Your hosts: Lynn Desjardins, Levon Sevunts and Terry Haig. (Video of show at bottom.)
ListenPublic hearing on oil and gas development in eastern Arctic wrap up in Iqaluit
A polar bear stands on a ice flow in Baffin Bay above the arctic circle as seen from the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Louis S. St-Laurent on July 10, 2008. (Jonathan Hayward / The Canadian Press)
Public hearings on potential oil and gas development in the waters between Canada and western Greenland wrapped up in Canada’s northern territory of Nunavut this week.
There is ongoing moratorium on offshore oil and gas projects in the Canadian Arctic, but it expires in 2021 and Nunavut authorities are doing their homework to see whether they want that moratorium extended for another five years.
This latest meeting took place in Iqaluit, which is the capital of Canada’s Arctic territory of Nunavut. This was the last public hearing and was part of a strategic environmental assessment being conducted by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB).
The board will now prepare a report and a list of recommendations that will be presented to the federal government. The meeting heard from members of the public, various Inuit organizations and government agencies about potential oil and gas development in Baffin Bay and Davis Strait. It’s a long sliver of water that separates northeastern Canada and Greenland. And it’s one of the Arctic’s most productive marine environments.
The strategic environmental assessment will look at various scenarios of potential oil and gas activity in the region from exploration and development to full-scale production. And of course it will look at potential benefits and drawbacks for the affected Inuit communities and the marine environment they depend on for much of their food source.
For more Levon spoke with Chris Debicki, with Oceans North, it’s a marine conservation NGO.
Online hatred growing in Canada, warns rights advocate
The massacre at two mosques in New Zealand elicited sympathy but also online celebration by extremists. (Vincent Yu/AP Photo/file)
Last week’s attack on a mosque in New Zealand had particular resonance for Canadians. Last week a gunman stormed two mosques killing 50 people and injuring dozens more. Horrifying in and of itself, it also brought back memories of a similar attack in Quebec City in Canada. A gunman stormed a mosque there killing six people. He pleaded guilty to the crime and is now awaiting sentencing. There have been attacks on Muslims in other places around the world, prompting questions about the spread of hatred online. Canada is not exempt. To find out more about what’s going on here and the concern, Lynn spoke with Amira Elghawaby, a board member with the non-profit Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
Spring arrives in Canada, can more rain and snow be far behind?
Spring: the idealized version. Not what it looked like in Montreal. (Ian Black/CBC)
On Wednesday at 5.58 our time and describing himself as a good Canadian, Terry took it for what it was….kind of chilly and overcast but at least it wasn’t snowing. He found it to be very strange though, Yellowknife had its warmest temperatures ever and so did the lower mainland of British Columbia. For the rest of us, it was business as usual.
Now, since he didn’t grow up here, Terry says he never really learned the trick of pretending that the first day of spring was absolutely gorgeous or at the very least somehow finding spring in his heart. The actual weather always got the better of him. So he decided to call an old friend of ours, Dave Bronstetter, CBC legend and native Montrealer, thinking he might be able to supply the means to develop the needed suspension of disbelief.
Watch The Link!
Images of the week
For reasons beyond our control, and for an undetermined period of time, our comment section is now closed. However, our social networks remain open to your contributions.