See the Devastated Landscape of the Alberta Tar Sands from 1,000 Feet Above
Hidden in plain sight, the Alberta tar sands fields are an industrial expanse where forests once stood. These aerial images capture the scenes of destruction.
Hidden in plain sight, the Alberta tar sands fields are an industrial expanse where forests once stood. These aerial images capture the scenes of destruction.
Photographer and pilot Alex MacLean wanted to learn more about the Keystone XL pipeline. What he found shocked him.
Residents of Baker Lake, in Canada's far north Nunavut Territory, gear up to cast blank ballots on whether to allow French mining conglomerate Areva to dig for uranium.
For the Inuit, hunting is both an economic necessity and a pleasure. US and Canadian environment protection associations, which might have been natural allies, are now their enemies.
Precious metals and the rainforest are at stake in a battle between Canadian mining companies and local communities in Panama, a struggle that conjures up images of the Spanish Conquistadors.
Heavy rains and airplane crashes mark a Student Fellow's reporting trip to the Yukon.
Conflicting hunting regulations pose problems protecting the Yukon's declining caribou population.
Much has been made of the unprecedented Aboriginal participation in the planning and hosting of the 2010 Olympic Games. This has a lot to do with the fact that many of the sporting events are taking place on the traditional territorial lands of the Four Host First Nations – the umbrella group consisting of the Lil'Wat, Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations (First Nations are one of three officially recognized Aboriginal peoples in Canada, along with the Inuit people of the Arctic and the Metis people of mixed Indian-European descent).
Linda Matchan and Michele McDonald's Artcirq video airs on Worldfocus on Tuesday February 23.
Canada's Nunavut territory covers about two million square kilometers and comprises a fifth of Canadian territory. It's home to about 29,000 people, mostly Inuit. Along with their proud heritage and striking landscapes, residents struggle with unemployment, poverty and cultural dislocation. Suicide rates among Inuit youth are ten times higher than the national average.
Linda Matchan, for the Pulitzer Center
Vancouver, Canada
Two days before Artcirq's scheduled performance at Sunday's medal ceremony at the Vancouver Olympics, something went terribly wrong.
For months, the Inuit circus members had been dreaming of the moment when they'd take center stage at B.C. Place, proudly representing their Arctic territory of Nunavut before the world. "I have no words for this," said acrobat and clown Jimmy Qamuqaq, as he strode past the stadium on Friday, the day of the final rehearsals.
Guillaume Saladin left his career as a professional acrobat to help young Inuits in northern Canada form Artcirq, their own performing troupe.
Linda Matchan, for the Pulitzer Center
Just fifty years ago, the people of Igloolik, Nunavut were nomads. Today, Linda Matchan reports from Igloolik, examining the young people of the Igloolik community who cope as tradition collides with education and the modern world.