Parks Canada in an internal report calls the creation of national parks culturally “harmful” and a “colonial injustice.” Management “now acknowledges this harmful historical legacy,” said the newly-disclosed report withheld from the public for two years. READ MORE
Virgina Mearns, cabinet’s $181,000-a year Arctic Ambassador, has been cited for breach of the Conflict Of Interest Act and fined $400. MPs have long sought more serious penalties for violators: "There should be real consequences." READ MORE
Liberal campaign organizer Tom Pitfield's Senate appointment was not patronage, Prime Minister Mark Carney said yesterday. The appointee had “deep technological knowledge” needed in the Senate, he said: "I am very pleased." READ MORE
Urban women over 65 are most likely to worry over climate change, Statistics Canada said yesterday in a rare psychosocial questionnaire. No reason was given: "Climate-related hazards in Canada and abroad can have a mental health impact with some people experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety." READ MORE
The Department of National Defence yesterday commissioned a $1.2 million study on the feasibility of zero emission light armoured vehicles. Managers said they remained committed to meeting climate targets despite research indicating green military technology is non-existent, too costly or impractical: "We have a responsibility to show leadership." READ MORE
Liberal MPs yesterday by a 5 to 4 vote quashed a Commons ethics committee probe of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s proposed $1.45 billion bailout of Metro Vancouver condo speculators. A British Columbia New Democrat MP joined Conservative and Bloc Québécois members in denouncing the plan as a costly giveaway: "No one is buying it." READ MORE
Liberal Party organizer Thomas Pitfield, a senator’s son named principal secretary to the Prime Minister, yesterday was appointed to the Senate. The appointment came almost five years to the day that Liberal MPs blocked an investigation of public payments to Pitfield’s company, Data Sciences Inc. of Montréal: 'He has a wealth of experience.' READ MORE
Robert Peary’s wife had given him a handmade flag to carry on his last expedition in 1906 when he claimed to discover the North Pole. Peary died in 1920 but left a written account of the map’s location in a cairn at Cape Columbia overlooking the Arctic Ocean. Hidden in the cairn was a rusted tin with a perfectly preserved remnant of the flag the size of a handkerchief. Later we gave it to Peary’s widow. We made other finds that year: tins of fruitcake from an 1875 British expedition, and letters addressed to Amundsen left behind by a Danish team in 1920. And we began the work of mapping the Canadian Arctic.
