The Council of Canadians and the Indigenous Environmental Network have just shown the new film ‘Inuit Knowledge and Climate Change’ at the National Press Club near Parliament Hill in Ottawa this evening, just days before the climate negotiations begin in Cancun, Mexico.
The room is full and MPs, senators and political staff from all parties were confirmed to attend.
Those gathered were welcomed by Edmonton-Strathcona MP Linda Duncan, the IEN’s Clayton Thomas Muller, and Maude Barlow and Andrea Harden-Donahue of the Council of Canadians.
Filmmakers Zacharias Kunuk (The Fast Runner, The Journals of Knud Rasmussen) joined the post-film discussion by telephone from Pangnirtung, Nunavut and Ian Mauro travelled from Winnipeg for the screening.
The film is an incredible first-person telling by Inuit elders in their own language of the impact of the climate crisis on the Arctic, including melting sea ice and glaciers, diminishing icebergs, degraded permafrost, warmer temperatures, more polar bears coming into contact with people, animal meat contaminated by industrial chemicals, and a peoples needing to adapt to these profound changes.
The film leaves no doubt that climate change is happening and that it is dramatically affecting the Arctic and its peoples.
The Council of Canadians and the IEN will also be screening the documentary for climate activists from around the world in Cancun next week. We will also be looking at how to bring this film and discussion into communities across Canada. The complete film can already be watched on-line at www.isuma.tv/ikcc.
