Nathan VanderKlippe
Globe and Mail UpdatePublished on Sunday, Aug. 08, 2010 2:06PM EDTLast updated on Sunday, Aug. 08, 2010 3:57PM EDT
A Nunavut judge has blocked seismic testing in Lancaster Sound after Inuit protested the survey in Arctic waters.
The judge granted a temporary order blocking Natural Resources Canada from proceeding with the test.
The ruling hands a stunning setback to plans to conduct geological work in Canada’s Far North, a project supported by Natural Resources Canada and the German Alfred Wegener Institute, whose scientists were set to begin testing on Monday aboard the German ship Polarstern.
Inuit had argued that the seismic testing, which would use air guns to peer deep into the sub-sea earth, would disturb marine mammals, and argued that they had not been properly consulted in advance of the test.
The victory was seen by Inuit as a validation of their importance in how northern affairs are conducted.
“I’ve got goosebumps,” said Okalik Eegeesiak, the president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. “Governments can’t walk all over us. They have to consult with us and include us in pre-development, or pre-research.”
Government scientists had presented evidence that the test’s effects on mammals would be minimal, but early Sunday afternoon, the Nunavut Court of Justice issued a decision siding with the Inuit.
“On the whole of the evidence presented, I am satisfied that Inuit in the five affected communities will suffer irreparable harm if an injunction is not granted,” Justice Sue Cooper wrote.
The five communities are the Arctic hamlets of Pond Inlet, Arctic Bay, Grise Fiord, Resolute Bay and Clyde River, where many residents opposed the test.
“If the testing proceeds as planned and marine mammals are impacted as Inuit say they will be, the harm to Inuit in the affected communities will be significant and irreversible. The loss extends not just to the loss of a food source, but to loss of a culture. No amount of money can compensate for such loss,” Justice Cooper said.
Chris Debicki, Nunavut projects director for advocacy group Oceans North, called the ruling a “huge, huge victory for voices which until now just weren’t being heard.”
The judge ordered the testing blocked until the matter can be tried. According to David Crocker, a Davis LLP lawyer who represented the Inuit, the federal options include an appeal, a new round of Inuit consultations or abandonment of the project.
The ruling is “significant,” he said.
“This is more than just protecting a food source and all of the other things that these marine mammals are used for by the Inuit in the area,” he said. “This is protecting cultural heritage and [the judge] saw it that way. I think in that sense this case, particularly in the Eastern Arctic, is precedent setting.”
Seismic tests can be rescheduled for the future, since there “is no compelling reason why the testing must proceed this year,” Justice Cooper found. “Any loss that Canada might suffer if the testing does not proceed as scheduled is largely a financial loss which is quantifiable and compensable.”
The judge noted that the federal government
“states that the seismic testing will have little or no impact on marine mammals.”
However, she observed that the government’s own science includes ways to lessen the impact of seismic testing on marine mammals, and the “fact that such protocols exist support the conclusion that there are impacts; the issue is one of degree.”
She also pointed to contradictory science brought forward by Oceans North, which “documents significant impacts on marine mammals from seismic testing, including permanent hearing loss, disruption of feeding and migration patterns, and impacts on social bonding, reproductive success and predator avoidance.”
Inuit had also testified that “previous seismic testing in the area affected migration routes and the populations of marine mammals in the affected areas for a very long time,” Justice Cooper wrote.
The seismic tests were to occur in Lancaster Sound. It is an area north of Baffin Island rich in narwhal, walrus, beluga whales, seals and polar bears that has been dubbed the “Arctic Serengeti,” and which the federal government is working to make into a new marine conservation area. The project, called the Eastern Canadian Arctic Seismic Experiment, was to last 65 days, and was to gather information on the planet’s ancient geological history.
Both federal officials and Environment Minister Jim Prentice stated that the project was not designed to look for oil-and-gas potential in the area – but Inuit argued that seismic testing could help locate such reservoirs, and as such could serve as a trigger for industrial development of an important marine habitat.
Environmental groups also pointed out that seismic work was being carried out as part of the federal government’s $100-million Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals program, which is designed to look for new oil, gas and uranium resources.
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