‘Arctic in Transition’ – Role of Media (Part 1)

Université du Québec à Montréal

Montreal, Quebec

The UQAM conference ‘Arctic in Transition’ is just past the halfway mark. This morning’s sessions covered the North American Arctic and the role of Canada and the United States in the circumpolar world.

But both during the talks and during question periods, the media’s role in the ‘Arctic sovereignty’ debate came up more than once. This was a theme that came up yesterday too.

The feeling among many seems to be that media distorts the sabre-rattling angle of ‘who-owns-what-and-where’ in the circumpolar world. Many experts here have suggested that the reality is much less dramatic. In fact, many have said there’s no real ‘threats’ to speak of (in the geopolitical sense) and that the issues would be better served by discussing the Arctic in terms of ‘challenges’ instead.

Not everyone agrees with the above of course, but enough people have mentioned it that it seems worth pointing out. More on this in the coming days…

Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca