Researchers find Canadian Arctic island coast collapsing up to a metre a day

Researchers found the permafrost coastline of a Canadian Arctic island was collapsing at a rate of up to a metre a day. (Photo: Jeffrey Kerby)

Meredith MacLeod, CTVNews.ca Writer

Published Tuesday, June 11, 2019  

The frozen coastline of a Canadian Arctic island is eroding at up to a metre a day as a warming climate leads to longer summers, new research has found.

Researchers say the rate of collapse they found is six times faster than the average for the previous 65 years.

“Big chunks of land were breaking away and waves were eating them away,” said the study’s co-author Isla Myers-Smith, a geoscientist at the University of Edinburgh. “They were often gone by the next day.”

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PHOTOS

A researcher inspects the coastline of Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk in the Yukon. (Photo: Gergana Daskalova)

Myers-Smith was part of an international team that flew drone-mounted cameras to survey the tundra coast of Herschel Island, also known as Qikiqtaruk, off the Yukon coast in the Canadian Arctic. It is an unoccupied but historically significant island of about 116 square kilometres.

The researchers determined that summer storms are sweeping away coastal permafrost at a higher rate because it is being exposed for longer periods. Sea ice melts earlier and re-forms around the island later than it used to due to climate change, the researchers explain in their article published in the journal The Cryosphere.

Researchers mapped the area seven times over 40 days in the summer of 2017 and built computer models based on drone photos. They showed that the coast had retreated by an astounding 14.5 metres during the period, sometimes as much as a metre a day.

Researchers also compared the results with surveys taken between 1952 and 2011 that showed the 2017 rate of erosion was more than six times the historical average for the area.

The research team included university researchers, government scientists, and local park rangers from England, Germany, Netherlands, the United States and Canada, along with community members who live and work in the Arctic.

A Vancouver native, Myers-Smith has been travelling to Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk to study plants since 2008 and has spent every summer there since 2013. She leaves again for the island in a few weeks.

The research team - dubbed Team Shrub - was studying changes in vegetation in 2017 when it witnessed big shifts in the coastline that it hadn’t seen in previous years, she told CTVNews.ca.

While coastal erosion is natural and inevitable, it’s important to document the rate, she says. Similar acceleration has been found along the Alaska coast.

“As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of our planet, we need to learn more about how these landscapes are changing,” said study lead Andrew Cunliffe, a geography professor at the University of Exeter.

“Using drones could help researchers and local communities improve monitoring and prediction of future changes in the region.”

Herschel Island-Qikiqtaruk is uniquely suited to study because there has been a history of ecological documentation and it is located above the treeline but south of the extreme Arctic.

“Scientists expect to see lots of ecological change there,” said Myers-Smith.

The island’s Pauline Cove was at one time a significant settlement for Indigenous people and later served as a community for European and American whalers starting in the late 1800s. It was also an outpost for the Hudson’s Bay Company between 1915 and 1937. The island continues to be used by the Inuvialuit for hunting and fishing but the last permanent, year-round residents left in 1987.

A dozen structures survive on the island, including Indigenous sod homes and whaling buildings, which continue to be threatened by coastal erosion. It’s also home to a territorial park.

In 2008, the World Monuments Fund placed Herschel Island on its 100 Most Endangered Sites watch list, citing rising sea levels, eroding coastline and melting permafrost as imminent threats.

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Who's behind the anti-Andrew Scheer ad airing during Raptors game?

 

Michael D'Alimonte, Power Play producer
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 6:23PM EDT 
Last Updated Tuesday, June 11, 2019 12:17PM EDT

If you watched Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Canada, you might have seen a 30-second ad from an organization called Engage Canada attacking Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer.

Where did the group get the cash to pay for a Toronto Raptors playoff commercial that could cost upwards of $50,000? The group is hesitant to say.

Tabitha Bernard, a spokesperson for Engage Canada, said in a written statement that the group’s ad campaigns are meant “to fight back against the dominance of corporate interests” on the airwaves.

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Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer announces his immigration policy at an event hall in Toronto, Tuesday, May 28, 2019. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston)

The ad that ran during Monday night’s Raptors game accuses Scheer of “hiding something” and says that, if elected, he “would follow Ontario Premier Doug Ford” when it comes to health care and education cuts.

The group describes itself as a “grassroots organization.” Corporate records and archived union documents show that it is comprised of veteran political strategists and individuals with strong ties to some of Canada’s largest union groups.

Formally created in December 2014, according to incorporation documents, Engage Canada orchestrated a targeted ad campaign against Stephen Harper in the lead up to the 2015 federal election.

Using the tagline “Not There For You,” the group released several TV advertisements criticizing Harper’s tenure as prime minster.

“With the Conservatives, you and your family just aren’t in the picture” said one Engage Canada TV ad focused on income inequality. “The Harper Conservatives, they won’t be there for you,” said another focused on health care.

But Engage Canada was nowhere to be found on Election Canada’s list of registered third party advertisers as part of the 2015 election.

Engage Canada spent all of its advertising dollars before the election was called, meaning the group never had to register as a third party advertiser and disclose any financial details.

It looks like the group may be employing the same strategy this time around with Scheer, said Erin Crandall, an Acadia University professor who studies Canadian election law.

“If Engage Canada takes the same approach as the 2015 election, to stop advertising before the regulatory period, then we’re not going to have any insight into donors” said Crandall.

Engage Canada also used social media channels to bypass election advertising regulations in the last election cycle, said Crandall.   

“If you can do all the big ad spending before the regulatory period, and then stick the ads up on social media where it doesn’t cost anything, then you’ve been able to strategically spend more than you would have been able to otherwise,” she said.

Monday night’s Raptors game is a prime example. Any and all production costs tied to the ad, and the price of the highly-coveted NBA finals airtime, do not need to be released by the group.

Since the ad money is being spent before pre-writ period, Engage Canada does not need to disclose any financial details.

And, short of Engage Canada releasing its own financial documents, it’s next to impossible to know where, exactly, the money to fund the group’s TV, radio and social media ads is coming from. Engage Canada told CTV News it is “funded entirely by donations, large and small, from individual Canadians, organizations, and groups across the country…including labour unions."

Two current directors of the group, corporate records show, are political campaign veterans Kathleen Monk, former campaign director to Jack Layton, and Dave Gene, former deputy chief of operations to Dalton McGuinty.

Monk confirmed she and Gene are active directors of the group in an emailed statement.

As of May 25, days before Engage Canada launched its anti-Scheer ad campaign, the group gained two new directors:  Peter Kennedy, former Unifor national secretary-treasurer, and Igor Delov, executive assistant to the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario.

Unifor national president Jerry Dias asked union members to donate to Engage Canada during a speech made at a Unifor Ontario Regional Council meeting in December 2015, archived records show.

An executive member of the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario also asked their members to fund Engage Canada’s efforts.

“Partnering with Engage Canada, we could help reach more voters and defeat the federal Conservative government in the next federal election,” reads a 2015 letter from Patrick Dillon, business manager for the trades council, sent to the group’s many members.

When asked what relationship Engage Canada has with Unifor and other unions, Bernard said that “Unifor is one of many of Engage Canada’s donors.”

Bernard added that “it would be inaccurate to suggest that Unifor is our only funder” and acknowledged that other labour unions are financial donors to Engage Canada.

Bernard did not, however, elaborate on the amount that Unifor or other union groups have donated to the group in the past, or more recently.

Scheer and Unifor’s leadership have been publicly at odds recently due to the controversy surrounding the union group’s involvement in the panel to choose which news organizations will receive new tax credits.

The Conservative leader says that including an anti-Conservative union on the panel will undermine its credibility and give Prime Minister Justin Trudeau an edge in the upcoming election.

“Unifor is a highly partisan group with highly aggressive and partisan goals,” said Scheer during question period on May 29.

"Scheer puts the very principles of truth and democracy at risk with this own brand of fake news" said Unifor national president Jerry Dias in a written response to Scheer's comments.

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Canada's treatment of Indigenous women not a 'genocide': Andrew Scheer

The Canadian Press 
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 12:48PM EDT 

OTTAWA -- "Genocide" isn't the right word to describe what's been done to generations of Indigenous women and girls in Canada, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said Monday.

Last week, the federal inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls released its final report. The report included a lengthy argument for why Canada's "series of actions and omissions" allowed Indigenous women to be targeted in ways that add up to an ongoing genocide.

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Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer talks to the media in the foyer of the House of Commons on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa on Monday, June 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

The inquiry noted that under international law, a genocide doesn't need a single directing mind, or to be an organized campaign of violence.

Scheer called every death "a tragedy" that has a "huge impact on families and loved ones." Speaking on Parliament Hill, Scheer said there are concrete actions governments can take to protect vulnerable populations, specifically Indigenous women and girls.

"That being said," he added, "the ramifications of the term 'genocide' are very profound. That word and term carries a lot of meaning. I think the tragedy involved with missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls is its own thing, it is its own tragedy, and does not fall into that category of genocide."

The use of the term "genocide" in the report instantly sparked arguments over whether the inquiry commissioners' label is accurate, and whether those arguments risk obscuring the findings and the 231 recommendations the inquiry made.

Citing residential schools, poor health care, unsafe transportation, and indifferent or even hostile policing, the inquiry's four commissioners argued the policies aimed to "destroy Indigenous Peoples physically, biologically, and as social units" through oppressive colonial actions that have persisted since Europeans began settling in North America.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has not directly answered questions about whether he agrees with that, though he has said he accepts the findings of the report.

After a speech on Monday in Vancouver, the inquiry's chief commissioner Marion Buller said it's unfortunate when a political leader rejects a finding of a 30-month national inquiry.

"The danger is, of course, he's saying, 'I don't believe the truths that the families told.' I think it's a real affront to the families and survivors who did come forward," she said.

Canada signed on to the United Nations' 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which included commitments to avert and stop genocidal acts and punish perpetrators. After the inquiry report was released, the secretary general of the Organization of American States said he wanted to form an international panel to investigate the claim and achieve justice.

"The idea that Canada would now be subject to the types of international actions that follow findings of genocide -- I think we have to be very careful with the use of that terminology and I don't want to get distracted from the good work that the report has done," Scheer said.

"But that being said, I think that the tragedy is its own thing, it is its own heartbreaking situation for every single family that was affected by it, and it does not fall into the category of genocide."

On Sunday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett told Global TV's "The West Block" that the Liberal government would support such a call because it believes in the "rules-based international system."

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Ottawa passes legislation that bans whale and dolphin captivity in Canada

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 10, 2019 1:20PM EDT 

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Keeping whales and dolphins in captivity will no longer be allowed across Canada under legislation that passed Monday, drawing celebrations from activists and politicians who called it a significant development for animal rights.

The federal bill, which now only requires royal assent to become law, will phase out the practice of holding cetaceans -- such as whales, dolphins and porpoises -- in captivity, but grandfathers in those that are already being kept at two facilities in the country.


"Today's a really good day for animals in Canada," said Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who sponsored the private member's bill that began its journey in the Senate in 2015 before moving on to the House of Commons.

"Many scientists testified to why it was critical that we stop keeping cetaceans in captivity. We understand why because they are obviously not akin to other animals, for instance, livestock. Cetaceans require the ocean, they require the space, they require acoustic communication over long distances."

Gord Johns, the NDP critic for fisheries and oceans said the bill's passage marked "a celebration for cetaeans, for animals rights, the planet and our oceans."

The legislation, which had its third and final reading Monday, received support from the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, with some Conservatives opposed.

It bans the capture of wild cetaceans, but does allow for the rehabilitation and rescue of the aquatic mammals. The bill also changes the Criminal Code, creating new animal cruelty offences related to the captivity of cetaceans. Breeding is also banned.

Imports and exports of cetaceans will also be banned under the bill, with exceptions only for scientific research or "if it is in the best interest" of the animal, with discretion left up to the minister, thereby clamping down on the marine mammal trade.

"This is a watershed moment for whales and dolphins, and powerful recognition that our country no longer accepts imprisoning smart, sensitive animals in tiny tanks for entertainment," said Camille Labchuk, executive director of advocacy group Animal Justice.

Animal rights group PETA said it was "popping the champagne corks today as Canada makes history."

"We look forward to a day when confining sensitive, complex marine mammals to tiny tanks is outlawed in every country around the world," Tracy Reiman, the group's executive vice-president, said in a statement.

Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont., and the Vancouver Aquarium in British Columbia are the only two facilities in Canada that currently keep captive cetaceans.

The Vancouver Aquarium announced last year that it would no longer house cetaceans and has one dolphin left at its facility. That came after Vancouver's board of parks and recreation passed a bylaw amendment in 2017 banning cetaceans being brought to or kept in city parks after two beluga whales held at the aquarium died.

Marineland, meanwhile, has told the government it has more than 50 belugas at its facility.

It recently received approval to export two belugas, both owned by the Vancouver Aquarium, to a park in Spain. It also applied to move five more belugas to facilities in the United States, but hasn't received those approvals yet, a Fisheries spokeswoman said late last week.

The facility told the government it had problems with the way the whale and dolphin captivity bill was written, noting that it would be in violation of the Criminal Code when the law comes into effect since some of its belugas are pregnant and set to give birth this summer.

On Monday, it said it will comply with "all animal welfare legislation in Canada."

"Marineland began an evolution in our operation some time ago, and as that evolution continues we are confident that our operations remain compliant with all aspects of (the bill)," it said in a statement.

The head of Humane Canada, an animal welfare group, said the legislation was needed.

"If the bill didn't do something to end captive breeding, we could have ended up with a beluga farm in Marineland," said Barbara Cartwright.

Phil Demers, a former whale trainer at Marineland who testified at hearings on the bill, said he was "elated" at it passing.

"Marineland could never be again, if it wanted to start today," said Demers, a longtime critic of Marieland who is engaged in a legal battle with the facility.

Marineland, for its part, has long said it treats its animals well.

"Marineland Canada continues to be a facility where children can learn about and be inspired by cetaceans without invading their natural habitats or disturbing cetacean populations that live in the ocean," it said Monday. "We're proud of our work, and our contribution to research, education, and conservation."