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.

Painter demands N.B. groups stop using his art to promote political protest

By Karla Renić  Global News

Posted February 4, 2022

View image in full screen

Painting "Roaring Tides" by Adam Young is seen. Adam Young

A Newfoundland artist is pleading with protest organizers in New Brunswick to stop using his art for promotional material without his permission.

Adam Young, who goes by Young Studios on social media, says groups on Facebook and Twitter are using his painting to promote an upcoming political protest in N.B.

“It’s not right,” Young said. “I hadn’t given permission for the group to use my work in that way.”

Earlier this week, many of his friends and followers started reaching out to him to inform him the painting was being used in posts promoting a rally in Quispamsis, N.B.

The rally seems to oppose COVID-19 restrictions imposed by Premier Blaine Higgs in the province.

The following Facebook post is an example of the promotional material that features Young’s painting.

The painting, Roaring Tides, was inspired by the New Brunswick provincial flag and is a part of a series Young did on all four Atlantic provinces.

It wasn’t meant to be politicized, he said.

“I’m a proud East Coaster. … It was just meant to be a piece that basically shows the beauty of our province.”

READ MORE: N.B. arts sector asking provincial government for $12.5M in recovery aid

On Thursday, Young took to social media in hopes of getting his concerns heard.

“I do not give permission for my art to be used in this manner. I have asked for them to stop using the image,” he wrote on Facebook.

The post now has more than 2,400 likes and 400 comments and shares, and Young says he’s grateful for his community’s response.

“I’ve had a lot of really kind messages and in response to my post, and I appreciate it.”

READ MORE: Chinese snow sculptures dazzle Kirkland residents during ongoing pandemic

But, Young told Global News his attempts to have the protest-organizing groups remove his painting from their posts have been unsuccessful.

“I was met with a few people blocking me and a few people kind of ignoring me,” he said.

“My real issue was with the fact that my work was being used without my permission.”

Young also said politics is not something he wants to be involved in.

“My work is just for the sake and beauty of our provinces and the love of painting. I haven’t taken on that political outlet and I don’t think I ever would,” he said.

“My artwork is not to be politicized.”

CLICK TO SHARE QUOTE ON TWITTER: "MY ARTWORK IS NOT TO BE POLITICIZED."

And it’s not something he wants to change.

READ MORE: Creative Healing: How art can help relieve stress and anxiety

“I just keep it simple,” Young said. “My whole message in my work, and in the way that I make my own rules of living, is to be kind — and I show kindness in all that I do.”

View image in full screen

Artist Adam Young is seen holding his painting “Gusty,” in a photo taken last November. Adam Young

He said it’s common for artists to have their work used — without permission — for things they weren’t intended for.

“Everyone who puts their stuff out there, it can be manipulated and used in any way.”

Young said taking legal action in this case will be his last resort, as he wants this to be a teachable moment.

“Hopefully, through this whole situation, people will understand that copyright is a real thing and you should ask for permission.”

But, if the use of Roaring Tides continues he will have to take further steps, “reluctantly,” he said.

Two Norval Morrisseau paintings recovered four decades after brazen theft

The paintings – titled Demi-God Figure 1 (right) and Demi-God Figure 2 (left) – 

were done by Norval Morrisseau and donated to Confederation College in Thunder Bay in the 1970s

. (Submitted: Confederation College)

Danton Unger
CTVNewsWinnipeg.ca 

Editorial Producer
Published Feb. 4, 2022

More than 40 years ago two brazen art thieves walked into a college in Thunder Bay and stole two Norval Morrisseau works off the wall. Now four decades later – the paintings have found their way back to their rightful owners.

Kathleen Lynch, president of the Confederation College in Thunder Bay, said the two paintings had been donated to the college in the 1970s by the then-campus manager who had known the artist.

The paintings – titled Demi-God Figure 1 and Demi-God Figure 2 – were done by Norval Morrisseau, who according to the Art Canada Institute, is considered to be the grandfather of contemporary Indigenous art in Canada. Morrisseau died in 2007 at the age of 75.

"Everybody admired the two beautiful paintings by Norval that he had done when he was in Kenora," Lynch said.

RELATED STORIES

Morrisseau, 'Picasso of the North,' dead at 75

Analyzing paintings could help diagnose diseases like Alzheimer's earlier: study

However, in 1981, Lynch said two young men walked into the campus in broad daylight and told school staff they had instructions to remove the paintings – each one measuring 150 cm by 100 cm.

"They removed them from the wall, and they took them from the college," she said. "Somebody knew what they were doing because they specifically targeted those two paintings."

For the next four decades, the two paintings were lost to the college – until 2018 when a Toronto-based art curator and dealer contacted the college saying she had found the paintings.

The curator had been contacted by a colleague in Montreal who was looking to sell the two paintings. When she saw them, the curator recognized the paintings as the ones stolen from the Confederation College.

"It's taken this long, but I was determined to get them back, and get them back here to Northwestern Ontario where they belong," Lynch said.

"I am just thrilled that we have been able to accomplish this because it took a long time and a lot of wrangling and a lot of details to be worked out, but they're back home where they belong."

The paintings are now back in Thunder Bay. However, Lynch said they will not be brought back to the college.

"We have decided we should not probably be the host of these beautiful, valuable paintings. We're not set up to manage this," Lynch said, adding instead the paintings will be on display at the Thunder Bay Art Gallery.

In a news release from Confederation College, Sharon Godwin, director of the art gallery, said Morrisseau's work is extraordinarily meaningful to the country's art history and the people of Northwestern Ontario.

"The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is honoured to accept and provide a home for these two works, which are fascinating on their own, but made even more so by the story of their past," Godwin said.

Lynch said the college plans to unveil the paintings at a dinner at Confederation College at the end of March if public health measures allow for in-person events.

-with files from CTV's Charles Lefebvre

A deluge of medical waste is swamping the globe, a U.N. report says.

A dump with disposed medical waste bags outside a hospital in New Delhi in 2020.

Credit...Adnan Abidi/Reuters

By Adeel Hassan
Feb. 3, 2022

A new report from the World Health Organization has highlighted the overabundance of medical waste around the world caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The thousands of tons of extra garbage — discarded syringes, old test kits and used vaccine vials — has strained waste management systems and is threatening both human health and the environment, the W.H.O. said this week.

The agency, which is part of the United Nations, said that most of the estimated 87,000 tons of personal protective equipment and supplies for coronavirus testing and vaccinations — distributed to countries from March 2020 to November 2021 through a U.N. emergency initiative — has ended up as waste.

In addition, more than 8 billion coronavirus vaccine doses given globally have produced 143 tons of trash in the form of syringes, needles and safety boxes. Some of the waste could expose other people to needle punctures and disease-causing germs, the report said.

“It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right P.P.E.,” Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of the World Health Organization’s health emergencies program, said in a statement. “But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment.”

To combat these problems, the report recommends the use of “eco-friendly” packaging and shipping, along with reusable equipment and products made from recyclable or biodegradable materials.

The report also noted that 30 percent of health care facilities worldwide could not handle the amount of garbage they were creating even before the pandemic. And that number grows to as much as 60 percent in the least developed countries. The trash can contaminate the air in nearby communities when it is burned, pollute water and attract disease-carrying pests, the report’s authors wrote. They called for increased investment in cleaner waste-treatment technologies and recycling.

Solid waste experts have said that high volumes of personal protective equipment have been misclassified as hazardous. Much of that material is dumped in burn pits because it is excluded from normal trash.

“The report is a reminder that although the pandemic is the most severe health crisis in a century, it is connected with many other challenges that countries face,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the W.H.O. director general.

The estimate does not include the trash from hundreds of tons of supplies that were not distributed through the U.N., or face coverings and at-home testing kits used by the general public.

Adeel Hassan is a reporter and editor on the National Desk. He is a founding member of Race/Related, and much of his work focuses on identity and discrimination. He started the Morning Briefing for NYT Now and was its inaugural writer. He also served as an editor on the International Desk. @adeelnyt

WHO WARNS OF THREATS FROM COVID MEDICAL WASTE TO ENVIRONMENT, HUMAN HEALTH

Published on Feb. 3, 2022,

Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc
Reporter

Unprecedented amounts of discarded medical waste, which is largely made from plastics, are putting human health and the environment at risk.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a report stating that the medical waste created by the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a “tremendous strain” on global health care waste management systems and could threaten the health of both humans and the environment.

The scale of the medical waste produced in response to the pandemic will take years to precisely estimate. WHO estimates that so far there have been 140 million test kits, which could generate 2,600 tonnes of plastic and other non-infectious waste and 731,000 litres of chemical waste. Over eight billion vaccine doses have been administered across the world, and the syringes, needles, and safety boxes could amount to 144,000 tonnes of waste.

The fibres in single-use face masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) are a fossil fuel-derived plastic called polypropylene. More than 99 per cent of plastics are made from fossil fuels and the environmental concerns come from both the impacts the degrading waste has on ecosystems and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions used to make the PPE.

“It is absolutely vital to provide health workers with the right PPE. But it is also vital to ensure that it can be used safely without impacting on the surrounding environment,” Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said in the report’s news release.

A single-use face mask that was improperly disposed of in Brandenburg, Germany. (Kevin Kobs/ Moment/ Getty Images)

The staggering levels of medical waste are also presenting serious risks to human health. WHO states that 30 per cent of healthcare facilities are not equipped to handle typical waste loads, which have all become even more strained as the pandemic wears on. Some of the main hazards that come from mismanaged medical waste include exposure to contaminated needles and pathogenic microorganisms.

Communities that live near poorly managed landfills and waste disposal sites that received COVID-19 medical waste also face public health risks due to contaminated air from burning waste, poor water quality, and pests carrying infections.
Article continues below

“COVID-19 has forced the world to reckon with the gaps and neglected aspects of the waste stream and how we produce, use and discard of our health care resources, from cradle to grave,” said Dr. Maria Neira, Director, Environment, Climate Change and Health at WHO.

“Significant change at all levels, from the global to the hospital floor, in how we manage the health care waste stream is a basic requirement of climate-smart health care systems, which many countries committed to at the recent UN Climate Change Conference, and, of course, a healthy recovery from COVID-19 and preparedness for other health emergencies in the future.”

WHO says that some solutions include eco-friendly packaging and shipping, safe PPE that is reusable, materials that are recyclable and biodegradable, non-burn waste treatment technologies, and improved recycling technologies for existing materials such as plastic.

Thumbnail credit: Ana Maria Serrano/ Moment/ Getty Images

Ottawa files court brief supporting Enbridge in Line 5 dispute with Michigan

By James McCarten

 The Canadian Press
Posted February 4, 2022 

 This July 19, 2002, file photo, shows the Mackinac Bridge that spans the Straits of Mackinac from Mackinaw City, Mich. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, ordered Canadian energy company Enbridge last fall to shut down its Line 5 — a key piece of a crude delivery network from Alberta's oil fields to refineries in the U.S. Midwest and eastern Canada. A section roughly 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) long crosses the bottom of Michigan's Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File). Canadian Press

The federal government is once again urging a Michigan judge to keep Line 5 operating while it works with the United States on negotiating an end to the impasse over the controversial cross-border pipeline.


Gordon Giffin, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada who is serving as Ottawa’s counsel of record, filed a fresh amicus brief this week spelling out the stakes for both countries if the pipeline, owned and operated by Calgary-based Enbridge Inc., is shut down.

The newest brief is significantly more compact than the version Canada filed in an identical case last year, but reiterates the original argument, with one significant difference: the first brief was filed in May, before the two countries sat down in hopes of ending the standoff.

READ MORE: Enbridge, state of Michigan renew Line 5 hostilities in court

Since then, officials from both Canada and the U.S. have met once already, sitting down in mid-December under the terms of a 1977 treaty designed to prevent interruptions to the cross-border flow of oil and gas, and will gather again some time in “early 2022,” the documents note.

The treaty requires both countries “not to shut down or otherwise impede the operations of international hydrocarbon transit pipelines that transport hydrocarbon products from somewhere in Canada to somewhere else in Canada via the United States, or vice versa,” they argue.

That clause “applies to Line 5, which has transported hydrocarbons since 1953 from Western Canada to Central Canada via Wisconsin and Michigan,” the brief continues, and applies “to any measures instituted by a ‘public authority in the territory of either party’ — which includes the state of Michigan and its officials.”

Until those talks reach an agreement or head to arbitration, it’s vital that the court not grant Michigan’s request that the line — which crosses the Great Lakes beneath the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac — be unilaterally shut down, the brief argues.

READ MORE: Line 5: Enbridge seeks to have oil pipeline case decided in U.S. federal court

Unless a solution were to emerge through other means, the documents note, “giving full effect to the 1977 treaty would entail ensuring that no compelled shutdown occurs” before the treaty talks have a chance to end the dispute.

“In the context of this case, that would mean entering injunctive relief prohibiting Michigan from proceeding to shut down Line 5 while the process is ongoing. Canada respectfully submits that that would be an appropriate order in this case.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat and close ally of President Joe Biden whose political fortunes depend on the support of environmental groups in the state, ordered the shutdown of Line 5 back in November 2020, fearing an ecological disaster in the straits.

Enbridge pushed back hard, arguing that Whitmer and state Attorney General Dana Nessel had overstepped their jurisdiction and that the case needed to be heard in federal court. Late last year, District Court Judge Janet Neff agreed with Enbridge on the issue of jurisdiction.

That’s when Whitmer and Nessel abruptly withdrew their complaint, opting instead to concentrate on a separate but similar circuit court case dormant since 2019. Enbridge is now making the same arguments in that case that they did throughout last year — that it needs to be heard by a federal judge.

Nessel is hoping to head off that argument on a technicality: under federal law, cases can only be removed to federal jurisdiction within 30 days of a complaint being filed.

READ MORE: Planning for Canada-U.S. treaty talks on Line 5 ‘well underway,’ Ottawa says

The Line 5 pipeline ferries upwards of 540,000 barrels per day of crude oil and natural gas liquids across the Canada-U.S. border and the Great Lakes by way of a twin line that runs along the lake bed beneath the straits linking Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

Critics want the line shut down, arguing it’s only a matter of time before an anchor strike or technical failure triggers a catastrophe in one of the area’s most important watersheds.

Proponents call Line 5 a vital and indispensable source of energy, especially propane, for several Midwestern states, including Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It is also a key source of feedstock for critical refineries on the northern side of the border, including those that supply jet fuel to some of Canada’s busiest airports.

In a separate amicus brief also filed this week, lawyers for several prominent international unions and labour groups, including the United Steelworkers and the North American Building Trades Unions, spelled out the potential economic impact of a Line 5 closure.

“Enbridge estimates that if Line 5 ceases operation, the refineries in Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, Quebec and Pennsylvania will lose 40 per cent of their crude supply and, with that reduction in product, will either close completely or become significantly less competitive,” the brief says.

“In either case, the impact on workers who depend on Line 5 for their employment would be dramatic.”

A third brief filed by an array of state and national energy associations further makes the point that allowing Michigan to shut down Line 5 would create a striking precedent.

“It would not only terminate operation of a vital interstate pipeline, but also significantly undermine the exclusive federal regulatory authority over interstate pipeline safety,” they argue.

“Such a novel ruling would open the door to a spate of similar claims from other states for other interstate pipelines that could create the patchwork of varying and potentially conflicting pipeline safety regulations and closures that Congress expressly precluded.”

© 2022 The Canadian Press