Smoke casts cloud over Kuujjuaq’s Canada Day festivities
Outdoor celebrations cut short as smoke from forest fires creeps onto the beach in early afternoon.
Canada Day in Kuujjuaq was busy on the shore of the Koksoak River, despite forest fire smoke that started to cloud the sky in the afternoon, eventually forcing organizers to put an early end to festivities. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)
Canada Day celebrations started bright and early in Kuujjuaq with a parade at 9 a.m. Saturday. Activities included vehicle-decoration and cake-making contests, kayak races and bingo on the beach.
But by 2 p.m., outdoor festivities had to be called off early due to forest fire smog that filled the sky.
By early afternoon, the sky had turned grey, and smoke in the air started to come from downriver. After wrapping up dice games, organizers decided to call off outside activities and to instead host activities on the radio.
Until that point, the beach had been packed with people and bright red colours were everywhere. Even with the smoky sky, the 28 C weather made for a perfect beach day.
The Government of Quebec said Saturday there were 67 active forest fires across the province.
As the coop beer and wine sales started at 1 on Canada Day, the beach would have people leaving the activity at that time, to go coop.
The problem with air quality in kuujjuaq is the smell of the dump. It’s an ongoing problem. If anyone never seen this site of a waste, you need to check it out, when the wind is not blowing the toxic smell around, which it usually does these days. It seems to be getting worse. The dump is the size of a big city dump. It’s worse in the smell than any forest fire. It needs to be checked out , in my opinion and surely yours too , if you know what I mean, yes environmental threat to the health of citizens, and any animals in the area. The dump is a perfect example of waste. Waste over the years, the waste of everything you can ever think off. There’s a Hugh piled of old bicycles, cars and trucks , drums, with god knows what. It’s captures the material waste , lots of tax payers money wasted, on junk, and big this and that. Plus, what’s in that dump that in the smoke , and now it haunts the ones who wasted , plus everyone else in town and around.
NGL, didn’t really believe you that the dump in Kuujjuaq was that large, but looking at google maps, yeah, that is a giant dump for the population. Hope that gets sorted out, as there is no need for all that debris to be exposed to the open air, it can be covered so it doesn’t blow into the environment.
The kuujjuaq dump may be more toxic than can be appreciated. I’m wondering if any authority has gone in there to assess the dangerous, in a non conflicting way. Like to have the true analysis of what toxic people are breathing and exposed to. Th dump is only 3 or 4 miles from town , if that even, and it’s also above the koksoak river, with seeping access through the little creeks and flowing streams down hill pretty much all the way. There don’t appeared to be any news from within the community on anything about the stink and air quality. Health authorities are busy keeping the area informed on the wild fire situation, but the ongoing issue is that smell from a dump, right around the corner, and a very large dump.
If you see the dump on google maps, you need to consider what’s the bottom layers upward. Google maps will show only the surface, but not the thickness of the brew underneath.
The way a community deals with its waste tells a big story about the community. If you’re moving to a new town or city, it’s a good place to visit. The kuujjuaq dump reflects the neglect, and waste that has been going on since 1940s. Would make you believe that the junk, and oil drums of the crystal one days are alive and well in the image of what kuujjuaq dump is today. How did a dump get so out of hand ? An become a health threat to its citizens? Answer : waste, free stuff, neglect, poor management, and more waste. There’s stuff at the dump , that in most places in Canada, would be a goal mine for the average citizen, like the iron , and car parts. But kuujjuaq m just get more on the ship. The average Johnny don’t pay, waste . Throw it away, at the dump.
Has anyone seen those tourist, or even transient workers of kuujjuaq, at the dump entrance taking a photo of an old rough paint piece of plywood written with Canadian tire across it ? Yes photo taking an old Canadian tire smeared painted written on plywood. I mean what’s the value, or the price or the collection needs of such photo.? These same people haven’t even a clue about the toxic in that dump. It’s a good example of what people do see, without seeing anything. Those photographs of the enthusiastic photographers.
To fully get a perspective on Canada Day activities, you need to include first line workers, including pilots of medivac. There should be a statistic given out for public view on the real cost of such activities. Police work, hospitals, docks , nurses , technicians. Front line workers , like fire department and first responders. Canada days in a heavily burdened area , is not all about the parties, as good as we want that to be. really, it’s more about the injuries and drunk driving and senseless behaviour.
I don’t celebrate Canada Day or any other activities among lunatics and idiots, sense drunks.
Who invited Karen? Its such a big community event, as it is an event for Canada in general. Why not just try and enjoy it.
How can people enjoy Canada Day. With drunks looking like something out of a horror reel ? Where a few drinks turns people in drunk drivers, no respect for even themselves, you go out on the roads and it’s risking life and limb. Johnny coming up on wrong side of the road , looking like a senseless lunatic. People going off in mud piles and hitting poles , no fire works but red emergencies lights flashing all day and night. Police overwhelmed and hospital staff ready to jump on next plane south. Happy Canada Day in the north.
You asked who invited Karen. Only to state an encouraging enjoyment on the last sentence. Interesting that you do understand the real situation, but denying it as well.
If you are observing the situation of drinking, places like kuujjuaq are interesting places to see. The motivation of living for so many people comes only from the designated holidays , providing the excuse to drink like senseless fouls. The coop store is motivated to open only for the purpose of selling alcohol. It can be closed and suddenly open just to sell beer and some wine. You’ll seen people getting more excited as the holidays times approached. Singing Christmas songs before the season , but getting nearer to. Playing old arpik jam tunes at about July mid. Shouting O Canada sometime in June. Then you have a dead town , many sleeping in not working , or no services provide. You’ll see a sewage truck here and there driven by the on call, speeding from a disturbance of a call, to get right back to the party. It’s interesting times for the uselessness. This society of Nunavik has so much dysfunctional . The target groups appears to be mid age to be , like late thirty, early forty year olds, with families, and partying like no tomorrow. If the authorities should observe, they’ll encourage that age group to get in touch with the treatment Center. To see that group so affected today, makes sense to what the years were like 30 or 40 years gone by.