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January 16, 2004

Greenland self-rule to be expanded

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

The premiers of Greenland and Denmark met this week to establish a framework for expanding the scope of self-government in Greenland, which has been unchanged since the existing home rule arrangement was set 25 years ago.

The meeting follows the report by the Commission on Self-governance, which was presented to Greenland's cabinet last April. Greenland's parliament also discussed the report during its fall session.

Norway's reindeer at risk

Construction projects have encroached on reindeer's natural habitat in Norway and forced the animals into smaller areas with limited food supplies.

"Conservationists warn that human activity in wilderness areas is growing so rapidly that both wild and farmed reindeer, or caribou, may one day suffer a similar fate in their strongholds across the Arctic tundra," New Scientist magazine reported in a recent article.

Christian Nellemann, of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in Arendal, Norway, described the situation in Norway as critical.

"They've lost 50 per cent of their habitat in 50 years," Nellemann told Reuters news service.

Nellemann and his colleagues found that reindeer retreat from anywhere that lies within five kilometres of new roads, power lines, cabins or dams.

Pushed into smaller, isolated areas with less food, breeding rates drop. If the situation continues, the 30,000 remaining reindeer in Norway - whose numbers are down from 60,000 in the 1960s - will drop to 15,000 by 2020.

By 2050, the UNEP expects 70 to 80 per cent of the Arctic to be developed with infrastructure, so Greenland, Canadian, American and Russian caribou and reindeer will also be threatened.

New housing units for health and social services in Nunavik

This week, as Kuujjuaq faces as exodus of doctors, Quebec announced that more staff housing is on the way for health and social services workers.

"To improve and develop health and social services offered in Nunavik, we need specialized people who will work there. To this end, we have to offer professionals a comfortable place to live and make enough housing available," said Philippe Couillard, Quebec's minister of health and social services on Wednesday.

"For this reason, I am announcing ... the construction of 16 housing units destined for health and social services staff in five northern villages."

The two Nunavik health centres, Tulattavik and Inuulitsivik, will receive $3.5 million toward the new construction.

"We see a rapid population growth in this region that's linked with a high level of social problems," said Pierre Corbeil, the provincial minister responsible for Quebec's North.

"Moreover, the communities in Nunavik are very isolated, a reality that creates an additional challenge, with respect to the delivery of services. The announcement ... will therefore greatly help professionals who work with the native population."

The two ministers said that in Nunavik the construction of housing can't be seen as a simple building project - but one that helps recruit and retain health and social services personnel.

Ice hotel a go in Alaska

After its construction was halted last November over safety concerns, the six-room Aurora Ice hotel near Fairbanks, Alaska, opened its doors on Christmas Eve. The structure has thick walls of snow and ice, reinforced with wooden arches, metal bands, chicken wire and refrigeration lines. As part of an agreement with the state fire marshall's office, each room will have smoke detectors and fire extinguishers.

The hotel, the first of its kind in Alaska, will cost US$878 for a two-person, two-night stay.

Similar hotels can be found in Finland, Sweden and near Quebec City where the Ice Hotel opened last week with a bonfire and ice sculpture show.

He shoots, she soars

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
The first Inuit in popular music, Susan Aglukark, the National Hockey League, Jordin Tootoo, and the House of Commons, Peter Ittinuar, crossed paths this week in Toronto when Tootoo's hockey team, the Nashville Predators, played the Maple Leafs. (PHOTO BY PETER RAYMONT)

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When the Nashville Predators played the Toronto Maple Leafs at Toronto's Air Canada Centre on Tuesday night, singer Susan Aglukark was on hand to sing the opening anthems.

After Aglukark sang the U.S. anthem, the announcer said Aglukark would sing "O Canada" in both English and Inuktitut in honour of Jordin Tootoo, who plays for the Predators.

"I nearly cried. I was so proud of those two role models," said Peter Ittinuar, who was at the game.

Ittinuar, Nunavut's first member of parliament, now works for the Ontario Native Affairs Secretariat in Toronto.

"I sang along to the Inuktitut parts so the rabid Maple Leaf fans around me would know that when I cheered for the Preds, it was because of Jordin," Ittinuar said.

January 9, 2004

Greenland cabinet minister resigns after drunk driving arrest

Mikael Petersen, one of Greenland's most powerful cabinet ministers, has resigned his portfolio after being charged with drunk driving.

Petersen was minister for transportation, industry, trade, energy, labour and tourism, and vice-chair of the Siumut Party.

His resignation came just before Christmas, three days after his arrest.

On the that night, Petersen had been drinking in one of Nuuk's downtown bars. After he drove away in his own car, somebody called police and tipped them off. A police breathalyzer test showed Petersen had 1.8 ml of alcohol in his blood - an amount several times over the acceptable limit.

"We should, of course, have taken a cab, because I knew that I was drunk," Petersen admitted.

But he also said, at the time, he was in denial about his condition.

"It's hard to come to this point [of resigning], because of something that should never have happened," Petersen said. "But you have to make a decision. It's because of the laws. We have to respect them."

Petersen said he planned to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program.

The home rule government's eligibility committee may decide Peterson has to resign his legislative seat as well.

"It would put a temporary stop in my political life if the parliament decides [that], but still there are a lot of possibilities in life," Petersen said in an interview on Greenland's national news program, Qanorooq.

l Petersen, one of Greenland's most powerful cabinet ministers, has resigned his portfolio after being charged with drunk driving.

Petersen was minister for transportation, industry, trade, energy, labour and tourism, and vice-chair of the Siumut Party.

His resignation came just before Christmas, three days after his arrest.

On the that night, Petersen had been drinking in one of Nuuk's downtown bars. After he drove away in his own car, somebody called police and tipped them off. A police breathalyzer test showed Petersen had 1.8 ml of alcohol in his blood - an amount several times over the acceptable limit.

"We should, of course, have taken a cab, because I knew that I was drunk," Petersen admitted.

But he also said, at the time, he was in denial about his condition.

"It's hard to come to this point [of resigning], because of something that should never have happened," Petersen said. "But you have to make a decision. It's because of the laws. We have to respect them."

Petersen said he planned to enter an alcohol rehabilitation program.

The home rule government's eligibility committee may decide Peterson has to resign his legislative seat as well.

"It would put a temporary stop in my political life if the parliament decides [that], but still there are a lot of possibilities in life," Petersen said in an interview on Greenland's national news program, Qanorooq.

January 9, 2004

Thule sends money for Qaanaaq's kids at Christmas

Thule Air Base's 800 employees raised nearly $21,000 during the 2003 "Operation Julemand," an annual drive that benefits the Qaanaaq municipality's 260 children.

Julemand is the Danish word for Santa Claus.

The money raised every year by the Julemand campaign supports a youth centre in Qaanaaq, a community of about 900 people located 100 kilometres northwest of the base, and provides Christmas gifts for the district's children.

The fundraiser began in 1959 when families in Qaanaaq and at Dundas Radio Station sent their children to school on the base. The money raised was used to buy Christmas presents for those children.

January 9, 2004

Arctic inhabited 30,000 years ago

Russian archeologists have found evidence that people lived in Arctic Siberia 16,000 years earlier than previously thought.

New discoveries of ancient artifacts in the area around the Yana River, 500 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, show lands high above the Arctic Circle were populated during the last ice age.

The findings support the theory that North America was populated much earlier than previously thought. The artifacts found include spear "foreshafts" and stone tools, which seems to show that humans were hunting big game animals in the region about 30,000 years ago.

"Although a direct connection remains tenuous, the Yana ... site indicates that humans extended deep into the Arctic during colder [ice age] times," the authors wrote in the newest edition of the journal Science.

January 2, 2004

Greenland wobbles, Clarkson on a spree

Circumpolar 2003: A year of shaking and spending

January

Mengo a Russian dance troupe performed their signature "seagull" dance during the Riddu Riddu festival in Norway in August. (FILE PHOTOS)

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• The coalition government formed by the Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit parties in Greenland falls. On Jan. 16, Premier Hans Enoksen announces that he has managed to strike an agreement with the Atassut Party to form a new coalition government.
• Outside Iceland's House of Parliament in Reykjavik, Icelanders protest a huge hydro-electric project. The controversial Kárahnjúkar hydroelectric dam planned for eastern Iceland will involve the damming of two rivers.
• The University of the Arctic (UArctic) begins both Web-based and classroom delivery of its second course, BCS331: Contemporary Issues in the Circumpolar World. Twenty-five students at eight sites around the circumpolar region are enrolled in the online version of the course.

February

• About 200 demonstrators, led by Inuit Circumpolar Conference vice-president Aqqaluk Lynge, protest the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Denmark, the Greenland home rule government and the United States on the area around Dundas (Uummannaq), not far from the site of the American Thule air base in northern Greenland. They fear it's the first step toward the signing of a larger agreement that would see the base revamped into one of the ballistic missile defense sites U.S. president George W. Bush wants to build.

March

• Anti-war protesters march against the U.S. attack on Iraq in circumpolar cities and towns. In Rovaniemi, Finland, protesters light hundreds of candles during an anti-war vigil. Greenland is officially against the war.

April

• Lawmakers in Norway approve a ban on smoking in all restaurants, bars and other places serving food or drink. The smoking ban is signed into law in an effort "to protect the health of employees." The law will go into effect next year on a date to be set by the country's health minister.

May

• Future federal Liberal leader Paul Martin shows support for Canadian involvement in the U.S.-led missile defense system within a few months, as officials from Denmark and Greenland sign a landmark agreement-in-principle that will set the stage for an upgrading of Greenland's Thule air base into a missile defense site. The deal offers Greenland a much stronger voice in foreign affairs than the home rule government previously had.
• Norway's proposed law on land management enrages Saami leaders, because, if adopted, it would open their region to more industrial development and militarization. The act doesn't recognize any traditional Saami ownership of the land and safeguards the rights of the Norwegian government to expropriate land for public purposes without compensation.

June

• The Greenland home rule government and the Workers' Union, SIK, reach a two-year compromise on wages, narrowly averting a strike. Greenland would have been hit by a general strike in the public sector, just as its tourist season was about to start.
• The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission takes place in Berlin. At the conclusion of the IWC conference, a declaration is signed condemning nations found whaling for scientific purposes. Delegates also decide to establish a special committee on whale conservation.

July

• The Saami music festival Riddu Riddu - which means wind off the water in Saami - opens north of Tromsø, Norway. Riddu Riddu's lineup of artists includes Nunavik throat singing by Puppuq's Maaki Putulik and Laina Grey and heavy metal by Greenland's Chilly Friday.

August

• Ingmar Egede, a former vice-president of the ICC, dies on Aug. 9 at the age of 73 after a long struggle with cancer. Egede was a member of ICC's executive council from 1989-92 and vice-president of ICC from 1992-95.
• Iceland's minister of fisheries announces that Iceland will begin its scientific whaling hunt of minke whales later this month. The quota for August and September will be 38 whales. The main objective of its hunt is to gain knowledge on the role that minke whales have in the marine ecosystem as well as their interaction with fish stocks.

September

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
In September, Governor General Adrienne Clarkson embarked on a tour of Russia, Finland and Iceland. During a state visit in Helsinki, she met with popular Finnish president Tarja Halonen. (FILE PHOTOS)

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• Health researchers gather in Nuuk, Greenland, for the International Congress for Circumpolar Health.
• Greenland's fragile left-right government coalition between the Social Democratic Siumut and Conservative Atassut parties collapses because during the recent negotiations for a new collective agreement with Greenland's workers' union, the home rule government somehow counted the cost wrong and will have to shell out $20 million more than expected. The rival Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit Parties form a new coalition government - the third for Greenland in one year.
• Canada's Arctic ambassador, Mary May Simon, Nunavut Commissioner Peter Irniq and ICC president Sheila Watt-Cloutier are among the Canadians who accompany Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Ralston Saul on state visits to the Russian Federation, Finland and Iceland from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15.

October

• The reindeer roundup starts in Finnish Lapland, but the price of reindeer meat has dropped by more than one euro ($1.40) per kilogram since last year. This means herders will see a drop of up to 25 per cent in their income.
• An Icelandic fishing captain, known as "the Iceman" for his gruff character, grabs a 300 kilogram shark with his bare hands as it swims in the shallows toward his crew, and wrestles it on to the beach.

November

• The Hingitaq 53 association is in court seeking compensation for the loss of their traditional lands, expropriated for the construction of the Thule air base in the early 1950s. They want to establish their right to return to their territory.
• Churches in North Norway say they welcome homosexuals. In Svolvaer Church, the rainbow flag hangs outside the church to show gays and lesbians that they are welcome there.
• More than 100 owners and herders of reindeer northern Norway launch a legal battle against the military. Military officials said they intend to keep using the Halkavarre region and plan to expand their activities there, using it as a target area for bombing exercises.

December

• The Danish Supreme Court says the Inughuit will not receive more than the 1.7 million kroner ($300,000), which a lower court gave them as compensation four years ago. The court doesn't support their claim over their traditional hunting grounds around the current site of Thule Air Base at Uummannaq. Premier Enoksen said the Greenlandic home rule government would fully support a bid by Hingitaq 53 to appeal the case at the European Court of Human Rights.

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