Greenland wobbles, Clarkson on a spree

January

* The coalition government formed by the Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit parties in Greenland falls. On Jan. 16, Premier Hans Enoksen announces that he has managed to strike an agreement with the Atassut Party to form a new coalition government.
* Outside Iceland’s House of Parliament in Reykjavik, Icelanders protest a huge hydro-electric project. The controversial Kárahnjúkar hydroelectric dam planned for eastern Iceland will involve the damming of two rivers.
* The University of the Arctic (UArctic) begins both Web-based and classroom delivery of its second course, BCS331: Contemporary Issues in the Circumpolar World. Twenty-five students at eight sites around the circumpolar region are enrolled in the online version of the course.

February

* About 200 demonstrators, led by Inuit Circumpolar Conference vice-president Aqqaluk Lynge, protest the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Denmark, the Greenland home rule government and the United States on the area around Dundas (Uummannaq), not far from the site of the American Thule air base in northern Greenland. They fear it’s the first step toward the signing of a larger agreement that would see the base revamped into one of the ballistic missile defense sites U.S. president George W. Bush wants to build.

March

* Anti-war protesters march against the U.S. attack on Iraq in circumpolar cities and towns. In Rovaniemi, Finland, protesters light hundreds of candles during an anti-war vigil. Greenland is officially against the war.

April

* Lawmakers in Norway approve a ban on smoking in all restaurants, bars and other places serving food or drink. The smoking ban is signed into law in an effort “to protect the health of employees.” The law will go into effect next year on a date to be set by the country’s health minister.

May

* Future federal Liberal leader Paul Martin shows support for Canadian involvement in the U.S.-led missile defense system within a few months, as officials from Denmark and Greenland sign a landmark agreement-in-principle that will set the stage for an upgrading of Greenland’s Thule air base into a missile defense site. The deal offers Greenland a much stronger voice in foreign affairs than the home rule government previously had.
* Norway’s proposed law on land management enrages Saami leaders, because, if adopted, it would open their region to more industrial development and militarization. The act doesn’t recognize any traditional Saami ownership of the land and safeguards the rights of the Norwegian government to expropriate land for public purposes without compensation.

June

* The Greenland home rule government and the Workers’ Union, SIK, reach a two-year compromise on wages, narrowly averting a strike. Greenland would have been hit by a general strike in the public sector, just as its tourist season was about to start.
* The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission takes place in Berlin. At the conclusion of the IWC conference, a declaration is signed condemning nations found whaling for scientific purposes. Delegates also decide to establish a special committee on whale conservation.

July

* The Saami music festival Riddu Riddu – which means wind off the water in Saami – opens north of Tromsø, Norway. Riddu Riddu’s lineup of artists includes Nunavik throat singing by Puppuq’s Maaki Putulik and Laina Grey and heavy metal by Greenland’s Chilly Friday.

August

* Ingmar Egede, a former vice-president of the ICC, dies on Aug. 9 at the age of 73 after a long struggle with cancer. Egede was a member of ICC’s executive council from 1989-92 and vice-president of ICC from 1992-95.
* Iceland’s minister of fisheries announces that Iceland will begin its scientific whaling hunt of minke whales later this month. The quota for August and September will be 38 whales. The main objective of its hunt is to gain knowledge on the role that minke whales have in the marine ecosystem as well as their interaction with fish stocks.

September

* Health researchers gather in Nuuk, Greenland, for the International Congress for Circumpolar Health.
* Greenland’s fragile left-right government coalition between the Social Democratic Siumut and Conservative Atassut parties collapses because during the recent negotiations for a new collective agreement with Greenland’s workers’ union, the home rule government somehow counted the cost wrong and will have to shell out $20 million more than expected. The rival Siumut and Inuit Ataqatigiit Parties form a new coalition government – the third for Greenland in one year.
* Canada’s Arctic ambassador, Mary May Simon, Nunavut Commissioner Peter Irniq and ICC president Sheila Watt-Cloutier are among the Canadians who accompany Governor General Adrienne Clarkson and her husband John Ralston Saul on state visits to the Russian Federation, Finland and Iceland from Sept. 23 to Oct. 15.

October

* The reindeer roundup starts in Finnish Lapland, but the price of reindeer meat has dropped by more than one euro ($1.40) per kilogram since last year. This means herders will see a drop of up to 25 per cent in their income.
* An Icelandic fishing captain, known as “the Iceman” for his gruff character, grabs a 300 kilogram shark with his bare hands as it swims in the shallows toward his crew, and wrestles it on to the beach.

November

* The Hingitaq 53 association is in court seeking compensation for the loss of their traditional lands, expropriated for the construction of the Thule air base in the early 1950s. They want to establish their right to return to their territory.
* Churches in North Norway say they welcome homosexuals. In Svolvaer Church, the rainbow flag hangs outside the church to show gays and lesbians that they are welcome there.
* More than 100 owners and herders of reindeer northern Norway launch a legal battle against the military. Military officials said they intend to keep using the Halkavarre region and plan to expand their activities there, using it as a target area for bombing exercises.

December

* The Danish Supreme Court says the Inughuit will not receive more than the 1.7 million kroner ($300,000), which a lower court gave them as compensation four years ago. The court doesn’t support their claim over their traditional hunting grounds around the current site of Thule Air Base at Uummannaq. Premier Enoksen said the Greenlandic home rule government would fully support a bid by Hingitaq 53 to appeal the case at the European Court of Human Rights.