|
September 21, 2001
U.S. disaster strands Nunavut, Nunavik leaders
The eastern Arctic’s
vulnerabilities were exposed by last week’s terror attacks
on the U.S.
JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
Premier
Paul Okalik: “I was quite anxious.”
(FILE PHOTO)
 |
MONTREAL — The impact of recent disaster in the U.S. was
brought home to government leaders from Nunavut and Nunavik last
week as they sat stranded in the South.
“We’re in a very vulnerable position,” said Nunavut
Premier Paul Okalik.
Okalik was in Halifax for a meeting of federal, provincial and
territorial justice ministers, while Johnny Adams, chairman of
the Kativik Regional Government, had flown to Lebel-sur-Quévillon
near Val d’Or for meeting of northern Quebec’s regional
development council.
News of the disaster spread just as Okalik’s meeting got
underway Tuesday morning. The ministers soon left their discussions
to watch events unfold on television.
“We thought it was simulated or something. It was something
you see in the movies,” Okalik said.
In the afternoon, the justice ministers postponed their meeting.
But before Anne McLellan, the federal justice minister, left
for Ottawa, Okalik told her about the problems he knew Nunavut
would face due to the freeze on air traffic. Okalik hoped McLellan
would raise those concerns in cabinet.
With no way to return to Nunavut, Okalik said he tried to keeping
in touch by telephone, and he issued an official statement in
reaction to the tragedy.
“We’re in a very vulnerable position.”
— Nunavut Premier
Paul Okalik
“There is no way to describe how one reacts to such devastation,”
he said in the statement. “My deepest condolences go out
to the families and friends affected by this tragedy.”
Like many Canadians, Okalik also followed the news on television.
“I was quite anxious,” Okalik admitted. “It was
a real eye-opener. You never expect these kinds of things. Something
on this scale, you don’t consider it. It makes you think
what else can happen.”
Johnny Adams had similar thoughts as he sat in Val d’Or
watching the scenes of horror.
“Somehow you don’t think it can have such a big impact
on your region,” Adams said. “You never think that air
traffic could be stopped, and that you have no mode of travel
unless you have access to the road network.”
Unable to return to Nunavik, Adams kept tabs on the KRG’s
emergency-services unit in Kuujjuaq by phone.
“Things went fairly well,” Adams said. “But you
always wish you were with your community and your family when
things like this happen.”
On Tuesday morning, shortly before two hijacked aircraft struck
the World Trade Centre buildings, Adams headed off to Val d’Or
on one of the last planes that would take off that day from Montreal.
Passengers on that flight learned about the attacks while in
the air, but Adams said the horror of the crisis didn’t really
sink in until he was able to see televised images from New York
City and Washington, D.C..
Two people en route from Nunavik to Val d’Or on that flight
would leave Montreal after missing a connection.
They spent three days trying to get back to the Hudson Bay coast,
where one man learned of a suicide in his immediate family.
On Wednesday, Adams, Kangiqsualujjuaq Mayor Maggie Emudluk, and
Adel Yassa of the Katutjinit Development Council finally drove
back to Montreal.
They spent the night before their scheduled Thursday morning
departure in a Mont-Tremblant hotel, along with hundreds of people
from international flights diverted to Montreal.
Before heading to Dorval Airport, Adams called the First Air
ticket counter to make sure his group’s reservations were
solid.
“They said no. It’s all at the window. First Air basically
told us that they would give priority to the people who had been
waiting around for two days,” Adams said.
The KRG finally ended up chartering a plane to bring Adams and
the others home.
Adams, a qualified commercial pilot, said the hijacking of the
U.S. planes makes him appreciate the relative safety of air travel
in the North — where passengers and crew know each other.
“You know the people you’re with and, in this respect,
it’s more comforting,” Adams said.
The events of last week, and their bearing on the North, are
issues which both leaders intend to follow up with their governments.
|