Your hosts, Lynn, Levon, Marie Claude, Marc (scroll to bottom for video of show)
ListenThe Friendly International Dispute Over an Arctic Island
View of Hans Island located in the centre of the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait, which separates Ellesmere Island from northern Greenland. (Photo courtesy of Michael Byers)
It’s a very small island in the middle of the Arctic ocean. Trouble is it’s smack dab in the middle of the maritime boundary separating Greenland, i.e. Denmark, and Canada.
Small, barren and uninhabited, both countries claim it, and have done so for years. Now both Canada and Denmark/Greenland have decided to establish a task force to resolve this friendly dispute. Levon speaks to Canadian Arctic expert Michael Byers who says the longstanding dispute seems to come back in the news whenever a national election looms, but says the island dispute should be very easy to resolve.
Canada’s (almost) Official Bird- gets its real name back
The Canada Jay is not shy and will land right on your camera even without the temptation of food. (Gord Belyea)
Canada, like many countries, has an official animal, the beaver and even a second official animal , the Canadian horse,. In fact, Canada, and each province, like many countries and states, also have official animals, trees, or other plants, and birds.
Canada so far hasn’t named an official national bird, although the Royal Canadian Geographical Society held a nation wide contest and the grey jay won. Except, it really shouldn’t be called the grey jay. A long standing effort to recover the bird’s real name has finally born fruit.
Lynn spoke with ornithological expert David Bird about the re-naming of the “Canada Jay”.
U.S. to withdraw from Joint Comphensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran nuclear deal
Several world leaders and top government officials including John Kerry of the US and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif are shown in 2015 announcing the deal worked out to end Iran’s nuclear weapons programme for at least a decade. Source: CBC news
Two weeks ago, U.S. President Trump announced the country was withdrawing from the JCPOA saying it was a bad deal and did not go nearly far enough in limiting Iran’s nuclear weapons development goals and capability. That would mean the re-imposition of harsh sanctions.
Iran would like to keep the deal to avoid such sanctions and has expressed willingness to re-negotiate although with an underlying threat that it might restart its uranium enrichment efforts if a deal isn’t reached quickly.
Most other countries, including Canada, expressed dismay at the U.S decision. In this excerpt, international affairs expert Ferry de Kerckhove from the University of Ottawa says Canada’s opinion carries little influence but agrees the U.S decision is ill considered.
Lobsters and Snow Leopards
Marie-Claude is back from a trip to the Maritime province of New Brunswick and show photos of her experience with lobsters and a lobster recipe, and we have a brief look at Lynn’s story along with the cutest photo of baby snow leopards born in the Winnipeg Zoo.
Images of the week
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