Ottawa declares state of emergency over COVID-19 protests

By ROB GILLIES

yesterday


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People gather in protest against COVID-19 mandates and in support of a protest against COVID-19 restrictions taking place in Ottawa, in Edmonton, Alberta, Saturday, Feb. 5, 2022.

 (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)


TORONTO (AP) — The mayor of Canada’s capital declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former U.S. ambassador to Canada said groups in the U.S. must stop interfering in the domestic affairs of America’s neighbor as protesters opposed to COVID-19 restrictions continued to paralyze Ottawa’s downtown.

Mayor Jim Watson said the declaration highlights the need for support from other jurisdictions and levels of government. It gives the city some additional powers around procurement and how it delivers services, which could help purchase equipment required by frontline workers and first responders.

Thousands of protesters descended in Ottawa again on the weekend, joining a hundred who remained since last weekend. Residents of Ottawa are furious at the nonstop blaring of horns, traffic disruption and harassment and fear no end is in sight after the police chief called it a “siege” that he could not manage.

The “freedom truck convoy” has attracted support from many U.S. Republicans including former President Donald Trump, who called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “far left lunatic” who has “destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.”

“Canada US relations used to be mainly about solving technical issues. Today Canada is unfortunately experiencing radical US politicians involving themselves in Canadian domestic issues. Trump and his followers are a threat not just to the US but to all democracies,” Bruce Heyman, a former U.S. ambassador under President Barack Obama, tweeted.

Heyman said “under no circumstances should any group in the USA fund disruptive activities in Canada. Period. Full stop.”

After crowdfunding site GoFundMe said it would refund or redirect to charities the vast majority of the millions raised by demonstrators protesting in the Canadian capital, prominent U.S. Republicans like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis complained.

But GoFundMe had already changed its mind and said it would be issuing refunds to all. The site said it cut off funding for the organizers because it had determined the effort violated the site’s terms of service due to unlawful activity.

RIGHT WING AMERICAN ATTACK ON BIDEN "LETS GO BRANDON"
APPLIED TO TRUDEAU

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called it an occupation.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxon tweeted: “Patriotic Texans donated to Canadian truckers’ worthy cause.” and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said on Fox News “government doesn’t have the right to force you to comply to their arbitrary mandates.”

“For some senior American politicians, patriotism means renting a mob to put a G-7 capital under siege,” tweeted Gerald Butts, a former senior adviser to Trudeau.

In Canada’s largest city, Toronto, police controlled and later ended a much smaller protest by setting up road blocks and preventing any trucks or cars from getting near the provincial legislature. Police also moved in to clear a key intersection in the city.

Many Canadians have been outraged over the crude behavior of the demonstrators. Some protesters set fireworks off on the grounds of the National War Memorial late Friday. A number have carried signs and flags with swastikas last weekend and compared vaccine mandates to fascism.

Protesters have said they won’t leave until all mandates and COVID-19 restrictions are gone. They are also calling for the removal of Trudeau’s government, though it is responsible for few of the measures, most of which were put in place by provincial governments.

Closed steel mill sends Olympic skiers - not smoke - skyward

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Matej Svancer of Austria trains ahead of the men's freestyle skiing big air qualification round of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in Beijing.

 (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

BEIJING (AP) — Alex Hall is accustomed to a grand mountain vista. The American freestyle skier could get used to the view atop Big Air Shougang, though.

“The like, crazy smokestack things in the back are pretty cool,” he said. “You get to see some of the mountains in the background, you got this temple here, the city’s that way, the steel factory. You get to see a lot of stuff.”

Anytime he and his fellow big air competitors come back to China, plenty of people will get to see them, too.

Freeski big air opened its Olympic competition Monday at the world’s first permanent, city-based big air facility, a repurposed steel mill on the west side of Beijing that’s made a stunning backdrop for one of the Games’ newest sports. Freeskiing is taking on big air for the first time as a Winter Games discipline, while the snowboarders will be here next week after debuting the event in Pyeongchang four years ago.



The 200-foot big air structure was built on the site of the former Shougang Group steel mill, China’s first state-owned plant that helped the country become a world leader in steel production. Its billowing smokestacks provided work for thousands but also darkened the sky over Beijing’s Shijingshan District, contributing to the city’s air pollution problem.

China closed the factory in conjunction with the 2008 Summer Games, seeking to clean up its image, well as its air.

The sprawling campus has been converted into bizarre, yet beautiful, city oasis.

Rusting factories and machinery remain, but the space between has been filled by grassy lawns, glassy ponds and a good deal of greenery. One of the blast furnaces was given a face lift and turned into a steampunk-style event space with shops, commercial offices and a museum. The yards host dance showcases in the summer, and architects plan to transform one of the massive cooling towers hovering over the big air jump into a wedding venue.

“This feels like it was created in a virtual world, in a video game,” American freeskiier Nick Goepper said.

It’s also central to China’s efforts to encourage 300 million people to participate in winter sports in conjunction with these Games. Facilities were carved into the complex’s infrastructure to help Chinese athletes train in short track speedskating, figure skating, ice hockey and curling. The Beijing Organizing Committee is even based out of the park’s offices.

The eye-catcher, though, is big air.

The discipline is a sort of high-risk home run derby for snowboarding and freestyle skiing, taking one element of the sport and pushing it to its extreme. Because the jumps span only a couple of hundred feet — compared to several thousand on slopestyle courses — they’re a strong fit for live audiences.

Even better, you don’t need a mountain to put on a big air event. Temporary jumps have been erected at Boston’s Fenway Park and Atlanta’s Truist Park in recent years, bringing the mountain sport to metropolitan areas instead of asking the masses to trek up to ski and snowboarding’s native slopes.

“When we went to Atlanta, lots of those people don’t get to see snow that often,” American snowboarder Chris Corning said. “I’m not sure they have snowplows there.”

The freeskiers have noticed an enormous uptick in quality at the permanent Big Air Shougang. As American Colby Stevenson said, scaffolding jumps like the one in Atlanta can be “pretty sketchy.”

“It’s a little bit scary just because you can like, feel it out there swaying,” teammate Mac Forehand said.

With narrow runways and shorter, flatter landings, those temporary setups aren’t conducive to going big. The spacious Shougang setup doesn’t have those restrictions.

“It feels like we’re up in the mountains,” Swedish freeskier Oliwer Magnusson said.

That’s shown during practice runs, when several skiers have thrown down previously unfinished tricks. The men’s freeskiers expect their rivals to break new ground in the finals Wednesday, and that’s only possible because of the jump’s quality.

It has athletes drooling over the possibility of other permanent venues cropping up elsewhere, but it’s not clear that’s going to happen. China invested aggressively in its push to get citizens involved in winter sports, which is what made Big Air Shougang possible.

“I think that the direction is the correct one to be going in,” said American-born Eileen Gu, who is competing for China in part because she wants to inspire Chinese girls to take up skiing.

Such a venue might not get enough use to justify in another city, though. The Shougang jump was laid out so the seats can also be used for concerts and shows in summer, but the ramp itself has limited utility. After all, there are only so many skiers and snowboarders who can handle being thrust 20-plus feet in the air.

“If something like this was sustainable enough to repeat all over the world, I think that would be super-duper cool,” Goepper said. “This just brings the sport closer to the public.”

Either way, there’s appreciation for the peculiarity of what’s happening here, where the yards that once poured pillars of black smoke into smoggy Beijing are shooting Olympians skyward instead.

“One of the coolest things I’ve gotten to see,” Forehand said.

___

Follow Jake Seiner: https://twitter.com/Jake_Seiner

___

More AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-games and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

A Mining Rig That Boasts 440 TH/s? Miners Question the Legitimacy of New Bitcoin Mining Device


The cryptocurrency community has been discussing a newly announced bitcoin miner called the Numiner NM440 that claims to produce speeds of up to 440 terahash per second (TH/s). Furthermore, a publicly-listed company called Sphere 3D has detailed that it purchased 60,000 Numiner NM440 mining rigs and aims to deploy 32 exahash per second (EH/s) of SHA256 hashpower. Furthermore, there’s been some disbelief among members of the crypto community on whether or not the hashrate speed claims are legitimate.

Numiner NM440 Revealed, Manufacturer Claims Device Boasts Speeds Up to 440 TH/s

A number of crypto supporters have been talking about a new bitcoin (BTC) miner that claims to process speeds that are higher than any mining rig on the market today. Furthermore, the machine called the Numiner NM440 series, allegedly processes at higher hashrate speeds than Bitmain’s upcoming models. That’s because the Numiner NM440s reportedly produces 440 TH/s, in comparison to the Bitmain Antminer S19 XP (140 TH/s) and the Antminer S19 Pro+ Hyd. (198 TH/s).

In addition to the newly announced mining rigs, a publicly-listed firm called Sphere 3D (Nasdaq: ANY) has announced it has purchased 60,000 Numiner NM440s. According to the press release, Sphere 3D will “receive 12 pre-production NM440s for final evaluation and testing to [be] completed on or before June 1, 2022.”

After a final evaluation, more batches will be shipped to Sphere 3D with the option to purchase an additional 26.4 EH/s of machines. The current deal of 60,000 NM440s cost Sphere 3D $1.7 billion, according to the company. Sphere 3D’s stocks saw a rise after the announcement, jumping 30% higher.

According to Numiner’s website, the firm says the flagship NM440 is “the world’s most powerful and environmentally friendly miner.” In addition to the massive 440 TH/s, the specifications claim a single NM440 gets an efficiency rating of 20.2 joules per terahash (J/TH). The web portal claims the machines give a 75% reduction in energy consumption and the firm further insists if “all bitcoin miners deployed the NM440, global bitcoin mining energy consumption in 2021 would drop from ~121 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity1 to ~30 TWh.”

Luxor Mining Says ‘Reported Specs Are Highly Dubious’

While the specifications are better than most machines on the market, people are wondering if the machines are legitimate and individuals are curious about the new company. Poolin’s Alejandro De La Torre tweeted about the new miner and said: “Never heard of these guys before.” Luxor Mining tweeted about the announcement as well and on Twitter it asked its followers if people thought it was legit.

“Numiner came out of nowhere and announced a 444 TH/s miner with an efficiency of 20.2 J/TH,” Luxor Mining said. “These specs would make it an industry-leading ASIC. What do we think fam, is this thing legit?”

Screenshot from the Numiner website.

Luxor Mining continued to be skeptical and further said: “Jokes aside regarding the Numiner NM440: When we saw Gryphon’s preorder yesterday, we were highly skeptical but gave the rig the benefit of the doubt due to Gryphon’s press release. That said, there are too many red flags for us to regard the NM440 as a legitimate product,” the mining operation added. Luxor Mining further remarked:


The NM440’s reported specs are highly dubious, as are NuMiner’s marketing materials. Further, there’s very little information on NuMiner’s development and team. As such, we cannot attest to the validity of the product and would caution our followers against it at this time.

The Chinese journalist known as Wu Blockchain discussed the Numiner project as well on February 3. “Numiner announced its new bitcoin mining machine NM440, uses TSMC chips and cooperates with Foxconn and Xilinx, the highest 440T in history and 20.2 J/T. Sphere 3D has committed to buy 60,000 NM440 for $1.7 [billion]. (The authenticity of the data is questionable),” Wu Blockchain said.

Screenshot from the Numiner website.

The website does say that the Numiner models are being produced in coordination with TSMC, Foxconn and Xilinx. While many questioned the legitimacy of the project, others made jokes about the pictured unit’s Mountain Dew colors, aesthetics and features.

Meanwhile, the bitcoin miner Gryphon Digital Mining’s special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal was reported on by Coindesk in mid-November 2021. The publication further covered Sphere 3D’s acquisition of 60,000 mining rigs from Numiner on Thursday. Gryphon tweeted on February 3, and said that the mining operation was “excited at the prospect of working with Numiner as our pending merger partner, Sphere 3D.” Interestingly, Sphere 3D hasn’t tweeted since February 14, 2019.



Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Israeli, Palestinian figures propose 2-state confederation

By JOSEPH KRAUSS

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Yossi Beilin, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator who co-founded the Geneva Initiative, poses for a photo at his house in Tel Aviv, Israel, Sunday, Feb. 6, 2022. Israeli and Palestinian public figures, including Beilin and Hiba Husseini, a former legal advisor to the Palestinian negotiating team who hails from a prominent Jerusalem family, have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation that they hope will offer a way forward after a decade-long stalemate in Mideast peace efforts. 

(AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)


JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli and Palestinian public figures have drawn up a new proposal for a two-state confederation that they hope will offer a way forward after a decade-long stalemate in Mideast peace efforts.

The plan includes several controversial proposals, and it’s unclear if it has any support among leaders on either side. But it could help shape the debate over the conflict and will be presented to a senior U.S. official and the U.N. secretary general this week.

The plan calls for an independent state of Palestine in most of the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, territories Israel seized in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel and Palestine would have separate governments but coordinate at a very high level on security, infrastructure and other issues that affect both populations.

The plan would allow the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank to remain there, with large settlements near the border annexed to Israel in a one-to-one land swap.

Settlers living deep inside the West Bank would be given the option of relocating or becoming permanent residents in the state of Palestine. The same number of Palestinians — likely refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation — would be allowed to relocate to Israel as citizens of Palestine with permanent residency in Israel.

The initiative is largely based on the Geneva Accord, a detailed, comprehensive peace plan drawn up in 2003 by prominent Israelis and Palestinians, including former officials. The nearly 100-page confederation plan includes new, detailed recommendations for how to address core issues.

Yossi Beilin, a former senior Israeli official and peace negotiator who co-founded the Geneva Initiative, said that by taking the mass evacuation of settlers off the table, the plan could be more amenable to them.

Israel’s political system is dominated by the settlers and their supporters, who view the West Bank as the biblical and historical heartland of the Jewish people and an integral part of Israel.

The Palestinians view the settlements as the main obstacle to peace, and most of the international community considers them illegal. The settlers living deep inside the West Bank — who would likely end up within the borders of a future Palestinian state — are among the most radical and tend to oppose any territorial partition.

“We believe that if there is no threat of confrontations with the settlers it would be much easier for those who want to have a two-state solution,” Beilin said. The idea has been discussed before, but he said a confederation would make it more “feasible.”

Numerous other sticking points re

Israel’s Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Authority declined to comment.

The main Palestinian figure behind the initiative is Hiba Husseini, a former legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team going back to 1994 who hails from a prominent Jerusalem family.

She acknowledged that the proposal regarding the settlers is “very controversial” but said the overall plan would fulfill the Palestinians’ core aspiration for a state of their own.

“It’s not going to be easy,” she added. “To achieve statehood and to achieve the desired right of self-determination that we have been working on — since 1948, really — we have to make some compromises.”

Thorny issues like the conflicting claims to Jerusalem, final borders and the fate of Palestinian refugees could be easier to address by two states in the context of a confederation, rather than the traditional approach of trying to work out all the details ahead of a final agreement.

“We’re reversing the process and starting with recognition,” Husseini said.

It’s been nearly three decades since Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered on the White House lawn to sign the Oslo accords, launching the peace process.

Several rounds of talks over the years, punctuated by outbursts of violence, failed to yield a final agreement, and there have been no serious or substantive negotiations in more than a decade.

Israel’s current prime minister, Naftali Bennett, is a former settler leader opposed to Palestinian statehood. Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, who is set to take over as prime minister in 2023 under a rotation agreement, supports an eventual two-state solution.

But neither is likely to be able to launch any major initiatives because they head a narrow coalition spanning the political spectrum from hard-line nationalist factions to a small Arab party.

On the Palestinian side, President Mahmoud Abbas’ authority is confined to parts of the occupied West Bank, with the Islamic militant group Hamas — which doesn’t accept Israel’s existence — ruling Gaza. Abbas’ presidential term expired in 2009 and his popularity has plummeted in recent years, meaning he is unlikely to be able to make any historic compromises.

The idea of the two-state solution was to give the Palestinians an independent state, while allowing Israel to exist as a democracy with a strong Jewish majority. Israel’s continued expansion of settlements, the absence of any peace process and repeated rounds of violence, however, have greatly complicated hopes of partitioning the land.

The international community still views a two-state solution as the only realistic way to resolve the conflict.

But the ground is shifting, particularly among young Palestinians, who increasingly view the conflict as a struggle for equal rights under what they — and three prominent human rights groups — say is an apartheid regime.

Israel vehemently rejects those allegations, viewing them as an antisemitic attack on its right to exist. Lapid has suggested that reviving a political process with the Palestinians would help Israel resist any efforts to brand it an apartheid state in world bodies.

Next week, Beilin and Husseini will present their plan to U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Beilin says they have already shared drafts with Israeli and Palestinian officials.

Beilin said he sent it to people who he knew would not reject it out of hand. “Nobody rejected it. It doesn’t mean that they embrace it.”

“I didn’t send it to Hamas,” he added, joking. “I don’t know their address.”

Tensions rise in Haiti amid fears that outside groups could make play for power

Haitian President Jovenel Moise was assassinated on July 7, 2021, when a group of armed attackers stormed his official residence in Port-au-Prince. His presidential term officially expires on Monday. 

File Photo by Jean Marc Herve Abelard/EPA-EFE


Feb. 7 (UPI) -- Exactly seven months after its president was assassinated, the Caribbean island of Haiti faces renewed political upheaval on Monday as President Jovenel Moise's term officially ends and there are fears about who will try to take power next.

Moise was assassinated last July 7 when armed attackers stormed his home in Port-au-Prince. The gunmen shot and killed Moise and wounded his wife, Martine Moise. Since then, Prime Minister Ariel Henry has led the country to fill out the remainder of Moise's term.

Now, that's over. And observers and political experts know that there's no shortage of groups who want to take the reins of the often-troubled island in the Caribbean.

An opposition group known as the Montana Accord has called for the United States to withdraw its support for Henry, stating that the present ruling government will be rendered unconstitutional with the end of Moise's term.

Claude Joseph, a rival of Henry's, served as prime minister of Haiti for about two weeks before stepping down to allow Henry, who Moise had selected as prime minister just two days before he was killed, to take power.

The Montana Accord has called for the creation of a transitional government, to be helmed by its leader Fritz Alphonse Jean, to restore security before holding new elections.

"Insecurity is rampant, fear of kidnapping and rape are the everyday situation of the average Haitian," Jean said on Friday, according to The New York Times. "This is a state of disarray and the Henry government is just sitting there unable to address those challenges."


Haiti has been rocked by more than just political upheaval. A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck the island in August 2021 and a group of Christian missionaries were kidnapped for weeks in October. File Photo by Orlando Barria/EPA-EFE

But Haiti's recent troubles are not limited to the political arena.

In addition to losing its leader, Haiti has also had to face a deadly 7.2-magnitude earthquake in August and a rising gang presence that further destabilized the country in October when it set off a fuel crisis by blocking the country's main roads and ports and holding a group of Christian missionaries hostage.

Armed gangs, who control more than half of Haiti and half of the capital of Port-au-Prince, have called for Henry's resignation, Brain Concannon, founder of the U.S.-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti, told Al Jazeera.

RELATED More than 50 dead, dozens injured after gas truck explosion in Haiti

"People live in daily fear that going to work or to school or getting some food at the store will be a lethal decision," Concannon told the outlet. "People don't even leave their houses for days and hospitals are closing because it is too violent for staff to get there."

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has faced criticism for not doing enough to support the country, including returning Haitian refugees that gathered at the U.S.-Mexico border and video that showed agents on horseback charging and herding migrants attempting to cross the Rio Grande.

At the same time, the United States and other international observers have been accused of being too involved in Haiti's politics.

Former U.S. special envoy, Daniel Foote, who resigned following the U.S. treatment of the refugees, said the U.S. administration has displayed "stubborn arrogance" in its attempts to "strong-arm Haitians" to accept an unelected prime minister and rush into elections.

Foote has also said that Henry has "impeded investigations" into Moise's assassination for six months, adding that the "nonexistent assassination investigation is led by [the] key suspect."

Port-au-Prince's top prosecutor, Bed-Ford Claude, sought charges against Henry last September, citing phone records that show he spoke shortly after Moise's death with former Haitian Justice Ministry official Joseph Felix Badio, who's a suspect in the assassination.

A street is seen in the gang-controlled Martissant neighborhood in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Some fear that the gang sector could seek to make a play for power with the expiration of Moise's term. File Photo by Orlando Barria/EPA-EFE

Henry has repeatedly denied involvement in the assassination, saying that the masterminds of the killing have not yet been captured.

In the wake of the killing, Haitian police detained more than a dozen possible suspects and U.S. officials have so far charged two suspects. Several were also killed in gunfights with police. U.S. officials fear that these threats -- and Henry's tenuous grip on power -- could lead to sustained violence and political collapse.

"How the government of Haiti moves forward after Feb. 7, the official end of assassinated President Jovenel Moise's term, will be an important inflection point for Ariel Henry's government and its ability to bring some measure of political stability to Haiti," one U.S. intelligence official told McClatchy.

Amid the uncertainty, some migrants have fled Haiti since Moise's death and headed for the United States. Dozens arrived in northern Florida last fall and almost 200 arrived in the Florida Keys and were detained by the U.S. Coast Guard a week ago.

North Baffin hunters call for 10-year freeze on Baffinland mine expansion

Pond Inlet latest hamlet to express support for proposal to expand Mary River iron mine

By David Venn
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Three north Baffin hunters and trappers associations are calling for a ban on increased ore production at Baffinland Iron Mines Corp.’s Mary River mine.

The hunters and trappers associations for Hall Beach, Igloolik and Arctic Bay want the Nunavut Impact Review Board to stop the mine from increasing its ore production for 10 years. They also want the review board to recommend against allowing the mining company’s expansion proposal. NIRB is responsible for evaluating the social and economic impacts of developments projects, such as a mine expansion, and making a recommendation to the federal government about whether a proposal should be approved.

The Hall Beach and Igloolik HTAs also want the company to be barred from building and operating a port at Steensby Inlet. The company was granted a project certificate to do so in 2012.

The hunters and trappers associations spelled out these positions in closing statements sent to the review board on Monday.

As it stands, Baffinland is permitted to ship six million tonnes of iron ore a year from Milne Inlet. The company wants to double its shipments and to build a 110-km railroad between the mine and Milne Inlet and a dock at the port.

More than two years after the board’s public hearings on the proposed mine expansion began, hunter representatives continue to raise a range of concerns about the environmental impact of the mine’s operations.

Arctic Bay’s Ikajutit HTA chairperson Qaumajuq Oyukuluk said the impacts of the expansion could be “devastating.”

“We must be cautious and fully understand the impacts of the existing operation and steps needed to mitigate negative impacts before rushing forward and expanding this development,” Oyukuluk wrote in the association’s statement.

Clyde River Mayor Alan Cormack and Nangmautaq HTA chairperson Apiusie Apak, in a joint closing statement, did not specifically call for a moratorium.

But they said affected communities need time to determine if decreases to narwhal stock and other environmental problems are due to mining, before any increase in shipping is allowed.

Under the Nunavut Planning and Project Assessment Act, the review board has the ability to recommend a condition, such as a moratorium, to the federal northern affairs minister, who can then approve the new condition even if a project is already approved.

Karen Costello, executive director of the review board, said the last time she can recall the board receiving submissions for a moratorium was for Areva’s Kiggavik uranium mining project, which didn’t get approved.

Costello, who would not comment directly on Baffinland’s ongoing proposal, said the board has never issued a project certificate containing a moratorium.

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association does not support the expansion, either, and referred to the ongoing impacts brought up by HTAs.

The mine is slowly building its way up to a 30-million-tonne project and Inuit are still figuring out what the six-million-tonne project is doing to the environment, read the association’s closing statement.

“Inuit are only beginning to experience the scope of impacts of the initial project,” the statement reads, adding that there are increasing concerns that the plans Baffinland has in place to mitigate impacts are not working.

Some organizations and hamlets involved are starting to support the expansion, however.

Pond Inlet Mayor Joshua Arreak, in the hamlet’s final statement, listed a number of benefits the mine has brought or will bring to the community, including more than $16 million paid in wages to residents since 2015 and the commitment to a $10-million Inuit training centre if the expansion is approved.

The deadline for Baffinland’s final submission is Jan. 24. The board will then decide if it has enough information to make its recommendation and close the hearing.

It’s up to Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal to approve or reject the project after he receives the board’s recommendation.

 

Op-ed: Inuit voices to be heard at IMO on critical shipping issues

The CCGS Terry Fox breaks ice ahead of the CGGS Louis S. St-Laurent during a scientific mission charting Canada’s Arctic continental shelf in 2015. The Inuit Circumpolar Council is the first Indigenous Peoples organization to receive provisional consultative status at the world’s shipping regulatory agency — the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization. (Handout photo)

By Lisa Koperqualuk and Monica Ell-Kanayuk

While Inuit leadership, youth and knowledge-holders raised their voices at the Glasgow climate change talks last November, the Inuit Circumpolar Council became the first Indigenous Peoples organization to receive provisional consultative status at the world’s shipping regulatory agency — the United Nations’ International Maritime Organization.

Lisa Koperqualuk, left, is vice-president (international) of ICC Canada. Monica Ell-Kanayuk, right, is president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada.

Provisional status meant some countries did not approve of ICC having full consultative status and Inuit have until the end of 2023 to make a case for permanent membership. Several countries with shipping interests — Russia, Japan, United Arab Emirates and China — voted against Inuit engagement.

Ultimately, we will provide a report to the IMO, illustrating how Inuit knowledge and visions have informed decision-making regarding global shipping and guide how Arctic shipping will evolve.

The 2018 Utqiaġvik Declaration directed ICC to ensure the Arctic marine environment was protected, and that Arctic shipping infrastructure is sustainable. Inuit must be at the highest levels of decision-making to protect our marine environment. Inuit are reclaiming their rightful seat where decisions that impact Inuit Nunaat are made. The ocean connects us rather than separates us. As a maritime people, the sea ice and the ocean are central to Inuit culture and food security.

Provisional status is a significant accomplishment. It reflects an acknowledgment of the inherent right to self-determination. The marine environment is affected by this UN body, therefore it is crucial this temporary status be made permanent.

Inuit depend on Arctic shipping for resupply, and it is also an integral part of Inuit economies. The Arctic marine environment and the cultural connection to it and the food security it provides are paramount for our communities.

ICC will work to ensure the Arctic shipping industry is safe and sustainable through four areas of action:

1. Harmonization of regulatory frameworks north of 60 with south of 60, like emission control areas; in southern Canada, people and marine habitat have a higher level of protection from shipping air emission impacts;
2. Efforts to decarbonize the global fleet through the transition from heavy fuel oil to safer fuels which will reduce black carbon in the Arctic and prevent a spill;
3. Vessel underwater noise restrictions to protect marine mammals; and
4. Reduction of Arctic vessel pollutants such as grey water discharges and harmful substances including nutrients, plastics and invasive species.

This victory for Inuit will ensure that, as shipping increases in our Arctic waters, we will have our own voice. Community members will be heard on issues from the importance of shipping to concerns we have regarding our marine environment from potential spills, underwater noise, black carbon, safe shipping corridors, pollution and grey water discharge, and invasive species.

Inuit now have a seat at this international table where issues that impact the Arctic are discussed.

Monica Ell-Kanayuk is president of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada. Lisa Koperqualuk is vice-president (international) of ICC Canada.

Mathiassen’s brush with death

Aullanaaq, who transported Mathiassen and Olsen to Southampton Island in 1922, on the right, is photographed with another man identified as Qitloq. (Photo by Peter Freuchen, courtesy of National Museum of Denmark, M531)

By Kenn Harper

TAISSUMANI  FEB 5, 2022 

In mid-June 1922, Therkel Mathiassen left Danish Island again for another visit to Repulse Bay.

He was accompanied by Peter Freuchen, Aaqqioq, and Poorsimaat. This would be a longer visit — its goal was the archeological work for which Mathiassen had been trained at university, and which interested him far more than the largely cartographic work of his earlier Baffin trip.

Freuchen and the two Inughuit left him at Repulse Bay, where he put up in the Hudson’s Bay Company house with manager George Cleveland, while they continued on to the Wager Bay area for another visit with trader Jean Berthie, also in the employ of the HBC.

Spring hunting occupied most of the Inuit at Repulse Bay, and Mathiassen was unable to hire help, so he worked alone. On June 24 he sent a letter to Freuchen, who was already back at Danish Island, asking him to send Jacob Olsen to help him. Olsen arrived on July 8. But he had cut his finger before he left the expedition’s headquarters, and it was badly infected. This rendered him of little use in helping with the archeology. He was, however, able to hunt and cook.

On July 20 the two moved into a tent, and the following day Cleveland left with his winter’s haul of fox pelts for Chesterfield Inlet to await the HBC supply ship.

At Naujaat, Mathiassen excavated 12 house ruins, 60 square metres of a large midden, and 50 graves. He collected 3,000 artifacts, which were taken back to Denmark. Two more house ruins were excavated at nearby Aivilik.

In mid-August, Mathiassen and Olsen took passage with Aullanaaq, whom whalers had called John Ell, to Duke of York Bay on Southampton Island, where Aullanaaq left them with his mother Siusarnaq — known to Inuit usually by her aqausiq name Niviatsarnaq and to earlier whalers by the name Shoofly — and her husband Angutimmarik, a former whaler who had worked in earlier times for Scottish whalers who called him Scotch Tom.

The visit to Southampton Island was meant to be short. They excavated 11 house ruins in Duke of York Bay from Aug. 20 until Sept. 6. Aullanaaq had returned on Sept. 2, intending to take them directly to Danish Island, but the ice had already formed in Frozen Strait. And so the plan was changed — he would take them back to Repulse Bay. But that plan was thwarted by a gale which caused them to return to their camp on Sept. 13, when they made the decision to winter.

It promised to be an unpleasant winter. They were low on supplies: two kilograms each of sugar, flour and oatmeal, three kilograms of canned pemmican, two packets of tea, one kilogram of coffee, half a packet of mustard, and a little salt.

They had just over one litre of petroleum and 30 boxes of matches. Fortunately they had a good supply of tobacco — 140 slabs of the popular Cavendish.

Jacob Olsen had his gun but only 30 rifle cartridges and the same number of shot cartridges. Mathiassen had left his gun at Repulse Bay because he had no ammunition. Not expecting to winter, they had not brought their winter clothing with them; instead they had woollen clothes and each man had a pair of sealskin pants. It wasn’t much, but, wrote Mathiassen, “the Eskimos promised to help with food and winter clothing as much as they could.”

But the Inuit were also short of ammunition.

On Oct. 4, with all their meat gone, the entire camp moved inland to a large lake, which Olsen named Hansine Lake after his wife back in Greenland. They lived there in skin tents and later snow houses.

At the end of the month they moved farther inland to a region with caribou, to a camp they named Darkness Lake. There were only six families on the island and they were all in this one winter camp. Olsen hunted with the Inuit as long as his ammo lasted. Mathiassen, with neither a gun or ammunition, spent most of his time in camp.

Years later, Joe Curley, adopted son of Angutimmarik, recalled, “They were poor. They were poor like little orphan boys.”

For both men, this sojourn at Darkness Lake was “dreary and insecure.”

Food was scarce, but even worse, relations with the Inuit had gradually become less friendly. Their tea and tobacco, both good forms of payment in the days of barter, were gone. They could only “pay with nothing but promises” of what they would provide once safely back at Danish Island.

That wasn’t enough because unfortunately they had also broken some taboos. In fact, Mathiassen recorded their transgressions in his own words: “[We] had excavated ancient ruins, hammered stone samples out of the rocks, smashed caribou skulls with a hammer in order to eat the brain, etc., and when some of the Eskimos became sick, the shamans worked it out that the two strangers were the cause of it.”

Niviatsarnaq, the wife of Angutimmarik, was, in Mathiassen’s words, an “evil genius.”

One night while the camp members were travelling, she suffered from a headache and convinced herself that her pains would not subside unless Angutimmarik killed the two strangers. Jacob Olsen overheard her imploring her husband to commit the deed and was able to prevent it.

Later, around the time of New Year’s, they moved in with Makik “who was more kindly disposed towards them.”

Then an epidemic of sore throat broke out. Mathiassen himself became seriously ill. Makik began to doubt the wisdom of housing the two.

One day a gun went off unexpectedly in the snow house, and the bullet made six holes in the folds of Mathiassen’s inner coat, but he was unscathed. It was an accident, but it was nonetheless a close call. That was on Feb. 5.

That same day Aullanaaq arrived, sent by Knud Rasmussen to rescue his men. But before he could begin the homeward journey, he needed to hunt for dog food. Mathiassen, Olsen, and their rescuer finally reached Blæsebælgen, their headquarters on Danish Island, on Feb. 21, where Rasmussen hosted a huge feast to celebrate their arrival.

Mathiassen afterwards claimed that he had appreciated the experience, although it had been difficult, because “he had lived on terms of intimacy with the Eskimos that otherwise would have been impossible.”

He had learned much.

BBYY’s journey: Scientists track Arctic hare’s ‘record-setting’ travels around Ellesmere Island

Study found 2-year-old female travelled 388 kilometres in 49 days

Researchers tracking the movements of Arctic hares on Ellesmere Island discovered that one, similar to the one seen here, travelled a distance of 388 kilometres. (Photo courtesy of Nicolas Bradette)

By  Jeff Pelletier

During the summer at Canadian Forces Station Alert, which sits at one of the northernmost points of Nunavut’s Ellesmere Island, Arctic hares mate and breed. As fall approaches and temperatures drop, the hares are a less common sight as they migrate south in search of food.

Where do these hares go when they migrate? And, how far do they travel?

A study recently published in the journal Ecology found Arctic hares in Alert travel hundreds of kilometres during their end-of-summer migration, including one that travelled a “record-setting” distance of 388 kilometres.

The study was conducted by researchers from the Université du Québec à Rimouski and the Department of National Defence over the course of several months beginning in spring 2019.

The research team fitted 25 hares with satellite trackers, which provided daily location updates of where each of the hares had travelled.

The hare that travelled the “record-setting” journey was a two-year-old female named BBYY, says Dominique Berteaux, an ecologist and Canada research chair on northern biodiversity at the Université du Québec à Rimouski.

At least 20 of the hares had travelled anywhere between 113 and 310 kilometres, from Alert to an area around Lake Hazen in Quttinirpaaq National Park and back, the study found. But BBYY’s journey was 388 kilometres over 49 days.

“No study had ever shown that this kind of animal would move [that] far away from where they live,” Berteaux said. “The main surprise was that one individual would move that much. That was the point of this paper.”


This map shows the distance travelled by BBYY, an Arctic hare that travelled 388 kilometres across Ellesmere Island in 2019. (Map courtesy of Émilie Desjardins)

BBYY was captured and fitted with her satellite collar on June 18, 2019. According to a map of satellite locations, for the next few months she stayed in the area surrounding Alert before beginning her journey south on Sept. 17. A month later, she had already travelled nearly two-thirds of the distance she would eventually cover, appearing on the map southwest of Lake Hazen. On Nov. 29, her journey ended, north of Lake Hazen.

On Dec. 1, 2019, BBYY died of “unknown causes,” according to the paper.

Arctic hares are an important prey species in the ecosystem on Ellesmere Island and throughout the Arctic tundra, Berteaux says, and understanding their behaviour is important to ongoing conservation efforts in Quttinirpaaq National Park and its surrounding areas.

“Understanding the movement of animals is very important for conservation, for management, and for understanding wildlife,” he said.

As the data from the 2019 hare research continues to be analyzed, Berteaux says he looks forward to returning to the North, continuing his research and collaborating with Inuit elders and hunters to benefit from their knowledge of the land and Arctic animals.

“For all of us who study wildlife, it’s quite important,” he said. “When we work with the elders and the hunters, we learn a lot about wildlife.”

 

The devil is definitely in the details': How fuel could have entered Iqaluit's water

How did fuel enter water?

The Canadian Press - Jan 30, 2022 / 7:23 am | Story: 358498

Photo: The Canadian Press

Iqaluit resident Jenny Ell says she couldn't believe it when she turned on her tap a couple of weeks ago and smelled fuel for the second time in a matter of months.

Ell, who is pregnant, said she was worried for her baby's safety and immediately contacted the city.

"I'm hanging in there," Ell said. "Hopefully they're not slow about it like the last time it happened."

About 8,000 people in the territory's capital city couldn't drink the tap water for two months last fall when it was found to be contaminated with fuel.

Many Iqaluit residents reported smelling fuel in the water again this month.

The City of Iqaluit has confirmed trace amounts of fuel were found in the water in January. The water has met Canadian drinking water guidelines, but Iqaluit's treatment plant has been shut down and a bypass is being used to pump water to residents.

The city has said the source of contamination is suspected to be fuel from a historic tank buried next to the plant that leaked into the ground underneath and mixed with groundwater below.

But questions remain around how fuel showed up in the water again, nearly three months after it was first detected.

James Craig, a University of Waterloo engineering professor who studies water resource systems, said fuel is a difficult substance to remove, especially when it's stuck in soil.

When fuel ages in soil, he said it will slowly leak out when exposed to any new clean water passing by.

"The short answer is that it could have been there a very long time," Craig said.

"Any time you have a high concentration of a material next to an area of low concentration, it will naturally diffuse in the direction of low concentration."

The city has said it did not find any cracks in the tank and that the fuel entered through vapour intrusion. That means it slowly leaked into the water treatment plant through the concrete tanks' exterior pores.

Craig said it would likely need to be a significant amount of fuel to leak into concrete tanks in such high concentrations.

"Those concentrations were very surprising to me to see those show up due to vapour migration, especially if they hadn't been detected before," he said.

Both the city and Nunavut's health department have said none of the water coming out of drinking water taps tested above the levels for what is safe.

Craig added that it would be "highly speculative" to discuss how fuel got into the concrete tanks without knowing how Iqaluit's water treatment plant works.

The city dug up the historic fuel tank last fall and Iqaluit Mayor Kenny Bell said clean up continues around the plant.

But because fuel is so persistent, it can hang around a long time if it's not completely removed from the soil, said Craig.

"Even when the source is gone, there's still material present," he said. "Without knowing the details of what they did in terms of the remediation and the removal of soil in addition to the tank, I can't really speculate why there would be additional gas appearing."

Qikiqtaaluk Environmental, the group contracted to clean up the plant site, declined an interview and directed all inquiries to the city.

The City of Iqaluit did not respond to a request for an interview.

The Canadian Press has repeatedly requested data on what type of fuel was found in the historic tank and in the water, but has not received a response.

Craig said because fuel moves slowly in the ground, it could continue leaking months later if it's still stuck in the soil.

“That kind of delayed response is not surprising," he said.

Craig said the city's engineering reports on the cleanup and investigation into the contamination will likely shed some light on how fuel ended up in the water again.

"The devil is definitely in the details here," he said.

Nunavut MP Lori Idlout has called for a public inquiry into Iqaluit's water crisis.

The Nunavut government has said a third-party review will be conducted.

‘Nightmare’ fuel leak at Aqsarniit Middle

 School resolved

‘It had been gushing out for a while, fuel was seeping into

 the floorboards,’ says Iqaluit DEA chairperson

Some Iqaluit middle schoolers were sent back home Thursday morning as a fuel leak in the school made the building unusable. (File photo)

By Nunatsiaq News

NEWS FEB 3, 2022 – 

A fuel leak that occurred at Aqsarniit Middle School on Thursday morning has been resolved, so students can return to classes on Friday.

“It was a nightmare,” Doug Workman, the chairperson of Iqaluit’s DEA, said about the ordeal.

“It had been gushing out for a while, fuel was seeping into the floorboards and got into the crawl space”

Workman said he first learned of the leak around 8 a.m. on Thursday when the school principal called him and said he smelled fuel.

By that time, buses were already out picking up students for school, he said.

So the buses brought students back home shortly after pulling up at Aqsarniit and learning classes couldn’t be held in the building.

“Apparently the leak was extensive, the smell was very bad.”

The boiler room at Aqsarniit is only accessible through an exterior door and only staff from the Department of Community and Government Services have the key, so school employees couldn’t go check on the situation, he said.

“That’s different than any school I’ve ever been in,” Workman said.

A Community and Government Services maintenance crew was called and started repairing the pipe that was leaking right away, he said.

Workman said he was notified the leak had been fixed and air quality testing came back clean around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, giving students the clear to go back to class on Friday.