{"id":1399,"date":"2007-10-17T14:18:57","date_gmt":"2007-10-17T18:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/?p=1399"},"modified":"2026-02-09T14:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T19:56:25","slug":"inuit-leader-pleased-with-strong-arctic-focus-in-throne-speech-duane-smith-says-that-battling-climate-change-linked-to-arctic-sovereignty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/press-releases\/inuit-leader-pleased-with-strong-arctic-focus-in-throne-speech-duane-smith-says-that-battling-climate-change-linked-to-arctic-sovereignty\/","title":{"rendered":"Inuit Leader Pleased With Strong Arctic Focus in Throne Speech: Duane Smith says that Battling Climate Change Linked to Arctic Sovereignty"},"content":{"rendered":"Inuvik, 17 October 2007<\/strong>\r\n\r\nThe president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) Canada,\r\nDuane Smith, is pleased with the many references to the Arctic in last nights Speech from the\r\nThrone, read by Madame Michalle Jean, Canadas Governor-General. But he stressed that he\r\nwill withhold judgment until he sees actual plans and concrete action coming from the Canadian\r\ngovernment in the weeks to follow.\r\n\r\nWe heard commitments to not only work for Canadas sovereignty claim in the Arctic, said\r\nMr. Smith, but also for greater decision-making power for Inuit, and a focus on their wellbeing.\r\nArctic sovereignty is a significant priority issue for ICC Canada, as it is the representative body\r\nthat speaks out on matters of international concern for Canadian Inuit and is the voice of all Inuit\r\nfrom Greenland, Alaska, and Russia inside Canada.\r\n\r\nBecause of our strong historical links to Inuit to the west and to the east, we see ourselves as a\r\npeople that transcends boundaries, added Mr. Smith, but we also strongly identify with the\r\ncountry of Canada and are willing to work in partnership with the government where it supports\r\nour right to protect and develop the Arctic environment in a sustainable manner, and as we see\r\nfit.\r\n\r\nThe president of ICC Canada also stressed the importance of international and circumpolar-wide\r\nefforts to combat climate change, something that was not highlighted in the throne speech the\r\nway Mr. Smith had hoped. Both Arctic sovereignty and climate change are issues that cannot\r\nonly be solved in Ottawa, or even in Canadas Arctic alone. He said that ICC is willing to be of\r\nhelp on both issues, given its pan-Arctic mandate, and its strong links to indigenous peoples in\r\nsmall island developing states that will be affected by the melting Arctic glaciers.\r\n\r\nICC Canada supports the promised establishment of a leading edge Arctic research facility\r\nannounced in the throne speech, and hopes it will address the whole of the vast Canadian Arctic\r\nand its resources. ICC further hopes that climate change adaptation studies will be a central focus\r\nof the facility.\r\n\r\nI am happy with the throne speech focus on sovereignty and improving the well being of Inuit,\r\nbut I remind the government that sovereignty cannot be divorced from battling climate change in\r\nthe Arctic. The Governor-General did mention the need for Canada to work globally on climate\r\nchange issues and Mr. Smith intends to hold Canada to this. I am calling upon Canada to make\r\nstrong commitments at the December climate change conference hosted by the UN in Bali, said\r\nthe ICC leader. Much of the discussion in Bali will focus on what to do after Kyoto ends in 2012.\r\nCanada needs to stop greenhouse gas emissions now, and work with us internationally to do so,\r\nthe ICC leader concluded.\r\n\r\nFor more information:\r\n\r\nDuane Smith\r\n+1 867 777 1656\r\n\r\nCorinne Gray\r\n+1 613 563 2642\r\n\r\nInuit Circumpolar Council Canada Office\r\n504-170 Laurier Ave. W, Ottawa, ON K1P 5V5\r\nP: 613.563.2642 F: 613.565.3089\r\nicc@inuitcircumpolar.com<\/a>\u00a0\/\u00a0www.inuitcircumpolar.com<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-38","category-press-releases"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987515293,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1399\/revisions\/987515293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.inuitcircumpolar.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}