The photos you liked: top Nunatsiaq News photos of 2017

A show of solidarity gave rise to the two most popular images on the top 10 most-liked photos for 2017 on the Nunatsiaq News Facebook page and on our Twitter feed at @NunatsiaqNews.

At the end of January 2017, people in Canada and around the world reacted with grief and shock following news of a deadly attack on a Quebec City mosque Jan. 29.

Iqaluit residents joined in, gathering for a display of love and solidarity around the Iqaluit mosque Jan. 30.

More than 80 Iqalungmiut took time from their lunch break Jan. 30 to observe a moment of silence, as they held hands in a big circle.

“I’m thankful… for their solidarity and support with the Muslim community,” Muhammad Wani, vice president of the Islamic Society of Nunavut, told media at the gathering.

“At the same time, I’m very sad for those people who died yesterday by that cowardly act of a terrorist attack on our Muslim brothers.”

The event was organized by the Qanak Group in Iqaluit, whose event page on Facebook said the event was “to show love and support fellow Nunavummiut,” in wake of the killings.

Six people died Jan. 29 Cultural Centre of Quebec’s Grand Mosque in Ste-Foy, a suburb of Quebec City, after a gunman opened fire while evening prayers were ending.

To thank people in Iqaluit, the Muslim community in the city held a big food giveaway June 3, during Ramadan, the period when Muslims around the world fast and devote time to prayer and charitable acts.

Every day, Nunatsiaq News posts photos on its Facebook page, where the ranking of the photos becomes clear, according to the numbers of views, likes and shares they receive.

Many photos are also posted to Twitter, where its analytics shows which tweets are popular.

The top two photos of 2017 circulated to hundreds of thousands of people, in the Canadian Arctic and around the world, on Facebook and Twitter.

Two tied for the top

The top photo of 2017, taken by former Nunatsiaq News reporter Thomas Rohner of Iqaluit, shows more than 80 Iqaluit residents forming a circle near the Iqaluit mosque at noon Jan. 30 to show solidarity with Nunavut’s Muslims.

They gathered after the deadly shooting at a mosque in Ste-Foy, Que. that killed six people and injured another 19, in an event organized by the Islamic Society of Nunavut and the Qanak Collective.

“In the wake of the cowardly terrorist attack on Muslims at the Ste-Foy mosque we are calling on the community of Iqaluit to show love and support for fellow Nunavummiut,” organizers said.

In June, a second photo, by Nunatsiaq News senior reporter Jane George, of a food giveaway at the same Iqaluit mosque on June 3, shows Iqalungmiut lined up to receive one of 72 bags of food donated, packed and distributed by members of the Muslim community.

Syed Asif Ali, president of Islamic Society of Nunavut, said the food distribution was a way of responding to the city’s show of solidarity and love after the deadly attack on the Ste-Foy mosque earlier in the year.

“In the wake of the Quebec event in January, we decided to start a food drive for the community,” Ali said. Muslims were observing Ramadan, a period when Muslims around the world fast and devote time to prayer and charitable acts, he said.

Second most popular photos

The surprise landing by Swiss International Airlines, shown here in a photo by Darren Brooks, and then the arrival of the Antonov cargo jet sent in with a replacement engine, drew many thousands of people from around the world to the Nunatsiaq News Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Swiss International Airlines Flight 40, a Boeing 777-300, which departed Zurich at 1:10 p.m. local time in Switzerland bound for Los Angeles, California, made an emergency landing in Iqaluit, Feb. 1, with only one engine.

The roughly 200 passengers left the next day on a replacement jet.

After repairs, the Boeing 777 departed at about 6 p.m. Feb. 8, with a new engine.

Technicians had worked around the clock to replace the jet’s damaged engine after the Antonov, shown here in a photo by Iqaluit resident and plane-watcher Miali Buscemi, delivered the roughly $24-million replacement engine on Feb. 4 to Nunavut’s capital.

The location and environmental challenges to perform such a repair in the Arctic were unprecedented in the airline’s history, airline officials said.

A news story about the Swiss International flight’s landing and repair was also the top online story of 2017.

Third-place photo

Entitled “Moonlight Night Scene,” this photo received more likes on the Nunatsiaq News Facebook page than any other any other in 2017. The photo by Pudloo Pitsiulak of Kimmirut also won Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.’s annual photo contest.

The photo, used on NTI’s annual report cover this year and on the land claims body’s advertising materials, came with a $1,000 prize and an enlarged version of the photo.

Fourth-place photo

Braving wind chills of minus 42 C, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, flanked by Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami President Natan Obed in sealskin and a shivering Carolyn Bennett, then the minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, stands on the deck of Obed’s house in Iqaluit for a final news conference before heading to Inuksuk High School for a public tea and bannock event in this chilly-looking photo by Thomas Rohner.

Earlier on Feb. 9, Obed and Trudeau signed an agreement to create an Inuit-Crown partnership committee made up of Inuit leaders and federal ministers.

Fifth-place photo

Here, cousins Erica Taipana of Cambridge Bay, 22 months old, and Ophelia Bolt of Kugluktuk, 20 months old, model their new winter parkas. The traditional Kitikmeot-style parkas were made by the girls’ grandmother, seamstress Lucy Taipana of Kugluktuk, and this photo shared by Jamie Taipana easily won many views, likes and shares on Nunatsiaq News Facebook page.

Sixth-place photo

Arriving at Inukjuak, this sled dog—an excited participant in the 2017 Ivakkak dog team race in Nunavik—jumps into the air in this photo by Makivik Corp.’s official race photographer, Pierre Dunnigan.

Seventh-place photo

Kativik School Board teacher Maggie MacDonnell, at left here with some of her students in Salluit, wins the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, awarded March 19 by the Varkey Foundation under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates vice president, prime minister, and the emir of Dubai.

Through MacDonnell’s Life Skills program, she did “something quite extraordinary, something very special,” said a news release on the award. “The key? Turning students from problems in[to] solutions.”

“Maggie McDonnell has made an outstanding contribution to the lives of her students and everyone in Salluit. She is a deserving winner of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize for 2017—money she’ll use to set up an NGO [non-governmental organization].”

Eighth-place photo

This photo, taken by Putulik Photography, shows a zamboni driver cleaning off one of two outdoor skating rinks on a foggy April 4 morning on Williamson Lake in Rankin Inlet. As is common every spring, lake-top rinks attract young hockey players after the hamlet arena winds down.

Ninth-place photo

Trina Qaqqaq of Baker Lake, as seen in this photo courtesy of Equal Voice Canada, speaks out as Nunavut’s Daughters of the Vote delegate on Parliament Hill for International Women’s Day.

The event drew 338 young women to represent each of the federal ridings. In a speech to the House of Commons March 8, Qaqqaq called for support to tackle the territory’s high suicide rates.

“We cannot face this problem alone as we’ve done for so long,” Qaqqaq said to a standing ovation. “All we are asking for is basic human rights.”

Tenth-place photos

Photos of the Canada Day parade in Iqaluit on July 1, Canada’s 150th, are a huge draw, and widely circulated, particularly on Twitter. These photos by Nunatsiaq News reporter Beth Brown show Nunavut’s first zamboni and the rainbow Pride 2017 float.