The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - On Top Of The World

Episode Date: August 24, 2021

We may not be at the North Pole but in some ways we are at the top of the world. Grise Fjord Nunavut is Canada’s most northerly residential community. It’s an exciting place but one with a difficult history. I bump into an old friend who helps me tell it. And on our election update, they say leaders tours and television ads can make a difference in a campaign. How about lawn signs? You may be surprised.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here once again. You are just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge, where today we are on top of the world. All right. Okay, so occasionally I am prone to exaggeration. And this perhaps is one of those days. When we signed on, I said we were on top of the world for this edition of The Bridge. Well, we're kind of on top of the world in terms of the most northern community in Canada. We're in Grease Fjord in Nunavut. But on top of the world, not quite. You know, we are, I don't know, about 800 miles. They still use miles sometimes to determine things.

About 800 miles from the North Pole. So we're not really on top of the world but we're as close to it as you can get in terms of a residential community you know there are bases north of here like Alert, Eureka but they're weather or military installations people don't actually live there year-round all the time. They're sort of moved in and out. Here in Greasefjord, they live here year-round. And that's part of the story we're going to tell today because it's an interesting story.

There's excitement on one hand, and there's history on the other hand. And it's not all pretty. So we're going to talk about that. But let me tell you a little bit about grease fjord first of all i can tell you this thing you know being in the community for a little over 24 hours not one person not one person asked me about the election in fact on this whole trip so far nobody's asked me about the election. They've got other things on their mind, front of mind. They've got, in some cases, what's been a, well,

a back and forth summer in terms of weather, but it's been warm. Climate change is still a player, very much a player in the minds of many of those who live in Canada's Arctic. Arctic sovereignty is another issue. We'll deal a little bit with both of those today. But I want you to know, nobody's talking about the election. It never came up. Now, of course, I know that in huge chunks of southern Canada,

it's a major discussion point, especially by the partisans and the Twitterati. But up here, and I would suggest in many places in Canada that are still enjoying the summer, the election is not yet front of mind. It will be. It very well will be. But not quite yet front of mind. It will be. It very well will be. But not quite yet. All right. Talk to me about

Grease Fjord, you say. And I'll tell you a few things. First of all, perhaps the most important, that is kind of in line with the news of the last year and a half, Grease Fjord's in a COVID bubble. Not one case has existed in Greasefjord since the pandemic began.

So they're pretty happy about that. Now, Greasefjord's not a big community. We're talking, I don't know, 130, 140 max. That's the number of people who live in Greece Fjord. So the bubble has been a very protective one. Greece Fjord, in terms of its Inuit name, in Inuktitut, it means the place that never thaws. Well, they better start thinking of a new name in Inuktitut.

Because there's been a lot of thawing. It still gets brutally cold here. The average annual temperature for the year, for the year, is like minus 16, minus 17 degrees Celsius. Now, it wasn't that during the time I spent in Greece Fjord in the last 24, 36 hours. It was closer to 2, 3, 4 degrees. Outright balmy.

Beautiful blue sky., spectacular scenery. But it's a cold place. But there's been a lot of thawing. The ice goes out earlier in the year, comes back in later in the year. So things have changed. The climate is changing. And all the things that go with that. Warmer seas, different species in the sea, less ice, affecting the migratory pattern of things like the caribou. So the place that never thaws,

you know, that may not be the right name anymore. As I said, the most northern community in Canada. How far north? Well, think of it this way. They're actually closer to Greenland than to get outside of the Arctic Circle. Right? They're well positioned of the Arctic Circle. Right?

They're well positioned inside the Arctic Circle. But it takes as long to get out of the Arctic Circle as it does to get to Greenland. If you're flying, it takes about the same amount of time to fly from here to Resolute, which would be the nearest kind of built-up community, as it would take to fly to Greenland.

About an hour and a half, two hours. So that again shows you, positions you as to where Grease Fjord is and just how far north it is. Speaking of flying, it has one of the shortest runways in Canada to the extent that it's the kind of aircraft, like a twin otter, is the only kind of plane that can fly in here because it doesn't need much room to land or to take off. And you got to kind of sneak in between, you know, a short mountain range to get in here.

So you need good visibility and good weather and a good pilot because you literally have to sneak in here. So you need good visibility and good weather and a good pilot. Because you literally have to sneak in and when you're taking off, you got to sort of take off and turn right almost immediately when you're heading southwards anyway on the runway. But there's short runway. So it's no easy land.

This is a big week in Greece Fjord because it's the first week back at school. And you're saying to yourself, school? They only got 130 people in the whole town, the whole community, the whole hamlet. That's what it is, the hamlet of Greece Fjord. But listen to this. Their school, with four teachers, four and a half really, if you count the teaching assistant, has everything from kindergarten to grade 12.

Now, you may say, that's spoiling that community. You know what? It isn't. When you think of the number of communities in Canada, especially Indigenous communities, where the kids were taken out of their homes to go to residential schools, in some cases, hundreds of miles, thousands of miles, away from where they lived with their parents, from their families. That's not happening in Greece Fjord. It's not happening anymore.

It used to happen. But it doesn't happen now. There is a school, as I said, from K to 12, four teachers, and some kind of interesting stuff. Yesterday, I met one of the star candidates, star students, David Watsko. David, young Inuit kid, graduated last year, grade 12. The only student in his class. Okay?

The only kid in his class. He graduated. And he's very proud of that, as he should be. And we talked about what his dreams are now. He wants to go to college in Iqaluit. He's waiting to find out whether he's going to be accepted this fall. But he loves his hamlet.

He loves Gris Fjord. He wants to go out and get better training in different areas at college. But he loves his town. And he'll want to come back here if he can get to college. The teachers are dedicated. I met one. She came here from Poland 13 years ago. I had no idea what she'd be getting herself into. Could barely find Greasefjord on a map when she came here. That was 13 years ago. She loves it in Greasefjord.

There are two nurses. Now, the nurses aren't here full time. They come up from Arctic Bay, which is further south. And they're on a kind of rotation I think four to six weeks at a time with other nurses but it's a dedication to the community that they have that kind of health care they have that kind of education they have a little airport only gets flights are regular only twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays. Very expensive to move in goods by air or people by air.

Tickets cost a lot of money. Most of the goods that supply Greece Fjord come in on the sea lift twice a year. And they bring everything. You know, from milk to potato chips. And that's where subsidies play. The government of Canada subsidizes certain goods that move into the Arctic. So milk is a deal, huge subsidy on milk. Where's there no subsidy? Goods and materials that are not healthy. So don't look for a

deal on chocolate bars or soft drinks or doughnuts or know, anything like that. That's where you're paying the full freight. And it is significant. It costs a lot of money to live that way in Canada's north, whether you're in Greasefjord or Iqaluit or Pond Inlet or wherever it may be. Well, that's one side of the story of Greece Fjord. But you say, Peter, why is there a Greece Fjord?

How did that happen? Well, I'm going to tell you how it happened. And for that, this is a little bit of a history lesson. And it's important, you know, some of you may know this, but many of you don't. And you should know it, because it's a part of our history, a part of our history, a part of Canadian history, a part that we're not exactly proud of, nor should we be proud of.

You go back to a meeting that was held in October of 1952 in Ottawa by something called, this is what it was called, the Special Committee on Eskimo Affairs. Okay, now, try to imagine this. They're sitting in a committee room in Ottawa. I imagine probably in the center block. The one with the Peace Tower. One of those committee rooms.

The meeting included members of the Department of Resources and Development, the Department of National Health and Welfare, the RCMP, the Hudson's Bay Company, clergy members, including the Bishop of the Arctic at that time. Now, according to the minutes of this meeting, and I'm quoting here from the minutes, consideration was given to the possibility of assisting natives to move from overpopulated areas to places where they could more readily obtain a living. Okay? This little group of, I'm assuming, all white, likely all men given that year, 52,

this group sit there and they decide that they should consider the possibility of assisting natives to move from overpopulated areas to places where they could more readily obtain a living, including Ellesmere Island. Ellesmere Island is where Grease Fjord is. Now that sort of sounds like, oh, well, they were there to assist natives. They must have wanted to move. No, that's not what happened. That's the way the minutes recorded it. Here's the story that's been pieced together by,

among others, Larry Aulalouk, who lives in Gris Fjord. In 1953, he was just three years old. He lived in northern Quebec. And one day he came home in his community of Inujuac in northern Quebec to find out from his mother and father that their family and six other families from Inujuac

were being pressured. and there's no other way of putting it, were being pressured by the RCMP, no less, to move away from the home that they and their parents and grandparents and great-grandparents had come from to go much further north to a place they'd never heard of, knew nothing about, on Ellesmere Island. And what was this all about? It was all about sovereignty.

The Canadian government had decided that there was this huge piece of land, Ellesmere Island and a number of other islands in the Arctic, where nobody lived. It was kind of a no man's land. And to put the flag up, put a human flagpole, if you will, up on Ellesmere and Cornwallis Island and other places, they would have to create communities.

And gosh, who better to create communities with than Inuit? That's how Larry and his family ended up coming to the area of Grease Fjord. Others went to Resolute. But it was a small group who came. They were pressured, as I said. The RCMP came knocking on the door time and time and time again, suggesting this would be a really good move for you. And we promise you, if you don't like it, we'll bring you back.

And there'll be homes there for you. And there'll be boats there for you to fish and hunt. We promise you. And if you ever want to come back, they would say over and over and over again, we'll bring you back. So finally, the pressure started to work.

They kept saying, you know, your friends want to go. They're going to go. You should go. Well, it turned out they found out later that their friends were being told the same thing about them. Larry's family wants to go. You should go. Anyway, in the end, they decided to go. And they went on a ship, a boat.

The C.D. Howe was a Coast Guard ship. They all got on it. They were all friends. All they were told was they were going to this community. They were all beat together. They get halfway there, a little more than halfway. They get to Resolute. And the Mounties say, okay, half of you getting off here.

That was the first Larry and his family found out that their best friends were not going to be with them anymore. They got off at Resolute. Larry and his family kept going. They got to a place near present day Grease Fjord. There was nothing. There were no homes. There were no boats. There was nothing.

They were given tents. tents to live in, in a place that today averages minus 18 every day for the year. And obviously, it gets much, much, much colder in the winter. That's how Grease Fjord started. That's the story of the Hamlet of Greece Fjord. Now, Larry Adeluk has written a book, What I Remember, What I Know, The Life of a High Arctic Exile. He's a remarkable guy, Larry. I. The life of a high Arctic exile.

He's a remarkable guy, Larry. I've known him for a while. He went to residential school in Churchill, Manitoba, right around the time that I started working for the CBC in Churchill. But I first really met Larry six years ago. You remember a program we did on the CBC called Face to Face? It was right after Justin Trudeau became prime minister. We brought 10 Canadians from different parts of the country into Ottawa.

I got agreement from the prime minister to bring them one at a time into his office. All he knew was their name and where they came from. He didn't know what issue they wanted to confront him on. And they each got 10 minutes alone with the prime minister in the prime minister's office. I mean, alone, he had no advisors or, you advisors or political hacks with him. He was alone. We had camera crew in there. That's it. But it was Larry and the prime minister, and it was nine other people and the prime minister for their 10 minutes. Now, Trudeau had the luxury of this being, he was only a month or so into his term. So he was able to say, I'm listening. I'm going to act on your concerns if I agree with them.

And most of them he agreed with. Some of them he didn't agree with and explained why. But Larry Graham went in there and went after him on climate change. And why nothing was really happening. Well, one of the first people I met when I arrived in Grease Fjord and we came in on the Arctic patrol vessel, the Royal Canadian Navy's HMCS Harry DeWolf and took a landing craft. I told you about that experience on yesterday's podcast.

We do that every day wherever we go. When I got off the landing craft and hit the beach, one of the first people I met was Larry. He was standing there, reminding me of the time we'd spent together that day in Ottawa six years before. I said, Larry, it's great to see you. He said, I want you to see the monument that we have here. To those people, those pioneers, like his parents, who came in 1953 to what is now Greece Fjord. And we went up and looked at it.

It's a beautiful monument. It's a sculpture, actually, made by the Greece Fjord resident and artist, Luti Pajamani. It's quite striking of a woman and a child and a dog. And it overlooks Greece Fjord and looks out onto the waters of the Arctic Ocean. Well, we sat down right there and I said Larry I want to hear your story again and so here's our conversation

sitting with I guess it's fair to say, he's my friend, Larry Adlerduck. Here's what he had to say when we had our chat. Larry, take me back to 1953. I know you were only three years old, but what do you remember? What have you learned about that time?

I learned about how dark it was. I learned about living with just mom and my brothers and sisters and very few people. And I remember the high mountains when I go outside in the summer and spring. And I realized they were really high. And I realized even today it was truly high up when you're looking at the top from the bottom. How hard was it? How hard was life? It was very hard for my family and parents.

Being just a child, you know, I didn't know any better. I thought that's the way life was, but it turns out it was not. When I started going to school, I realized I was truly living in an isolated place, you know, like when I started going to school in Fort Churchill when I was 13. And I guess, well, I lost two friends when I was seven years old from a fishing accident when we were trying to find scarpins. That's all we have for fishing. And being in the dark, that was something even today, I could never forget how dark it was.

And my mother talking about she can't get used to it, you know. Well, that was part of the issue, right? They were forced to come here, your family and other families, were forced to come here with no real explanation of why. No, that's true. And the attitude of non-Inuit, most of them were very scary for many Inuit people at the time. You know, if they would say, do this, do that, most Inuit would, without hesitation, you know, follow their orders, you know.

So when the RCMP was the government representative in the Inuktitut, I started asking for, we call them, they call them recruits, to go for two-year projects. That was their project. But us, we were just part of that little pond and the chessboard, you know. So no explanation. And what happened when your mother and your father, when he was still alive, said,

hey, this isn't working, we want to go back? The government, which was RCMP at the time, said no. And they will keep doing that for nine years that we were. At the first spot, we got dropped off, and they kept saying no until 1994. That's what, 30 years? 40 years. 40 years. And then you had the opportunity. You could have gone back but you didn't want to go back by then I watched some families move in the past

I had one of my older brothers move earlier than the last group and I seen their children not adjust well so when the opportunity came the last time it came, I told my families here, I said, don't go.

Your kids have to adjust, you have to adjust. And they didn't listen, of course. You can't blame them. After 1953, and after 40 years, why not? So they decided to go. But the cost was tremendous for the children. Well, the reasoning became clear later on that it was all about Arctic sovereignty. It was about placing people on this island, Ellesmere Island, to kind of show the Canadian flag, show that we existed as a country on this island.

Does that make sense to you? I see the argument of what they were trying to do, but the biggest mistake in that is communication did not exist. If they had told us honestly, I'm sure there would have been people who would have been willing to come up. If they had done the paperwork properly with agreements that two years you will be taken home. It was all verbal. My mother used to say it and she would be very angry to no one. There's nobody to talk to except me. I'm just three years old, four years old, listening to my mother. She used the word, I thought, a lot at that time.

I thought we were given two-year promise to take us up here. But there's nothing to eat from the store. We're out of the basic stuff like flour and sugar and tea. And she would start saying, what is this? What am I doing here? There's nothing. And she'd start saying, what is this? What am I doing here? There's nothing. And she'd get very angry. And there's just me and her at times, you know, when it's just like that.

And so I know about the broken promises right from the beginning. Well, they finally made good in, what, 2010? With an apology? They made good with apology and to recognize what they did and promise not to ever do it again. But the story must be told that it should not be repeated. And our big argument now is okay, so we're up here, we're home, we're proud Canadians, but why is it so expensive? And they keep saying the cost of living is expensive, as if the government can't do anything about it. They should be made to recognize we cannot live without subsidy. Not like Eureka or Alert, which is a military and weather station,

scientific community in Resolute, from the government. They get subsidies. Big time. I don't think they ever pay money for their steaks on Friday night, you know, as an example. But now, in fairness, you do get subsidy on fuel. You get some subsidy on certain foods. Yeah.

But you want more of a kind of 100% subsidy. We want to be equal, truly equal Canadians. We want to have everything that our fellow Canadians, what my taxpayers pay for. That's what I want. I want to be 100% truly Canadian with equal rights, including infrastructure. That's the biggest lacking, infrastructure. Larry, it's good to talk to you again.

You too. And until the next time. Yes. Larry Audlelouk. Now, Larry wrote this book, right? I want to tell you about it in case you want to get a copy of it, because it's a great read. It's a difficult read in terms of our history, our history,

but it's an easy read. Larry's a good writer, and it's easy to follow the story. It's called What I Remember, What I Know, The Life of a High Arctic Axe Saw by Larry Aoudloulouk. Now, I don't know whether you go to Indigo or go on Amazon or however you find your books. It's your small independent bookstore. Have a look.

If you have a problem with all of that, it's published by Inhabit Media Inc. And you can go online and find them, and I'm sure you can order the book that way. They're based in both Iqaluit and Toronto. Inhabit Media, one word, inhabitmedia.com. All right. Larry Audleluk, A-U-D-L-A-L-U-K.

So if you want to get that book, that's how you get it. It's been a long time since 1953, and the difficulties that were incurred as a result of the decisions that were made by the Canadian government and a variety of different departments, the church, the bay, Hudson's Bay Company, the RCMP. Now, an apology, as I mentioned, and a settlement were made in 2010, Prime Minister Harper's government. And that has helped, obviously, in terms of some of the relationship. And if you heard Larry say himself, he wouldn't leave. Might have wanted to leave 50, 60 years ago with his mother,

but he doesn't want to leave now. He loves this place. And Canada is trying its best to change the equation. The equation of that meeting in that committee room in 1952, where they're all, I'm assuming, all whites, no presence by the Inuit in that room to make a decision about the Inuit? Well, they're trying to change the equation.

A fellow who I've come to know quite well in these past couple of days, Corey Gleason, told me a story about being in a meeting and listening to an Inuit woman talking about the problems she had with the Coast Guard and the Navy traveling around different communities in the Arctic. Corey said she'd listened to, or she'd watched these vessels come and park outside the community. And there was never any relationship between those on board,

in the case of the Navy, the sailors, and the community. They either wouldn't come to town, or if they came to town, they wouldn't make any attempt at talking to anybody. And nobody from town ever got a chance to go out on the vessels. Well, Corey Gleason is changing that. Corey Gleason is the captain of HMCS Harry DeWolf.

He's a commander in the Navy. Three bars. Commander Corey Gleason. And when he brought his ship into Greece Fjord, the whole idea was community engagement. He came to the community, organized a barbecue for everybody, was there, meeting people, talking to people, and then inviting them all back to the ship in small groups, one at a time, and following all the protocols that we were all following

in terms of COVID protection, even though there's been no COVID here in Grease Fjord. But it was the whole idea of sharing what's Canada's. They shared their community. He shared his ship. Nice touch. Okay, as we always do, we're going to say something about the election i'll give you a little snapshot on the issue of signs all right we'll do that right after this you're listening to the bridge with the high arctic we're in

greece fjord in nunavut and it's been uh quite i guess it's about 36 hours since we got here, and we're just leaving now. As I said earlier, not a soul on this whole trip in any community I've been to in all the discussions I've had, no one has mentioned the election. It's not front of mind up here, and it may be not front of mind for a lot of people in Canada yet. It's still summer. It's still August. There are here. And it may be not front of mind for a lot of people in Canada yet. It's still summer.

It's still August. There are other things to be thinking about. But if they're not thinking about it yet, they will be soon. And one of the ways you think about it, apparently, are those lawn signs. And signs that, you know, you see on the street. So I wanted to do a little bit of research into what influence the signs really have. Well, here are some of the findings on the sign department about elections. Over 40% of those surveyed said that they had first learned of a local candidate through a sign. Without signage to influence those people,

two out of five people may have voted in a different manner simply because there was no name recognition for whatever candidate's name was on the sign that they ended up seeing. So this survey was done by signs.com. I mean, who else? And they say, we also wanted to find out whether political signs used by trusted peers and neighbors had any impact on one's own voting preferences. In other words, if your neighbor has a sign up there of a certain candidate in a certain party,

and you haven't really made up your mind about what you're doing and you see that would you be influenced by that well apparently some are 20 of people were likely to be influenced by signage displayed by those they trust this data says signs.com shows that at least one in five people willingly admit that often deeply and privately held political opinions can be influenced by a simple yard sign used by someone they trust okay here's something in the chicagoune. Do signs work? The short answer is, well, sort of, said Jonathan Krasnow. He's a political science prof at Binghamton University in New York.

While campaign signs don't increase voter turnout overall, the signs provide a small boost in a candidate's chances in areas where they place them, said Krasnow, who, along with other researchers studied the effectiveness of campaign signs in a study published in 2016 so it's five years old but interesting our initial hunch she says was we'd see higher turnout where there were lots of signs what we found is that that assumption was wrong We didn't find any evidence of increased turnout. We did see some evidence of increased vote share. That is, a candidate with a lot of signs did better where they had signs

than where they didn't have signs. The effects weren't huge, but they were there. That's interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way. but they were there. That's interesting. I hadn't thought of it that way. Anyway, there were a bunch of other issues around signs and other thoughts around signs, but you've probably heard enough about signs already in this little last couple of minutes.

But I thought I'd share it with you because I'm doing my duty. I'm trying to give you a little something about the election each day while I'm on this incredible tour of Canada's Arctic. I call it a tour because I feel spoiled. I mean, I'm working. It is a documentary that we're doing that will be on later this year on the CBC, not just this part. There's a number of elements to this documentary that is going to be focused,

we're calling it Arctic Blue, but it's going to delve into everything from climate change to Arctic sovereignty and a lot of different little things that fall into place in between those two issues. So it's busy on that, but I couldn't resist the temptation of bringing the podcast on the road. When I was host of the National, I used to beg for us to go on the road, anything to get out of Toronto and see the country and share the program with the country. And that's exactly what I'm trying to do with my little hobby podcast here on the bridge. And I thank SiriusXM for being great supporters of the bridge,

airing it on SiriusXM channel 167 Canada Talks, and also distributing the bridge as a podcast through all the different platforms that you can reach it out. So there you go for today. We've got a couple more days on this Arctic trip before I'm back in Toronto and Stratford. Being reached out to, it's tricky with the internet here, but I reached out with both Bruce and Chantel trying to arrange a special good talk edition for this Friday,

which will really put you in the zone on the big issues surrounding the election. That's Friday. If I'm back in time for Thursday, we'll try and perhaps do a Smoke Mirrors and the Truth with Bruce. That may be tricky, given my flight schedules. Everything has to work perfectly for that to work. Anyway, tomorrow, more from the Arctic and more election talk.

And really thank you for the mail. I've been getting a lot of emails when they do download. And I'm, you know, gratified to see so many of you are enjoying these Arctic shows and talking about them and learning from them, and I guess in some ways living the experience through this program because it ain't cheap to come to the Arctic, but boy, is it worth it. It is such a spectacular place.

All right. I'm Peter Mansbridge. You've been listening to The Bridge, and I thank you for it. Thanks so much for listening. We'll talk to you again in 24 hours.