The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Two Arctic Election Issues That Should Relate to All Canadians.

Episode Date: August 20, 2021

On Day Two in the Arctic, The Bridge meets two fascinating residents of Pond Inlet who are directly impacted but in very different ways to climate change and Arctic sovereignty. One is a long-time hunter, the other a long-time ranger. Hear their amazing stories on today's show.

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Available in grain-free, healthy grains, and singles for sensitive dogs. Akana, go beyond the first ingredient. And hello there again, Peter Mansbridge here, and I'm in Pond Inlet, just wrapping up 36 hours in this remarkable community at the northern end of Baffin Island. And it's been quite the time. As you're listening to this, just getting ready to board the Canadian naval vessel, Harry DeWolf. It's an Arctic patrol vessel, the first one of a number that are being commissioned by the Canadian Navy. And it's on

its maiden voyage through the Northwest Passage. So I'm going to travel on it for the next four or five days. But more about that on Monday's podcast, because I'll be able to tell you all about it, just what it was like. But today I want to dwell on two remarkable people, and here's why. The reason I'm in the Arctic for this, you know, five or six days, is I'm doing a documentary for the CBC, long plan scheduled since, well, we've been working on it since last November, looking at two key issues that confront not just the North,

but all of Canada. And they're election issues for some people, the questions of climate change and Arctic sovereignty. And here they're linked, the two, because climate change, this is where it's hitting most in Canada, hitting first in Canada. The ice melt is real, it's happening, and it's having a dramatic impact on life in the Arctic. More ship travel here, less ice, more ships.

Less ice, more ships, more industry in the sense of mining is opening up in different parts of the North, and as a result, that's changing conditions for people like the Inuit the indigenous people of the north and their traditions of fishing and hunting and traveling over land these are all impacts that are happening and they're real and we should be watching these closely not just if you live in the North, but anywhere in Canada, because they're part of the package.

The Arctic sovereignty question comes into play as a result of the opening up of the North and who owns certain elements of the North, including the waterways. Some consider them international waterways. We consider them Canadian waters. Well, if you're going to call it Canadian, you better plant the flag somehow.

That's a little bit of what the Arctic patrol vessels are for. It's also part of what the Canadian rangers are for. You've probably heard of them before, but they're quite the group. And one of their leading members will be talking to us on this podcast today. But first of all, I'm going to talk with somebody else. I'm going to tell you about my meeting with somebody else.

He doesn't speak very much English. He mainly speaks Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit people. And so my discussions with him were through a translator. So I'm going to tell you his story because it's a fabulous story. First of all, he's a great guy, 77 years old. So he's senior to me by a couple of years. We got along great. He's got a wonderful smile and a great laugh.

And we had a conversation about the impact the changes have had that he's witnessed over his years. But let me tell you a little bit more about him because he loves telling the story of when and where he was born. His dad was a traditional Inuit hunter and fisherman. He loved to be out on the land, and so did his mom. And she was pregnant. They were out on the land. She was probably three, four weeks away from when she was due to give birth. They were out on the land, just the two of them, hunting.

I think he said seal they were looking for. And suddenly she went into labor. And they determined they could not get back to Pond Inlet where they live. And that something would have to happen right away. So what'd they do? What did he do?

He built an igloo. Carved it right there where they were on the hunt. Finished the igloo in fairly quick time. Have you ever seen certain Inuit people who are used to building igloos? They can build them pretty fast. And he built it, and she had her baby in the igloo. So Elijah Panikpa

Kuktu was born in an igloo. And he takes great pride in telling that story and he tells it with such vigor and laugh. I think I posted it. A little short, very short clip of him and you'll get a sense of the kind of character he is. The other story he loves to tell is his first hunt. When he went out with his dad on the land for one of these hunting

trips the last few days and they either build igloos or they have a tent with them depending on the time of year. So Elijah's nine years old on his first hunt. And what do they see? Polar bear. In an area and at a time when there were a lot of polar bears. So he picked up the rifle that his dad had had him carry, a.22, okay?

Now,.22 can be a devastating piece of weaponry, but it's kind of like a pop gun in terms of the big game hunters. And this is a polar bear we're talking about. This is a big animal. So Elijah Peneek Pakuktu, nine years old, after having been trained on how to use his.22 by his dad over the couple of years that he'd been training him. Holds up the rifle, aims at the polar bear, one shot, dropped the bear.

That's the story. I had a hard time believing it, but Elijah said that's the story. I had a hard time believing it, but Elijah said, that's the way it happened. One shot. Now, I'm sure many of you don't like the idea of shooting polar bears

or anything, but here, it is a way of life. For the Inuit, the traditions of hunting and fishing are so close to their hearts, no matter the generation. I met a bunch of young kids today as well, all of them high school and college graduates,

working on research and science projects, but staying in their land of Nunavut because they don't want to leave it. It's in their soul. And part of what's in their soul is the tradition of hunting and fishing, of bringing food back home, sharing it with the community. Anyway, I wanted to talk to Elijah Panikpaku about things today, life today. He's seen a lot in his 77 years. And I wanted some sense from him of the changes that are taking place

and the impact they're having on that part of the traditional way of life. And he was, you know, he was very revealing in terms of the stories he told me about the direct impact of climate change in a number of areas. One, it's more difficult hunting and fishing. Fishing, the warmer waters have driven the traditional fish that they like to catch, like char, further north. And some fish from southern waters have moved up further north because of warmer waters. So he's actually seeing that.

That's not necessarily a problem, although they love char, and who wouldn't love char? But they're seeing other types of fish now in areas they've never seen them before. That's one. The other thing that is having an impact, especially on one of the mainstays of their diet, which is seal meat,

is the expansion in industry in the terms of mining. Now, the closest mine, it's an open pit mine, is 100 clicks away or so. Yet it's having an impact around here because it's an open pit mine. And as a result, there's a lot of dust and dust travels. It gets in the water. It has an impact on the water. And therefore, it has an impact on those animals that depend on water for where they live and where they habitat and it's had an impact on seal so Elijah listen, there's good and bad about all of this, but it's changing our way of life. And he's concerned and worried that it'll have an impact on what's being the traditions and cultures and the heritage of a people.

And he's worried about what impact that will mean, how it will affect not only his life, but more importantly to him today, his kids and his grandkids' lives. So that's how Elijah connects to the election campaign. And I'm going to tell you more about it in terms of how it impacts this particular area a little later in today's program. But climate change is a big issue for a lot of people. It's a big issue for Elijah Panik Pakuktu and those who he calls his friends and his fellow citizens of this particular community

of Pond Inlet. All right. Here's the other person I met today. Not today. Yesterday, although I saw him again today. His name is Titus Alulu. Titus Alulu. Now, yesterday and today were not the first time I met Titus. In fact, I met Titus in 1968 because he was going to school in Churchill, Manitoba,

where I was working. And one of the people who was not only a friend, but kind of a mentor was a chap I was telling you about yesterday, James Arveluk, Jimmy Arveluk, who I worked with at the radio station in Churchill in 1968. And Titus reminded me today that he came over from the school, the residential school that he was at in Churchill, having been flown there from Pond Inlet, so a long way from home. And he remembered coming to the radio station to see James, and at the same time he met me.

So, we had a kind of rebonding moment and talked about our good friend James, Jimmy Arverlock, who unfortunately passed away a couple of years ago. But Titus now has a new meaning in life. He's a Canadian Ranger. In fact, he's the platoon commander for the Canadian Rangers here in Pond Inlet. And as we get ready to leave on the Harry DeWolf, Canada's naval Arctic patrol vessel, Titus was on the shore as we left,

waving along with many people in the community. Now, who are the Canadian Rangers, you might ask? Well, you should know, because if Arctic sovereignty is going to be an issue, the Canadian Rangers are the front line of our defense. They are, in fact, members of the Canadian military. Stephen Harper, the former Prime Minister, during his term in office in the PMO, upped the amount of money that went into the Canadian Rangers. Better equipment, better communication skills, better weaponry. Although they're not really, when we say they're the front line of Canada's Arctic defense strategy,

we're not talking about if we get invaded, they're the ones who are holding the fort. It's a little more complicated than that. So I wanted to talk to Titus. And yesterday we went out onto the tundra I don't know maybe two or three kilometers from pond inlet doesn't take long to get out of town it doesn't like take long to get a fair distance from town but we wanted to go out onto the tundra because we were actually filming for the documentary.

We've filmed some stuff with the Canadian Rangers, but I wanted to sit down with Titus himself. And so we've, you know, picked a couple of rocks on the tundra overlooking the inlet to talk about the Rangers, to talk about why he was passionate about the Rangers, and what, in fact, they really do, and what we should know and understand about what they do. So I'm going to play you that interview.

Once again, his name is Titus Alulu, and he's a sergeant and a platoon commander for Pond Inlet of the Canadian Rangers. Here's our conversation. So how old were you when you first heard about the Rangers? maybe 11 when I moved here to Pon-in-Lit from the land, from our sod houses into the community of Pon-in-Lit. I was about 11 and my brother, my oldest brother was a Canadian Ranger. So I used to see his cool rifle 303 British World War II I used to like that he would he would go out stuff like that to patrol a little bit on his dock team I heard about that so when I went to Churchill to school for schooling I joined the cadets, army cadets. They're called,

they're out of Winnipeg. Cameron Highlanders out of Winnipeg. And I joined them. And in summertime, I went out to the cadet camp in BC, Vernon, BC. And then apparently I was a pretty good shooter. I used to beat everybody in shooting competition. And when I came back from school, after Ottawa College, I joined the Canadian Rangers. And why did you join? I mean, obviously, you liked that aspect of military life because you'd kind of grown

up through the cadets and you'd watch your brother. But what was it that attracted you personally? Why did you want to become a Ranger? Rangers were helping their own people in trouble. Right? Out on the land, they would go out and do rescues. I thought that was cool. And if the community needed something in terms of country food, they helped them.

So that was cool. I wanted to be like them at the time. Because when you say rescue their own people, you're talking about hunters out on the land? Hunters on the land, yes. Because as you know, today, with the whole discussion around Arctic sovereignty, there is this sense that the Rangers are the kind of eyes and ears of Canada's defenses, that you're right there at the front line if there are an issue, not just a rescue mission, but if there are intruders in Canadian space.

Yes. So do you do that? Can you do that? Can Rangers do that? Very recently after Mr. Harper, when he was prime minister, he announced that they're going to enhance the ranger program in the country. We started to get more training on communication equipment. We received sat phones. We received HF radios. We received other communication tools. We started using them, TRAC 24, what we call TRAC 24, on our patrol.

If we turn it on, you only have to know exactly where we are, where we are traveling to. So we have those equipment. Since we have those equipment, we are more helpful to the Armed Forces what's going on in terms of communicating with them. But are you still using British World War II 303 rifles? They're still there. We were given more modern rifles, 308 Tikka, which is more modern. But at the end of the day, you're not really an armed force.

We're part of the armed forces, but we're not a full-time. We're not there to kill enemies. We're to inform the armed forces what what's actually up here in terms of foreign objects, ships, airplanes, and other stuff. Other stuff? Other stuff. People. People. People who are not supposed to be there, like we have parks. Right. People outside of our people want to go on the park.

They need permission, right? If they don't, then they're breaking the law. Our job, if we see something, that we are to report it. Now, your area of inspection or where you're keeping your eyes and ears, how wide is that? How big is that? The territory that we cover is a vast area. Up here, there's hardly any military presence.

We're the only ones. It's a very sparse populated area and in a very large area. In our own area, we know because of our experience by going out hunting, going on the land, going on on the sea ice, we know the area pretty good. So other people coming in, they don't necessarily understand. We also don't understand what Dene people in their area, we don't understand as much as they do about their territory. They know their area. We know our area. Our job is to travel on our own, and if we see something odd we are to report it so when you say

travel on your own you could be out hunting we could be out of you but you're always looking keeping an eye out yes so when you're um near the waterways uh say lancaster sound i mean we know that there have been submarines through Lancaster Sound. Yes. American submarines. Yes. Russian submarines.

Yes. All these are expected. You ever seen anything like that? We have. The last one was, I don't know, a few years ago out on Navy Board Inlet. Also, people see when they're out there hunting and camping, they see them. But they don't always have cameras.

They will report them. But we cannot always catch them. The Canadian government cannot. We are about five miles, five hours away from anywhere. When they see them, are they on the surface, or are they just seeing a periscope or something? The last one that were reported, they were seeing the whole part of the ship and going down and going up again. But nobody ever knew where it came from because military

or Canadian authorities did not see it, could not identify it as well. So tell me again what the main role is, the main function of what is a significant size force? Because it stretches right across the country, right? The ranger program. Give me a sense once again at the main function of the rangers. The main, our job is to communicate. Our job is to see what we see in our respective area. Our job is to communicate back to our headquarters what we see that looks odd to us. Do you still find it as exciting as you thought you would when you were that 11-year-old kid looking at your older brother in a program similar?

It is still very, I like going out on the land. It is satisfying to me to provide food for my family and for the community. Yeah, it is so exciting. I still enjoy it. I'll probably do it for quite a while until I'm too old or disabled to be out there. It's just a number, Age. It's good to see you again, Titus, especially, I guess, the last time. Well, not the last time, but one of the first times we met was with somebody I talked about on the podcast yesterday, James Arverlock, who's from Bond Inlet. He was a good friend of yours.

And you saw us together in Churchill back in the day when we were working at the little radio station there. Yes, yes. Yeah, he was a friend of mine for a long time. Went to school together in Churchill. Went to school together in Ottawa. I saw him working at the ITC when I was still going to school. He was the president, right? He was president one time, yeah. And then when I became MLA here, sometime after he became MLA. Small world.

Small world. Thanks for doing this, Titus. Really appreciate it. Thank you. I'll tell you, these people I had an opportunity to meet in my time in Pond Inlet over the last 36 hours, people like Titus Alulu and Pinnik Pakuktu, great people. You know, what's that phrase? Salt of the earth.

Well, there's salt of this earth. There's salt of the Canadian Arctic. And they have their concerns about climate change and about Arctic sovereignty. And in Titus's case, and, you know, keeping my eyes and ears open, you know, he's got, I think there are 35 rangers in the community of Pond Inlet. And they're always on the prowl somewhere. Not in

like marching around. They're, you know, they're hunting, they're fishing, they're traveling. And when they do, they're keeping their eyes open. And they, ladies and gentlemen, are the front line of your Canadian Arctic defense, the Canadian Rangers. So glad we've had the time to spend a couple of moments talking about them. Okay, I've got some actual election news, right? The election seems so far away, and I know certain things have been happening lately,

but I keep in mind what Chantal told me the other day and told you, that we're kind of in the pre-campaign campaign. Things are happening. Issues are going on. There's a bit of, you know, verbal conflict happening. But it may not really start happening until Labor Day. So we get another, what, week or two weeks before that happens. Anyway, I've got some election news for you which helps you put in context this great land, the great white north, the real great white north, in terms of election days.

And we're going to talk about that right after this. You're listening to The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge. And we're back again. Peter Mansbridge here. Just about ready to leave Pond Inlet in Nunavut. We're going on board very shortly. The Canadian naval vessel, the Harry DeWolf arctic patrol vessel we're going to go up into lancaster sound part of the northwest passage we'll go a little further north to greece fjord and we'll move back and forth in some of those waterways

not sure the full area that we're going to and then we'll end up in Arctic Bay back on Baffin Island before the Harry DeWolf continues its trip down the Northwest Passage but it's going to be fascinating to see what we see you know you heard Titus Alulu talking a few moments ago about the submarines that we know have traveled through Lancaster Sound from other countries.

And not necessarily, in some cases, certainly, with Canadian permission to do that. And so, who knows, we may do a little submarine look in ourselves. I think there's a couple of little tests planned for this voyage, so hopefully we'll get to watch one. Now, I promised you something about the election as it relates to Canada's north. And I think you're going to find this interesting. There are, as you know, 330 ridings in Canada.

Three of them are in Canada's north. You know, what's traditionally respected as Canada's north in terms of the Arctic regions. And those three are Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. Now, there are some ridings, you know, in Quebec, Abitibi, Bay James, Nunavut, IU, Churchill, Kuwait, Nook, Askey. Those are actually in the Churchill ones, obviously, in Manitoba. But they take a huge chunk of Canada's north in those ridings as well.

And I think those two are the Quebec and the Manitoba one are the third and fourth biggest ridings in the country. However, which is the biggest riding by area, by square miles, or square kilometers? Which is that? It's right where I am right now. It's Nunavut. Two million square kilometers. So keep that in mind.

You've got this huge riding, the biggest one in the country, two million square kilometers, yet the fewest number of voters of any riding in the country. So biggest by size, smallest by numbers in terms of voters. Just over 18,000. Now, you say, okay, give me some context on that. Oh, here's the context. Contrast.

Anyway, the smallest riding by area in the country. You know what it is? Toronto Centre. Six square kilometres. Remember, Nunavut is two million square kilometres. Toronto Centre has 100,000 voters. Nunavut has just over 18,000. Okay. Now, think about that for a minute. Is that fair? You know, it's a question that has been raised before, a question of fairness. Why is a vote up north worth so much more than a vote down south,

especially between those two, Toronto Centre and Nunavut? Doesn't it offend the notion of one person, one vote? Well, this was put to the Supreme Court back in 1991, and it said, deviations from absolute voter parity may be justified under the Charter. Geography, community, history, community interests, and minority representation may need to be taken into account to ensure our legislative assemblies effectively represent the diversity of our social mosaic. Now, the size of the Nunavut.

I mean, for the MP for Toronto Centre, it doesn't take much to do a little campaigning, or those who want to hold the riding from the other parties. You know, six square kilometres, you can go around that any number of times during an election campaign. Not so here in Nunavut. It's pretty difficult for an MP or somebody who wants to be the MP to get around and see voters. Not only that, if they win, it's really hard to get around and see your constituents. Right? It's not exactly close to Ottawa. it's really hard to get around and see your constituents, right?

It's not exactly close to Ottawa. If you're the MP for Nunavut and you lived, say, in Pond Inlet, you got to fly for three, three and a half hours to get to Iqaluit, and then you fly another four hours after a stopover of three or four hours to get to Ottawa. So this is not where you're, you know, weekends in the riding. That's pretty tough. Okay, so who are the winners in these three ridings?

Here's the, here's some background. In 2019, the last federal election, in Nunavut, the NDP won it by 919 votes. That's a lot of votes when you're talking about a riding

with only 18,000 voters. Now, the winner, Mumalak Kakak, is not running again. She says she faced terrible discrimination as an Indigenous woman in Parliament in Ottawa. Three women are running to replace her. Two are Inuk, the Conservative and the NDP. The third, a Liberal, sat in the territorial legislative. She was born in what was Cape Dorset. Okay, let's move over to the Yukon, the other end of the three Arctic ridings.

That was a squeaker. The liberals won that by just 72 votes in 2019. This time, the chief medical officer of UConn, Dr. Brendan Hanley, obviously this is a guy who was front and center during the pandemic, has quit his job to run as a Liberal. That's an interesting decision. Northwest Territories, that's the riding in the middle between Yukon and Nunavut. That was a big Liberal win in 2019 by almost 2,400 votes.

And the winner that time, Michael McLeod, is seeking a third term. So there's your election snapshot for tonight and one that relates to this unique part of our country. Which I've been lucky enough

to visit once more time and I've got a few more days on this trip. I'm really looking forward to it. more time, and I've got a few more days on this trip. I'm really looking forward to it. Looking ahead, no podcast on the weekend, obviously, but I'll be doing work and preparing stuff and material for next week's programs. By Monday, we'll be in Grease Fjord, Canada's northernmost community. And then we'll be back on the water on Tuesday,

and then Wednesday I'll be wrapping up the trip. And then we'll be back to our election materials, you know, we'll have them all. Bruce and Chantel on Good Talk. Bruce with Smoke Mirrors and the Truth. The Insiders and Reporter's Notebook, plus your thoughts. I've received a ton of mail just in the last,

I don't know, 24, 36 hours, of those of you who have either seen some of my postings on Instagram about this Arctic trip or reacting to last night's podcast. And it's been great to hear from you with your thoughts on this and your general thoughts on the election campaign. I'll be putting everything together, as I mentioned last night, probably not next week but the following week, in a kind of mailbag edition of The Bridge

with some of your thoughts about all these things in the meantime it's been great to talk to you this has been a this is a great trip to be on i know many of you because you've written to me about it are envious of it well i'll try and represent you and look for the kind of things that you'd like to be hearing me talk about as a result of this opportunity to be in Canada's Arctic. All right. I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening.

And we'll be back after this weekend on Monday. Stay safe. Stay well. Stay informed. We'll talk to you soon.