QIA seeks injunction against seismic test project

(Updated August 4, 4:15 p.m.)

The Qikiqtani Inuit Association is taking legal action to slow or prevent a controversial research project in Baffin Bay.

On Aug. 3, the QIA announced it would file an injunction with the Nunavut court against a joint Canadian-German research team that has begun a voyage into Baffin Bay to conduct seismic tests between Baffin Island and Greenland.

The court’s civil registrar, Debbie Mercer, said the court will holding an emergency sitting on Aug. 5 at 9:30 a.m. in anticipation of QIA’s filing, which had not been made as of Aug. 3.

The Nunavut Court of Justice is officially on break until August 9, so at this point it’s not clear which judge will hear the application.

Nor would Mercer elaborate on how the court was able to schedule an emergency hearing for a motion that had not formally been filed.

The legal basis for QIA’s injunction request is also unclear right now. The organization’s Aug. 3 press release did not allege any real or potential breaches of any law.

QIA president Okalik Eegeesiak has repeatedly accused the federal and territorial governments of ignoring community concerns that were voiced during consultation meetings on the seismic project.

At each of these meetings, dozens of angry hunters declared unwavering and unanimous opposition to the Eastern Canadian Arctic Seismic Experiment.

“It is QIA’s intention to stand behind these voices and ensure Inuit rights and values are adequately considered,” reads the Aug. 3 QIA press release.

Eegeesiak said when the Nunavut Impact Review Board approved the ECASE project, it stipulated more meaningful community consultations.

She said the project was obligated to change its scope in response to the concerns raised in those consultations.

“The Proponent shall schedule its project activities appropriately based on information acquired from consultation with local residents, so as to ensure that project activities will not interfere with Inuit wildlife harvesting or traditional land use activities,” reads NIRB’s May 21 screening decision on the project.

According to the QIA press release, QIA’s injunction has received resolutions in support from the hamlet councils of Clyde River, Grise Fiord and Arctic Bay, the hunters and trappers organizations of the same communities, as well as HTOs in Pond Inlet and Resolute.

“As the GN and the federal government have made their decision to continue with the experiment, let’s hope that the QIA will be able to have the communities voice be heard through their legal action,” Quttiktuk MLA Ron Elliot said in a mass email to his constituents.

The hamlet council of Pond Inlet also voted its opposition to the seismic testing, said Pond Inlet’s economic development officer, Colin Saunders.

But he said there had also been a lot of interest in the two $300-a-day wildlife monitoring jobs that the project has offered to local hunters.