctic historian Shelagh Grant, 72, is an adjunct professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., and author of the forthcoming Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America.

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The Commons: Just visiting

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 6:31 PM - 7 Comments

The Scene. As lovely as it is to be visited, it is always, at least for the conscientious host, a cause of some anxiety. Is the house clean enough? Is the fridge well-stocked? Are the guests sufficiently comfortable and entertained? Will they approve of our choice of wallpaper? And what, heavens, will they think of our approach to Arctic sovereignty and the war in Afghanistan?

“Mr. Speaker, last week, the Minister of Foreign Affairs told the House that there would be no request from the Americans to extend Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, but yesterday, Hillary Clinton came to town and blew the government’s cover,” Michael Ignatieff offered with his opportunity.

The Conservative side groaned.

“It is perfectly obvious the request had either been made or was just about to be made,” he continued. “It is perfectly obvious the government knew the request had either been made or was coming. The question is simple. Why did the Conservatives mislead Canadians last week?”

Whatever was perfectly obvious to the Liberal leader was apparently quite confusing to the Prime Minister. “Mr. Speaker,” he sighed, “I really do not know what the leader of the opposition is talking about.”
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BUDGET 2010: Innovation, technology, green initiatives

By Philippe Gohier - Thursday, March 4, 2010 at 5:25 PM - 6 Comments

The single-largest item in the budget envelope dedicated to green initiatives is earmarked for Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. The government will provide the crown corporation with $300 million in cash this year to cover commercial losses, the development of advanced CANDU reactors, and operations and upgrades at the Chalk River facility, which produces medical isotopes.

In all, spending on nuclear industry-related projects takes up over 70 per cent of the total amount dedicated to environmental initiatives. Other projects have comparatively meager allowances. They include $100 million over four years for the development of clean energy technologies in the forestry sector and $8 million per year to clean up the most degraded areas of the Great Lakes.  The government also plans to spend $11.4 million over two years on meteorological and navigational systems in the Arctic, and another $8 million over two years has been earmarked to pay for community-based environmental monitoring in the North.

Politicians and economists like to link green initiatives with the ability to create and implement innovative technologies. Wednesday’s Throne Speech specifically promised to bolster science and technology spending in order “fuel the ingenuity of Canada’s best and brightest and bring innovative products to market.”

But Canadian adoption of new technologies has long lagged that of its international competitors and has been a drag on Canadian firms’ productivity. As a result, Thursday’s budget promises a wholesale re-evaluation of the federal government’s spending on research and development. According to budget documents, “this review will inform future decisions regarding federal support for R&D.”

In the meantime, however, the government is bolstering the budgets of several research and development agencies. For instance, the National Research Council’s regional innovation clusters program will be able to count on $135 million in government funding over the next two years to develop 11 “technology clusters” across all 10 provinces.  Ottawa will also double the operating budget of the College and Community Innovation Program to $30 million a year and boost the budgets of the three federal research granting councils (the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) by a combined $32 million a year.

More specific government targets for innovation funds include British Columbia’s TRIUMF laboratory for nuclear and particle physics research, who will see an extra $51 million in funding over two years, and Genome Canada, which will be the beneficiary of a one-time payment this year worth $75 million.

Linking the Arctic with fibre optic

By Rachel Mendleson - Thursday, February 25, 2010 at 8:00 AM - 4 Comments

In Canada’s remote northern communities, which depend on satellite for phone and Internet service, there are certain times of the year when connections are even spottier than usual. For several weeks during the spring and fall equinox, a phenomenon known as “sun transit” occurs, and radio waves from the sun overpower those going between the satellite and the earth station. Though it lasts for less than 20 minutes per day, the scratchy connections are a nuisance. But that may change with ArcticLink, a proposed 16,000-km fibre-optic cable through the Northwest Passage.

The project, which is being headed by the Alaska-based Kodiak Kenai Cable Company, involves laying a US$1.2-billion fibre-optic cable between London and Tokyo. According to company CEO Walt Ebell, the link would cut transmission times between Asia and Europe in half. But it could also alleviate the connectivity woes of Canada’s 43 northern communities currently served by satellite. Last month, executives with Northwestel, a telecommunications firm in northern Canada, met with Ebell to discuss patching into the line to link up Arctic communities, says Anne Kennedy, a spokesperson with Northwestel.

Talks are still in the early stages, but a fibre-optic cable would be a step up. On top of problematic phone service, Internet connectivity is limited by the bandwidth Northwestel leases from its satellite provider. If the project goes ahead, Kennedy says Northwestel’s involvement would largely depend on cost-effectiveness. In remote communities, where the population is often less than 200, she says, “it’s tough to make a business case.” But to those few people, the ability to make a call without worrying about the position of the sun would make a big difference.

How ‘The Beaver’ lost its name

By Martin Patriquin - Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 1:00 PM - 4 Comments

The Beaver is no longer, killed off on its 90th birthday. As of its April issue, the name of Canada’s second oldest magazine has been scrubbed from the masthead, replaced with Canada’s History. Though its staff says the name change is necessary to reflect its evolution—“We’ve become a multi-platform magazine,” says editor Mark Reid—the main reason was to put an end to the snickering, once and for all.

Call it death by double entendre. Rarely has the title evoked only the industrious, slick-haired rodent. The term’s other, more carnal meaning, a slang term for a specific part of the female anatomy, has been a distraction for years, cheapening this earnest, wholesome publication, clogging subscriber spam filters and ultimately hurting its bottom line. “Yes, I like beavers, the animals, just as much as anybody else,” Reid said recently.

“It’s a historic creature, it’s on our nickel, it’s a proud part of the fur trade. But in the 21st century, if you are going to rebrand your entire organization, including all that you do, ‘beaver’ is probably not going to be the word that best speaks to what you do, if you know what I mean.”

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Inuit communities torn over emissions reductions

By Tom Henheffer - Thursday, December 17, 2009 at 6:18 PM - 13 Comments

The ice is receding, coastlines eroding and permafrost melting, but Arctic Inuit leaders are divided over the ongoing environmental negotiations at the COP15 conference in Copenhagen.

Jimmy Stotts, chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC), an organization representing Inuit from Canada, Russia, the U.S. and Greenland, says a fair, enforceable and balanced agreement is needed to save the north from climate change. But he also emphasizes that the Inuit have only recently started to realize the economic advantages of oil, gas and mineral reserves on their land. Proposed emissions targets could undercut his people just as they begin to get on their feet, he argues, and he wants any treaty to contain provisions allowing Inuit communities to utilize their natural resources. “This is our way to improve our lives,” he says. “There really is nothing to replace those revenues.”

But Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit environmental activist, says there is no justification for further eroding the northern climate by excavating for natural resources. “Economic gain must not override the existence and well-being of a whole people whose way of life is already being severely taxed.”

Meanwhile, Greenland—a country primarily populated by Inuit—plans to start aggressively tapping its oil, gas and mineral deposits and build an aluminum smelter that could greatly increase national emissions—by up to 75 per cent, some environmentalists say. The country’s position has put a rift between Inuit groups and is making international talks difficult. It refuses to abide by restrictions on its industries, claiming emissions targets will make resource development impossible.

Unfortunately, Stotts says, those disagreements among the Inuit are only one part of the general disarray in Copenhagen, and he thinks the talks will bring little help to the north. “It’s crazy what’s going on here . . . I’d be real surprised if something strong and meaningful came out of this.”

'It doesn't seem important. It is.'

By Aaron Wherry - Monday, September 14, 2009 at 12:40 PM - 44 Comments

The prepared text of Michael Ignatieff’s speech to the Canadian Club this afternoon.

I’m here today to talk to you about Canada’s place in the world—how we’ve lost it and how we can get it back.

The world is changing, and Canada has to change with it.  Our identity as a people will be defined by the place we find in the world that is taking shape on the other side of this global recession.

Canada was born inside two Empires, the French, the British, and we have matured beside the most powerful nation in history, the United States.

What happens to our identity, our place in the world, when the centre of gravity shifts to Asia? When India and China become the powerhouses of the global economy?

We should have nothing to fear from the rise of these new powers. A new world creates new opportunities for Canada. Opportunities to trade, to learn, and to create the global architecture of security for this emerging new world. But only if we have leadership that seizes these opportunities.

Ce que nous faisons à l’étranger contribue à nous définir. C’est le reflet de notre personnalité. C’est le reflet de ce que nous pouvons apporter au monde pour qu’il soit meilleur. C’est le prolongement de ce que nous sommes comme peuple.

By and large, Canadian politicians scarcely utter a word about Canada in the world on the hustings.  It doesn’t seem important. It is.

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