magazine / mj04
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May/June 2004 issue |
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Reverberations
Inuk feedback
Having been born and raised in Bathurst Inlet and Umingmaktok, Nunavut, I read "The
road from Bathurst Inlet" (CG Mar/Apr
2004) with interest. I am against the road and port project. What really bothered
me was what Willie Adams and Charlie Lyall are quoted as saying. Who are they to say that
the people of Bathurst Inlet should support the project? What do they know about how the
residents live and where their food is coming from?
As an Inuk myself, I was brought up to hunt for my family; we have survived off the land.
I respect my relatives who are continuing this way of life in Bathurst Inlet and Umingmaktok
today. They are the ones teaching their children, grandchildren and future great-grandchildren
how to do the same. In communities across Nunavut, there are a lot of families who depend
on social assistance, living in prefab houses with running water and electricity. Mr. Adams
says, "Inuit don’t have pensions … [and] can’t live off the land." Just
look at the Kapolak family; they may not have pensions, but they sure know how to live
off the land in order to survive. As for Mr. Lyall’s comment, "We have no choice
but to make this project go," it’s really not up to him to decide. It’s
up to the people living in Bathurst Inlet and Umingmaktok.
I strongly agree that the people of Bathurst Inlet were not informed or consulted about
the project to begin with. Sure, the project would be good for the economy, but it would
hurt wildlife and the environment.
Mabel Aitauk
Oyakyoak Cambridge bay, Nunavut
Your article clearly epitomizes the problems associated with all aboriginal land claims.
It is no longer possible anywhere to live off the land, and the land involved in some of
the claims never did support human populations.
Special-interest groups that consider ecology more important than aboriginal survival
are really no more able to withstand commercial-development pressures over the long term
than the natives who technically own the land. They can delay things, but history is against
them. If there is anything to exploit, it will eventually be exploited. The best that aboriginals
can do is try not to be left out of a share of the spoils.
Allen Rose
Deep River, Ont.
The lack of communication and consultation by Charlie Lyall astounds me. He is too pushy
to be believed. Does he think a channel will be blasted down the inlet to the port? How
many Inuit are currently employed in mining activities throughout Nunavut and the Northwest
Territories? What is their remuneration?
Should this project continue, the food chain for Inuit and all wildlife would be put in
jeopardy and the calving grounds decimated. The proposed transformation of Bathurst Inlet
appears to be unrealistic and fraught with unforeseen complications. Furthermore, there
is no absolute assurance that mining will continue long enough to reap the necessary financial
rewards for the companies or employment for native peoples.
Virginia Webb
Ottawa
The sidebar "Mining in Nunavut" provides important information for those Inuit
leaders who believe that mining is the key to prosperity for their people. It states that
less than 10 percent of the jobs at the Polaris mine on Little Cornwallis Island were held
by Inuit. I am sure that previous Far North mining experiences (Rankin Inlet in the 1970s?)
would reveal similar trends. Why is the figure so low? Inuit need to objectively analyze
the reasons and take steps to correct them in the future.
I recommend that Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. spend part of its $1.1 billion land-claim settlement
on educating Inuit in how to operate mining equipment and large diesel engines and in geology,
chemistry, and business fundamentals, so that they understand and can participate meaningfully
in the coming development. Inuit say they don’t want to be there just to pick up
the mining companies’ garbage; this education could prepare them to become viable
partners with the mine owners.
Gary Melberg
Flanders Lake, Man.
This "barren" land is an amazing and unique ecosystem that sees life in the
harshest of environments, and the beauty of Wilberforce Falls in the midnight sun is like
nothing else on Earth. I ask at what point should development give way to maintenance of
this natural beauty? Although your publication focuses on the geographic treasures of this
country, I didn’t see much weight given to the intrinsic value of this environment,
only human value on what can be obtained from it. The people of this area have been here
for thousands of years — who better to be a judge of what the area should be, not what
Southern ideals want it to be?
Robert Warburton
Wainwright, Alta.
Acadians had a choice
While the British deportation of Acadians is tragic ("Culture quest," CG Mar/Apr
2004), they at least had the choice to pack up and leave. The French, on the other
hand, set out to pillage, loot, burn and murder hundreds of English settlers in 1696-97.
The grand murderer, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, led his troops throughout this
slaughter in the Maritimes. No choice was given to the English to pack up and leave!
More than 200 English settlers were murdered on the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland alone.
After the defeat of the French on the Plains of Abraham in 1759, the English felt they
could not tolerate a potentially hostile group of thousands of French settlers in their
midst unless they agreed to take the oath of allegiance to England.
The settlers refused, thus deportation rather than wholesale murder. Years later, Acadian
descendants were able to return. The English decedents have no descendants.
Your article reads like a "poor us" scenario, with a "sadness of a people
who know that life is unfair." That is pathetic! What is even more pathetic is that
d’Iberville is being honoured this year as part of the 500th anniversary of "French
Heritage," with the federal government donating $200,000 for the job. Pretty sad!
By the way, I’m a descendant of French Huguenots, but that’s another story.
Leo J. de Bruin
Victoria
One really needs to clarify the deported Acadians’ refusal "to swear an unqualified
oath of allegiance to the British Crown." The Roman Catholic Acadians could not take
an oath to the British king, because in those times, the oath signified allegiance to the
Anglican Church as well. All the history books I’ve seen have omitted this detail,
leaving an impression that the Acadians were not willing to adhere to the laws of their
new conquerors.
Therese Lefebvre Prince
Yorkton, Sask.
Shark strategies
I enjoyed the story on the Greenland sharks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ("Underwater
quest," CG Mar/Apr 2004). However, I must take
exception to a point raised in the article. All sharks, rays and skates have high levels
of both urea and trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) in their blood and body fluids. This is not
to protect these animals against freezing but, rather, dehydration. Salt concentration
in sea water is about three- to fourfold higher than is found in body fluids. Consequently,
any animal living in sea water will lose water, via an osmotic gradient, across any part
of the body exposed to the environment. Gills tend to have a surface area many times greater
than body surface area, therefore water loss across these structures would be enormous.
Gills can’t be rendered waterproof, since that would destroy the gas-exchange surface.
Sharks and rays have evolved the strategy of raising blood urea to levels such that there
isn’t an osmotic gradient and consequently no water loss.
There still is a salt influx, so the animals also have a rectal gland that excretes salt
via the anal opening. Shark kidneys, like other fish kidneys — and unlike mammalian kidneys — are
incapable of conserving water, so that route is not available. Other fish have evolved
a different strategy to deal with this problem.
As for the toxicity problem, it may be attributable to the TMAO or the urea or both, but
it must be pointed out that the dogfish shark has been used for fish and chips in England
for a long period of time. Quite possibly, it is the method of preparation that renders
the toxic compounds harmless.
John Bailey
Biology Department, Mount Allison University
Sackville, N.B.
Schoolyard memories
My memories of skating in Ottawa ("The Nigerian Rocket," CG Mar/Apr
2004) go much further back, decades before yours of Rocket Richard, to when my dad
strapped double runners onto my boots. About 1921 it was, and every school in Ottawa
had its outdoor rink. Ours was at Hopewell Avenue School in Ottawa South and was used
mostly for skating. The older boys got to scrape and re-flood the rink on Friday afternoons,
while the rest of us looked longingly out the window. What wonderful times we had, sometimes
skating there after dark with only the distant street lights adding to the magic. The
last time I visited, in September 2002, the whole schoolyard was shut off with locked
chain-link fences. What has happened in the past 80 years?
Billie Burgess
Bowser, B.C.
Living history
I read "Walking the line" (CG Mar/Apr 2004)
with great interest. My family and I covered this route many times in the 1990s, taking
part in the Boundary Commission/North West Mounted Police Commemorative WagonTrain and
Trail Ride.
It was a great history lesson for us, as we had never travelled along the very southern
part of the provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. There truly is "a story
for every mile," as Ben Kroeker wrote in his book, Drawing the Line about
the surveying of the forty-ninth parallel between 1872 and 1876.
Anyone who has travelled across Saskatchewan on Highway 1 has missed the changing scene
of this great province. So much history is still out there to be recorded by anyone who
is interested enough to rough it a little. My biggest fear is that if my generation does
nothing to preserve this history, it will be lost to all future generations.
Michael Bartolf
Oxbow, Sask.
Holocaust victims
Re "Material witness" (CG Jan/Feb 2004),
I think it is important to record and preserve records and evidence. It is also important
that they be presented fully. I have not been to the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Museum,
so I don’t know if this apparent oversight is yours or the museum’s: the Holocaust
victimized more than Jews. The perpetrators of the horror also targeted and exterminated
homosexuals, gypsies and Jehovah’s Witnesses. I don’t know who else. I would
not be surprised by an even longer list. This aspect of the Holocaust is important and
needs to be included in the historic records and popular presentations about the Holocaust.
Louis Taber
Tucson, Ariz.
Backyard birding
We commend you for your look at the importance of the majestic boreal forest "The
singing forest" (CG Jan/Feb 2004). We have
to agree with Candace Savage that clear-cuts are not necessarily a boon to white-throats.
Four years ago, we had to cut the brushy vegetation at the back of our lodge to accommodate
a septic tank and cistern, and it took three years for our dear spring singers, the white-throats,
to reappear. Even then, while we saw the odd one here and there, they did not come back
in full force until our bushes had grown in and cover was provided for their protection.
Kathy Berumen
Michel Lodge
Doré Lake, Sask.
Polar visitors
Re "Grizzlies on ice," (CG Nov/Dec 2003),
I am the Commanding Officer of USS Honolulu, a fast-attack submarine that recently made
a four-day stop in Victoria, after spending September and October above the Arctic Circle.
Honolulu conducted military and scientific testing in the Arctic and surfaced four times
in the ice pack.
On pulling into Victoria, I grabbed a copy of your magazine and was fascinated by the
article on the overlapping territories of the grizzly and the polar bear. The timing was
perfect, as Honolulu was visited by three polar bears during one extended period on the
ice. A mother and her two adolescent cubs (probably about 110 kilograms each) came from
directly downwind after we had been on the surface for about 20 hours and milled around
the submarine, which I’m sure they considered some unique seal carrier.
What was interesting was the location of our encounter compared with your map depicting
the range of the polar bear, which shows the animal in all areas of the Arctic except for
a circle roughly 800 kilometres from the North Pole. I assumed the same range before going
up to this region, but Honolulu was only about 450 kilometres from the North Pole when
we saw the polar bears and approximately 800 kilometres from Greenland, the closest land.
And all three appeared to be very healthy. I thought this piece of information might add
to your readers’ understanding of the wide range of these phenomenal animals.
Chuck Harris
Commanding Officer
USS Honolulu
REVERBERATIONS ONLINE!
I am writing about your article “The Road from Bathurst Inlet” (CG March/April
04). I found the tone of the article disturbing, in particular statements about Charlie
Lyall, the Inuit President for the Kitikmeot Corporation, and Nunavut Senator Willy Adams.
I quote several examples from the article concerning a meeting in Bathurst Inlet with Inuit
leaders and members of Ottawa-based Canadian Arctic Resources Committee.
Page 52: Lyall "raring to have at critics of his project…he refused to engage on the environmental
issues they were raising and devoted himself to baiting them."
Page 54: You quote Lyall as stating "Inuit have always been environmentalists" and you added "spare
us the sermon."
You also stated that "Adams managed to insult them all."
The article contained beautiful pictures of Bathurst Inlet, but was marred by your insensitive
statements. I suggest that you apologize to those Inuit leaders.
Dr. Marie Sanderson
Environmental Adaptation Research Group
University of Toronto
Toronto, Ont.
P.S. I wonder if you will publish this letter!
I just finished reading Dane Lanken’s article "Northern Threads" (CG Jan/Feb
04), a truly wonderful story on Inuit clothes-making. The black and white photos
by Karim Rholem are outstanding and the quotations by the individuals kind enough to
pose for them are wonderfully revealing.
Henry Swiech
Ottawa, Ont.
The present Hagwilget Bridge, built about 1930, did not replace the aboriginal bridge
("Vanishing B.C.", Nov/Dec 03). An earlier suspension bridge
was built across the canyon very close to the present site, which replaced the aboriginal
bridge. It was condemned after the cables corroded where they entered the anchors.
The current bridge was shipped about 120 kilometres up the Bulkley River and recycled into
a foot bridge to serve the CNR station and the small community of Walcott. It is still in
service.
Charles Low
Surrey, B.C.
I have long struggled with the issue of natural destruction and the way we have of making
it sound as if it is our fault. In the Discovery section (CG Jan/Feb
2004), the story of Hurricane Juan’s fury is one such case. How can people glory
at one of nature’s sunsets and be moved to tears when she downs a tree? The exact
same forces are at work. A tree does not last forever, sooner or later it dies, and we
must accept it for what it is - natural.
I wonder if we could save money and let nature refurbish herself as she has for millions
of years. Personally, I prefer the way she does it anyway.
David Jackson
Richmond Hill, Ont.
I would like to point out what I consider a minor error on a map in "Life’s impressions" (À la
carte, CG Jan/Feb 04). The location of the Gunflint
chert along the north shore of Lake Superior is misplaced by approximately 0.7 centimetres
to the northeast. It should be centred in the Thunder Bay area to the southwest. The
location of the existing dot shows a small purplish area indicative of the Proterozoic
aged rock. This is not the case. Rather, it contains rocks that would be classified as
intrusive. I point this out for interested parties who may visit the area only to find
rocks that are much older (Archean igneous and metamorphic rocks) and contain no fossil
record.
Kevin Sheppard
Aggregate Resource Information Officer
Ministry of Transportation (Geotechnical Section)
Thunder Bay, Ont.
The article on the Ediacarans ("Stone diaries," CG Jan/Feb
04), especially the photograph on page 55, tweaked my memory of something I found
on Baffin Island in August 1984. Until I read the article in Canadian Geographic, I always
assumed that the fossil I found on the bank of an unnamed river on the Great Plain of
the Koukdjuak was a species of fern. However, the map shown on pages 58 & 59 indicates
that the sedimentary rock in this area of Baffin Island is of an age that predates the
ancient ferns.
Our fish camp on the river was at 65° 55’ N, 73° 11’ W (see NTS Map 36
H). The fossil was found a short walk along the riverbank from the camp. An aerial view of
the river’s geology is also included and I apologize for its poor quality. It was damaged
by salt water when we crashed our helicopter into the ocean off southern Baffin Island in
September 1984.
Lionel Bernier
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Dr. Narbonne’s response: It is always difficult to positively identify
a fossil from a photograph, but I believe that you are correct that it is an invertebrate
rather than a fern. It seems most likely to me that it is an endoceratoid cephalopod, and
extinct group of armoured squid-like creatures that swarmed in the Ordovician seas. Most
were less than 50 cm long, but some reached sizes of up to 10 m long and were the "top
carnivores" of the Ordovician seas.
"Stone diaries" was very disappointing in it lack of objectivity. It contained many things
that are in the realm of opinion, theory or even wishful thinking, which were treated as
scientific fact. It seems the goal is to find the "holy grail" for the religion of evolution
rather than to objectively search fossils. Are people being chased away because they may
have different assumptions of the validity of the evolution model? The time line is speculation
and opinion, not science. A scientific fact must be repeatable, observable and testable.
Any part of the theory of evolution cannot be treated as a fact but only conjecture. Is
Canadian Geographic so concerned about being trendy that it will suppress any possibility
that evolution may not be the best model to fit the known facts and the fossil evidence?
Gay Caswell
Brabant Lake, Sask.
The article "Grizzlies on ice" (CG Nov/Dev 2003) really caught my eye. The topic of polar
and grizzly bears being affected by warmer climates was brought up, and I agree that this
issue will plague these populations in northern Canada for years to come. If no forward
action commences to resolve the greenhouse effect issues, the population of polar bears
and other species will decrease to numbers that make population growth near impossible.
Brennan Dubord
Kanata, Ont.
I was astonished to read in Allen Abel’s otherwise fine article ("Underground Toronto" CG Jan/Feb
2004) that he considers Toronto a "cold, flat city." Perhaps he needs to walk, instead
of riding the subway. Then, he might notice that many people are friendly if approached.
The weather is exhilarating if one walks and, most importantly, Toronto sits at the mouth
of three rivers (the Humber, the Don and the Rouge] which cause significant ravines southward
through this metropolis. Witness, for example, the high span of the Bloor Viaduct. Further,
Davenport Road is the shoreline of Lake Iroquois and is approximately 200 feet above
Lake Ontario.
Knox M. Henry
Toronto, Ont.
As I read "Kindred Spirits" (CG Nov/Dec 2003),
the article on large families, I understood so many of the sentiments the families expressed.
With the birth of our twins, I realized that we had four children under the age of two.
Our family continued to grow. We had eight children with 10 years. The baby of the family
came 12 years later.
My husband, Fred, and I raised our family on a farm in rural New Brunswick. Now our family
includes 17 grandchildren. This photo was taken at the wedding of our youngest son, this
past summer.
Winnie Wilson,
West Branch, N.B.
We were a bit startled to find on page 73 of the November/December
2003 issue a face
we had seen before ("Islands of the stone devils").
As the local chairman for the Fort St. John/North Peace Museum in B.C., we had, for many
years, a very old tree carving of a similar face. The tree carving originated from the Tumbler
Ridge area, in north-eastern British Columbia, and is also featured in Michael D. Blackstock’s
Faces in the Forest.
We are very interested in the similarities our B.C. tree carving has to your petroglyph on
Qajartalik Island in Nunavik. Our tree carving was donated by our museum to the newly opened
Tumbler Ridge Museum in the summer of 2003. We felt that this was the right thing to do because
the carving would be as close to its original location as possible and protected from destruction
at the same time.
Larry Evans
Fort St. John, B.C.
The Doukhobors did not disband ("Vanishing British Columbia" CG Nov/Dec
03). The Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood - in 1938, the largest communal
enterprise in North America - was brought to its knees by Crown Mortgage, Sun Life Assurance
and the Canadian Imperial Bank, when its mortgages were foreclosed during the Depression.
There are many excellent brick "doms" surviving as private homes.
Land was purchased in B.C. after the Dominion government reneged on the land blocs guaranteed
in the Northwest Territories (originally settled in Assinaboia and the Northwest Territories,
not Saskatchewan) and more than 600,000 acres were seized, creating the biggest land rush
in the West.
Every village had a barn and two cows as the vegetarians needed butter, cream and eggs for
many of their dishes, and they required milk for their children.
Readers wishing to know more about Doukhobors’ sojourn in British Columbia should visit
the Doukhobor Village Museum in Castlegar, site of the original settlement, or look at our
web site: kics.bc.ca/doukhobormuseum.
Larry A. Ewashen,
Curator
Doukhobor Village Museum
Castlegar, B.C.
My letter is regarding Doug Shaigec’s concern about the Windsor-Detroit border
crossing (Reverberations, CG Nov/Dec). I would like
Mr. Shaigec and the citizens of the Detroit-Windsor area to know that it is possible for
a rail tunnel to be used for regular or trucking traffic.
A few years ago I was visiting a friend in Anchorage, Alaska who suggested we go to Whittier,
Alaska. Whittier was originally an army base, accessible only by ship or plane. Over time,
a rail line was blasted through the base of the mountain. This enabled year round access
to Whittier. Now the bed of the tracts is built up, like at a typical train/traffic intersection,
to also permit traffic flow.
The train has overall priority through the tunnel. Then one-way traffic is allowed through.
I was very impressed with the overall design of the tunnel as well as the coordination of
traffic flow.
Renee Shaw
Camrose, Alta.
The "Windsor’s border blues" (CG Sept/Oct 2003)
article brought back fond memories of the 1960s Windsor border tunnel and Brigg’s
Stadium.
As a sales representative I travelled to Windsor several times a year. Being a baseball nut,
I had to go to Tiger games. This was the routine several of us followed. Drive the car from
the hotel to the Canadian side of the tunnel and park as close as possible. Take the bus
through the tunnel to the terminal in downtown Detroit and walk to Brigg’s Stadium.
Buy tickets for the upper deck, first base side. (The best seats, I say.) After the games,
walk back to the bus terminal and take the bus back to Canada. Those were the days.
Norman B. Fraser
Toronto, Ontario
I enjoyed the article about the Hedley Mascot Gold Mine (CG Sept/Oct
2003). As a youngster, I lived at the Nickel Plate Mine in the 1940s. When the Mascot
closed, my brother and I and a few adventuresome friends would hike the short distance
from the Nickel Plate to the Mascot mine. From the end of the road there were approximately
700 stairs down the cliff face to the old buildings.
It’s great that these old buildings are being protected.
Murray Brown
Richmond, BC
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