Current ads
Jobs
Tenders
Notices
General

Click below

July 16, 2004

Arctic Ocean survey to scan lost world

A new survey of the depths of the Arctic Ocean could reveal a lost world of living fossils and new species from jellyfish to giant squid.

Arctic waters might hide creatures known only from fossils, such as trilobites that flourished 300 million years ago.

More southerly species may invade Arctic waters if the polar icecap melts while increased shipping could accidentally introduce new creatures to the region in ballast water and disrupt the ecology.

The Canada Basin is a mystery because it is cut off from deep waters in the Pacific by the 210-ft deep Bering Strait and from currents from the more distant North Atlantic by 4,200-ft deep ridges and straits.

The international project will include probing a 12,470-foot abyss off Canada described by project leaders as the "world's oldest sea water, a vast, still pool unstirred for millennia, walled by steep ridges and lidded with ice."

Scientists plan to use robot submarines and sonar to track down life in the Arctic Ocean where many species may be at risk from global warming.

The research is part of a $1 billion, 10-year global Census of Marine Life funded by governments, companies and private donors.

July 16, 2004

Chewing tobacco use heavy in Alaska

In western Alaska, 52 per cent of people use chewing tobacco.

Chewing tobacco often takes the form of iqmik, tobacco leaves mixed with ash, usually from a birch tree fungus. The ash speeds nicotine to the brain.

Iqmik can cause sores and white patches in the mouth that may turn into cancer. Growths can also appear on the tongue, changing the color to yellow, green, brown or black.

In the community of Tuluksak, 80 percent to 90 percent of the villagers use iqmik, including many four- and five-year-olds.

The Anchorage Daily News reports a new study has found that the use of tobacco, especially iqmik, remains socially acceptable on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and that there are few perceived health effects.

In fact, iqmik is viewed as a natural product, less harmful than other types of tobacco, researchers discovered, and women who smoke may switch to iqmik if they become pregnant. That could explain a finding from a separate study that more than half of pregnant women in western Alaska use chewing tobacco, but just 16 percent smoke.

July 16, 2004

Rolling Estonians gather some wives

Two Estonian students won the country's seventh straight wife-carrying world championship held earlier this month in northern Finland, winning the "wife's weight" in beer, and a sauna.

Using the "Estonian Carry," where the woman clamps her thighs to the sides of the man's face while hanging upside down on his back, Madis Uusorg carried Inga Klauso 830 feet through a pool and over hurdles in just over a minute.

The race has its roots in local legend, according to which it was common in the late 19th century to steal women from the neighboring villages. It is also based on the story of Ronkainen the Robber, who made aspiring gang members prove their worth by carrying sacks of rye along a challenging track.

July 16, 2004

Erosion threatens Alaskan villages

Siku Circumpolar News Service

A warming climate is bringing expensive and dangerous erosion and floods to Alaskan villages, representatives of several communities recently told federal officials in Anchorage, Alaska.

"As the calming hand of the ice on the Arctic Ocean grows more fragile, so does our coastline," Barrow Mayor Edith Vorderstrasse told members of a U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee. "We are at a crossroads. Is it practical to stand and fight our mother ocean or do we surrender and move?"

Fixing the problems by expanding seawalls or relocating entire towns could cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the 213 Alaskan villages at risk. Of these, 184 face flooding and erosion problems, with very serious problems in about 20.

For residents of Shishmaref, a coastal village of 600 with severe erosion problems, abandoning their ancestral homeland with its traditional food supply "would have a devastating impact on how we exist and who we are," said Luci Eningowuk, chairman of the Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition. Residents have already moved 18 homes and two buildings. Two years ago they voted to move the entire community inland but have not yet secured the money to relocate.

In the Inupiat village of Point Hope, flooding problems will likely force 725 people to move, or build a road as an escape route.

July 9, 2004

Nunavut government creates how-to kit on youth groups

Nunavut communities will have a guide on how to keep youth committees up and running by early 2005, according to the territorial department of culture, language, elders and youth.

Staff are assembling a youth committee tool kit as part of the government's suicide prevention strategy.

Penny Rumbolt, spokesperson for CLEY, says the tool kit will help keep youth groups together by outlining how to apply for grants and manage funds.

The department's community programs division in Igloolik handles the project, which will be accessible through the CLEY web site, www.gov.nu.ca/cley.

July 9, 2004

Military changes leadership in the North

The federal department of national defence held a ceremony in Yellowknife this week to mark the handing over of the military's top positions in the North.

After July 6, Col. Normand Couturier will be the top commander for the Canadian Forces Northern Area, replacing Col. Norris Pettis.

Lieu.-Col. Paul Fleet will take over for Lieu.-Col. Scott Archer as commanding officer of 440 Squadron, the territories' small air fleet.

Lieu.-Col. Scott Archer will then become chief of staff for the CFNA, replacing Lieu.-Col. Dave Wheeler.

July 2, 2004

Ethics boss: Akesuk should say sorry in public

Environment Minister Olayuk Akesuk ought to hold public meetings in his constituency to apologize for twice violating the Integrity Act, Nunavut’s Integrity Commissioner, Robert Stanbury, recommends in a report issued last week.

But if Akesuk wants to, he may take nearly half a year just to think about it.That’s because Stanbury’s recommendations aren’t binding on Akesuk until after they are accepted by the Nunavut legislative assembly. The Integrity Act says MLAs may either accept or reject those recommendations, but not change them.

And since MLAs are taking a five-and-a-half month break in their legislative duties this year, the issue will be on ice for a while. The assembly’s first session ended June 3, and its second session won’t start until Nov. 16.

In his report, Stanbury confirmed that Akesuk violated the Integrity Act not once, but twice, when in 2003 and 2004 he failed to dislose a debt worth more than $10,000 owed to the Muncipality of Cape Dorset for back-rent on a social housing unit he once occupied.

Stanbury said the first violation, in 2003, deprived his constituents of “one means of judging the merit of his candidacy for re-election.”

Akesuk, who gets $120,000 a year plus other payments under the GN’s generous benefit and bonus system, is now having $300 deducted from his bank account every two weeks and sent to the Hamlet of Cape Dorset, which runs social housing in that community.

Premier Paul Okalik appears unconcerned about his minister’s transgression. Okalik’s press secretary, Bill Clay, said this week that Okalik will let MLAs handle Stanbury’s report.

In addition to the recommendation that Akesuk apologize at public meetings in Cape Dorset and Kimmirut, Stanbury also recommends that:

• Akesuk be reprimanded by the assembly;
• Akesuk make a statement in the legislative assembly, “apologizing to his peers, his constituents and all Nunavummiut;”
• Akesuk send a letter to all of his constituents acknowledging his wrongful conduct, apologizing for it, and promising not to do it again, and provide copies of Stanbury’s report to his constituents.

July 2, 2004

Ell joins Nunavut Economic Forum

The Nunavut Economic Forum has named Jerry Ell as its executive director.

Ell has previously served as president of the Baffin Regional Chambre of Commerce and the Nunavut Chambre of Commerce. He was also chair of the Amarok Hunters and Trappers Association and director of the NWT Development Corporation.

Ell will manage day-to-day affairs for the forum from an office in the Igluvut building in Iqaluit.

The NEF was formed in May of this year when representatives from nearly 40 groups — including Inuit organizations, chambres of commerce, the Nunavut Association of Municipalities, industry associations, labour, and government — met in Iqaluit during the annual trade show

July 2, 2004

Condom campaign returns to Nunavut

A strange advertising campaign designed to educate Inuit about the dangers of unsafe sex will make a comeback in Nunavut on Canada Day.

"When in heat, package your meat," is the new slogan designed by the Canadian Inuit HIV/AIDS Network for the Canada goose flavour in their Lifesaver condom covers series. The cardboard condom cases in the past have punned on country foods such as musk ox and walrus.

The condom covers are supposed to send "youth friendly, light-hearted messages," while promoting condom use across the North. The latest condoms will be available free in health centres in 53 northern communities on July 1.

July 2, 2004

NTI happy with election results

A Liberal minority government will make Ottawa more responsive to the needs of Inuit and other aboriginal people, and will ultimately be good for Nunavut, NTI president Paul Kaludjak said in a statement Tuesday.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has given "positive signals" that he plans to tackle Canada's aboriginal issues seriously, Kaludjak noted in his statement. Kaludjak expects that a minority government "improves the likelihood that those positive initial steps will be followed up with concrete steps to improve the lives of Inuit."

Kaludjak also congratulated Liberal MP Nancy Karetak-Lindell on her victory.

July 2, 2004

Belgium eyes seal ban

Belgium's cabinet has said yes to a proposed law that would ban the importation of seal products into that country.

Belgium's minister of trade, Fientje Moerman, brought a proposal to Belgium's cabinet in early June that would ban production and trade of any goods made from seals. Her fellow ministers approved the proposal.

The governments of Italy and the Netherlands are now consider similar bans.

Belgium is also looking at a law that would ban any trade in dog and cat fur. Italy, France and Denmark have already passed similar laws.

Belgium's current government is a coalition of French- and Flemish-speaking Liberal and Socialist parties.

July 2, 2004

Residential school alumni hold memorial

The Aboriginal Healing Foundation will hold a day of commemoration for former students of Canada's residential school system on Thursday, July 8, at a ceremony in Edmonton.

Two thousand former students, including many who say they were abused, are to meet at the Shaw Conference centre to share their experiences and hear about those of others.

Jose Kusugak, president of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami is to speak, along with other aboriginal leaders and Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.

TOP

Advertising
Specs, rates,
& maps
Multi-paper
buying services
About the market
E-mail ad dept

More Information