Dispatches

It is my great pleasure to be here today to participate in this historic event.

My mind and heart go back to those dark days in the fall of 1953 when families from Inukjuak were offloaded from the decks of the C.D. Howe and the d’Iberville and deposited onto the shores of Ellesmere and Cornwallis islands in the High Arctic.

Joseph Qiqut Huyer Upton & ITK Communications Officer Melissa Irwin at the 2010 Students on Ice expedition launch

Joseph Qiqut Huyer Upton is Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami's Year of the Inuit Ambassador aboard the 2010 Students on Ice Arctic Expedition, he is an Inuk from Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, currently living in Kingsport, Nova Scotia.

Each year hundreds of students from across Canada apply for positions on the annual Students On Ice expeditions; Joseph was chosen as the ITK Year of the Inuit Ambassador as he has an outgoing and adventurous personality that is suited to this type of group learning expedition, and because he has proven that he is able to create opportunities and then work with them.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami has forwarded all Members of the European Parliament a special printing of the May/June Above & Beyond magazine article titled "The European Union Shuts Down Seal-Product Imports - Again"

In a covering letter included with the article Mary Simon states

Even though Canadian Inuit were not the direct target of the 1980s European white coat seal ban and do not engage in hunting white coats, that ban caused devastating cultural, social, and economic impacts upon our people. Many of our people recall the loss of critical livelihoods and the loss of lives through suicide during this time.

Dear Prime Minister

I am writing to you with respect to environmental safeguards surrounding offshore oil and gas drilling in the Canadian Arctic.

The dramatic and destructive consequences of the recent rupture to an oil drill in the Gulf of Mexico underscore the environmental risks and engineering challenges associated with offshore oil and gas exploration and production. In the Arctic offshore, these risks and challenges are compounded greatly by harsh climatic conditions, the presence of annual and multi-year ice, incomplete knowledge bases, and the limited availability of port, transportation, and other forms of infrastructure.

Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, on behalf of Inuit, is seeking the following core assurances from the Government of Canada with respect to the governance of offshore oil and gas drilling:

Deadlines for National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation (NAAF) scholarships and bursaries are quickly approaching.

Since 1985 the NAAF has awarded more than $32 million in scholarships and bursaries to over 8,400 Aboriginal students across Canada.

Inuit planning on attending post secondary institutions are encouraged to visit the NAAF "Building Brighter Futures" web page for further information on funding opportunities and to download applications.

Tomorrow students from a political science class at Acadia University are holding a "2010: Year of the Inuit" event to highlight the issues of

• homelessness
• climate change
• hunger, and;
• intergenerational grief

As part of the event they are holding a "24-Hour Camp Out for Change" - a "call on the federal government to live up to its commitments and tackle homelessness and hunger facing many Inuit across Canada".