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the north
Keepers of the Water: A wake-up call from the North
I was very fortunate to participate in the Keepers of the Water conference in Wollaston Lake, northern Saskatchewan, in mid-August. It was my first time to this remote community, which can only be reached by barge/boat or airplane as there are no roads that go directly there. People say the water there is clean enough to drink right out of the lake, which I saw someone doing. The lake, one of Saskatchewan's largest, certainly looked beautiful, though I hesitated to drink from it like the locals.
Hunger in the North: Witnessing food insecurity in Nunavut
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On May 16, 2012 the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, released his preliminary report after his visit to Canada. The Special Rapporteur "was disconcerted by the deep and severe food insecurity faced by aboriginal peoples across Canada living both on- and off-reserve in remote and urban areas."
Student action against Jean Charest's northern development plan
Video of a student action on March 8 when Jean Charest came to Gatineau to sell his northern development plan to the business community.
Manifestation étudiante-populaire le 8 mars 2012 à l'occasion du passage de Jean Charest au Palais des congrès de Gatineau pour vendre sa salade aux gens d'affaires de la région au coût de 50$ le couvert.
Why the situation in Attawapiskat is not hopeless if we make better choices
Several years ago my daughter and I took the ferry from Prince Edward Island to the Magdalen Islands, a small chain of islands in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, which are part of the province of Quebec.
Only 13,000 people inhabit the islands year-round, but tourists flock there in the summer. Most of the islands are connected by land bridges, but sailing in from P.E.I., as the main archipelago comes into view, a ship passenger sees Entry Island, unconnected to the rest of the chain and separated by 12 km of water.
Entry Island has about 130 inhabitants and can only be reached by sea or air. A ferry arrives twice a day from May through December and the island has regular airplane service from January through April.
Complicating the Arctic
Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America
(Douglas & McIntyre,
2010;
$39.95)
Once widely considered a vast, unremarkable frozen landscape, realities of climate change are changing the north's façade. Previously obscure concepts like Arctic sovereignty and categories of off-shore waters are now glaringly pertinent as the polar ice continues to melt.
In Polar Imperative, clarifying the history of the Arctic is precisely what Shelagh D. Grant sets out to do. Drawing on extensive archival research and personal experience, Grant covers the entire spectrum of Arctic history, starting with the area's first inhabitants and moving through 19th century colonial land deals, the development of sovereign titles, World War II and the Cold War, as well as the discovery of Arctic oil and the recognition of Aboriginal rights.
Van Camp spins tales from the North
The Moon of Letting Go
(Enfield & Wizenty,
2009;
$29.95)
A drug dealer with a conscience, straight boys who jog naked at night in a group, and a hit-man who finds himself in a life changing ceremony; yes, there's everything under the sun (and moon) in Richard Van Camp's new collection of short fiction The Moon of Letting Go.
A member of the Dogrib Nation of North West Territories, Van Camp is one of Turtle Island's (Canada's) premier writers. Published in The Walrus, Descant and Up Here Magazine, Van Camp brings stories from the North to the rest of Turtle Island.
