7th annual ArcticNet meeting in Ottawa

Testing the public transport system of Quebec was a positive experience. The train was cheaper than I was expecting, and rather more comfortable than 9 hours on the highway... I had hoped to see something on this expedition outside Quebec - but as the view was as exotic as above I worked in the train instead.


It is always as small adventure to arrive to a new town in the dark alone. You get out of the railway station / airport / bus station and wonder "who where what". Dig out the little piece of paper where you have address, number of bus (can I pay in the bus or should I get a ticket before? From where? How many money does it cost? How often do these buses go- how long should I wait in the cold?) and name of bus stop where to get out (do they have the names on a screen in the bus or do I need to ask the driver / try to spot names outside). Try to find the bus stop and hope you have correct instructions. Get out at a random bus stop and dig out your map and try to get it correct way round and find your way.

This time all went fine, only Ottawa was confusing enough that I figured North was in the South and walked for a few minutes the wrong direction. But that was soon sorted out and I met the rest of the people in our hotel. After Rimouski, Ottawa was a biiiig city. The noise outside in the morning was not neighbours grass-clipper but a constant flow of buses!

It was funny to notice that as soon as you move from Quebec to Ontario, streets change names. No more Levesque, Maisonneuve and Champlain as in Rimouski, Quebec city and Montreal but Wellington, O'Connor and Queen Elisabeth. Hihi. Interestingly, in Canada outside Quebec texts like street names are bilingual, both in English and French. In Quebec they are uni-lingual, in French. Typiskt!

We stayed in same hotel as the conference was, totally disconnected from the world - and still traveling far (north) with every presentation. A short escape from this surrealistic conference-bubble took me to the parliament. And yes I had to take a picture - but at least from different angle than what it is usually presented ;)


More interesting than the building were the cats and squirrels which live nearby. There are a few "parliament cats", living outside in little houses and being well fed. This attracts both black and grey squirrels, which are not at all afraid of cats and rather chubby. I had never seen a black squirrel. I didnt even know they exist! Sorry if I ruin your illusion of a biologist... but no, not all of us know every species of the planet!

Another sightseeing spot: Rideau channel, UNESCO world heritage site.

In addition to learning a lot about Canadian North, all sorts of research done there, from social science to physics - and problems that there are through presentations, we got to see a screening of "Qapirangajuq". It is a documentary available here:
http://www.isuma.tv/hi/en/inuit-knowledge-and-climate-change
about what inuit have observed about climate change and how they think about it. Highly recommendable - but leaves one with a lot of questions as the film only presents what the interviewed inuit observe (which is extremely interesting though!!). The directors say they want to build bridges between inuit traditional knowledge and scientific knowledge. However, it presents only one side and without any dialog. And it takes some digging to find a scientific version (and as the directors actually explained this after the film I can make it easier at one of the most curious points: why the sun has moved - scientists explain it being a totally valid observation as optical properties of the atmosphere have changed).