Canada’s northern affairs minister to attend ICC general assembly in Alaska
Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, will participate in the Inuit Circumpolar Council’s general assembly in Alaska this week.
Bennett will participate in the gathering as it gets underway on Monday, said a news release from Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada issued on Sunday.
The Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) represents the approximately 160,000 Inuit from Canada, Greenland, Russia and the United States. The ICC meets every four years to elect a new chair and executive council and to establish the organization’s focus for the next four years.
The organization is also a permanent participant on the Arctic Council, a forum made up of the world’s eight circumpolar nations and six Arctic Indigenous groups.
The ICC was established in 1977 to advance Inuit concerns on the international stage, strengthen cross-border political and economic collaboration, and promote policies to preserve the environment in the Arctic.
This year’s meeting is being held in Utqiaġvik, Alaska.
Write to Eilís Quinn at eilis.quinn(at)cbc.ca
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Inuit traditional knowledge to guide marine management plan off Labrador coast, Radio Canada International
Finland: Sámi school preserves reindeer herders’ heritage with help of internet, Cryopolitics Blog
Norway: Norway and Sweden in quarrel over cross-border reindeer grazing, The Independent Barents Observer
Russia: Russia plans fenced parks to confine reindeer herding in Arctic, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: Report sheds light on Swedish minority’s historic mistreatment, Radio Sweden
United States: Alaskan Inuit dialect added to Facebook’s Translate app, CBC News
