DAY 9 - Essipit and Les Escoumins - June 18, 2017

We spent the morning of our ninth day at the small First Nations reserve, Innue Essipit. Having been educated in a system that I'm beginning to realize places very little emphasis on Canadian history and even less so on Indigenous history, I didn't know that Innu and Inuit are not the same thing. I know the difference between Austria and Australia, so how is it that I don't know the difference between Innu and Inuit? Whoever said "Ignorance is bliss" is full of shit. Chances are you don't know the difference between Innu and Inuit either, so let me fill you in a bit.

"Like many other Aboriginal peoples, until recently the Innu were known by what was, for them, foreign labels, rather than by the name they used for themselves. The early missionaries, encountering Innu who came to the St. Lawrence River French settlements from the nearby hills, called them 'Montagnais', meaning 'mountain people'. In Labrador this term was sometimes changed to 'Mountaineer.' By contrast, those Innu living in the tundra region of northern Labrador and Québec, who became known to Europeans later, were called 'Naskapi.' This word is of uncertain origin, but for the missionaries it meant a pagan and 'less civilized' group than the Montagnais. In the 20th century, anthropologists recognized that these two groups had, for the most part, a single common culture, and so coined the term 'Montagnais-Naskapi'.

In the 1980s the Innu themselves made it known that they preferred to be called 'Innu', a word meaning 'people' in their own language. They also began to publicly use their own name, Ntisinan, for their traditional territory. Despite the apparent similarity between 'Innu' and 'Inuit', the two words are not related.

In terms of culture and language, the Innu are the easternmost group of a very widespread people commonly known as the Cree, another term probably of European origin. Except for the Plains Cree, whose culture has much in common with that of the other horse-mounted buffalo hunters of the northern prairies, Cree groups (including the Innu) all inhabit the boreal forest and share a broadly similar cultural tradition." (Innu Culture)

We had a wonderful welcome at the community centre with singing and dancing, and they fed us some traditional Innu foods: banock with caribou fat, fir jelly, cedar jelly, and cranberry jelly, and a piping hot cup of Labrador tea to wash it down.

Having just had one of Paul-the-Cook's giant ham and bologne and eggs and hashbrowns and fruit and toast breakfasts aboard ship, I wasn't hungry at all. However, the food was delicious, and since I am a pig (and an opportunistic one at that) I had seconds of the delicate little snacks we were provided. When is the next time I'm going to have the chance to eat caribou? Or homemade jellies made from trees? It could be years, or it could be never. I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by. The food was really tasty. The caribou fat had a mild taste, and the jellies were woodsy, savory, and fairly delicate tasting.

The Labrador tea is brewed from a plant that grows wild in the area, and had been pointed out to me the day before by the Parks Canada guide who I hiked up the fjord with. We stopped and picked some, and he told me that tea could be made with it. Little did I know I would be drinking it the very next day, and quite enjoying it. Now I wish I had asked more specific and pointed questions about it, so I could forage for it here at home.

After our welcome at the Essipit community centre, we boarded the bus for a tour of their very small community. The reserve is less than one square kilometre, so the tour was quite brief! Our guides were community leaders who took great pride in their community, as they should; there is zero unemployment on the reserve. ZERO. I feel like the significance of this amazing fact may have been lost on the Westerners in our group, but to an East-Coaster this is a totally foreign concept. I asked the guide to repeat and clarify what they meant. About 40 years ago there was a change in leadership and mindset on the reserve, and one of the goals was that everybody should have a job. Maybe its because I'm a Maritimer, but I didn't realize that 0% unemployment was like, an actual possible thing. What an accomplishment!

Next up we headed off the reserve to the Coast Guard Marine Communications & Traffic Services facility at Les Escoumins. This is a hub of communication for all marine traffic on the St. Lawrence River. The building overlooks the river, and there are about three dozen computer monitors tracking all the traffic in real time. We were able to spot Polar Prince at anchor on one of the monitors.

There were so many tankers and cargo ships on the monitors; the importance of the St. Lawrence River for trade and industry in Canada cannot be overstated.

This facility is also responsible for all marine rescue coordination for the province of Quebec. They coordinate all manner of rescue efforts; anything from pleasure craft vessels running out of gas on tiny tributaries, to full-on ship wrecks and groundings in the St. Lawrence, and everything in between. Luckily it was a busy day on the river, but everything was running smoothly while we were there. The C3-ers thanked the Coast Guard staff for the nice visit and hoped we wouldn't have to talk to them again :)

There are huge sections of the St. Lawrence River where a designated pilot is required for all vessels of a certain tonnage and class to pass safely. A short distance from the Coast Guard Marine Communications & Traffic Services building is the Pilot Boat station, and that's where we headed next. When a ship enters this part of the river, a pilot is ferried out to the ship on a pilot boat, where he boards and takes control of the vessel in order to navigate it safely through the shipping channel. The pilots have extensive knowledge of the river and its terrain, conditions, and navigation rules.

One of the pilot boats, docked at the station.

Guylaine Bernier is an Olympic Rower. Here we see her moonlighting as a pilot boat captain.  

From the pilotage building we watched one of the pilot boats leave the station and head out to meet an approaching cargo ship. The cargo ship maintained its speed and course as the pilot boat came alongside. As the two vessels coordinated speed and position with exceptional precision, the pilot jumped from the pilot boat onto a ladder on the cargo ship and boarded her. This is an incredibly dangerous part of the job, and I can't imagine having to do it everyday.

By the time we wrapped up our tour of the Pilot Boat Station and the Coast Guard it was lunch time. The mayor and council of Les Escoumins graciously hosted us for lunch, and a brief presentation and reception at the community centre before ushering us off to one of the town's points of pride: whale watching at the Parks Canada Marine Environment Discovery Centre.

Staff at the Marine Discovery Centre gave us a brief intro about the whales that inhabit the waters of the St. Lawrence, then had us watch a 10-minute movie about marine life in the area. I guess the long days and short sleeps were starting to catch up, because (with the exception of Carole) the lot of us fell asleep. Another first for me courtesy of Canada C3: I don't think I've ever fallen asleep in public before! The movie was just so soothing, and the theatre so dim and cozy...

The nine-and-a-half minute nap did me wonders, and after we left the theatre we headed outside to wander around the shoreline of the Marine Discovery Centre, or to explore the river by getting in.

A group of C3-ers get suited up for a diving adventure in the St. Lawrence.

While a few people opted to go snorkelling/diving, most of us went and sat on the rocky outcrop between the Marine Discovery Centre and the river to enjoy the beautiful sunshine-y day, and to watch the whales feeding mere metres from where we sat.

That little black bump just past the rocks is a minke whale.

We saw dozens of whales, mostly minkes and a few belugas too. Even though we had been seeing whales for two days, it never got boring and every sighting was exciting. I managed to capture a video of one of the minkes coming up to the surface and then diving. 

My voice in this video illustrates the typical reaction I had every time I saw a whale. First you hear me trying to contain my excitement so as not to frighten the whale, as if me yelling "wow" would scare it off. That's Dennis saying "Boy, that's close." and Parks Canada staff saying "There's a dive." Minkes tend to break the surface once or twice (presumably to breath) before they dive down swallowing up prey as they go. Off camera you can't see me, Heather, and Andrea exchanging gleeful looks of amazement with each other... but you can hear me giggling with delight and awe. This was our reaction to every whale we spotted, despite this video being quite possibly and literally our 100th sighting. I mean, it just never got old. Andrea, in particular, found being in the presence of the whales, especially the belugas, to be very spiritual and profoundly emotional. There is something deeply soothing about seeing them, and Andrea was able to put it into words in ways that I can't quite capture. I'm glad she was there to talk to me about it that afternoon.

We went back to Polar Prince for a quick dinner, then back into the Zodiacs and put ashore at the Marine Discovery Centre for a public event, the C3 "Ship T'Shore Sharing Show". Andrea, Heather, and Alex all gave spirited performances, and Dardia performed her graduation slam poem as well. You can watch part of the Facebook live broadcast of the show here. Another awesome day was done, and it was back to the ship for a quiet evening underway.

Through The Porthole - Music!

We had three wonderful musicians with us for Leg 2, and they somehow found the time to write a song, translate it into four different languages, and record it while aboard Canada C3.  Good job, Alex Cuba, Andrea Menard, and Heather Rankin! Special mention to Kaniehtiio Horn (singing the Mohawk verse) and Dardia Joseph (singing the French verse). And a big shout out to the C3 Comms team for putting this music video together! 

Through The Porthole - Science Aboard Canada C3

Canada C3 is coordinating about two dozen science programs during the 150 day expedition. It's the perfect opportunity to survey Canada's expansive coastlines, and the scope of the programs include the very small (DNA and microplastics) to the very large (polar bears and whales) and everything in between. You can get a sense of the range of studies being done on the C3 Expediton Science page.  The Communications Team made this short video about the science programs that were happening during Leg 2. (Bonus: the back of my head makes a cameo appearance at 0:45!)

 

Some of the journey participants were there specifically to run the science programs. My roommate was the Chief Scientist for Leg 2, Dr. Lyne Morissette, an absolute gem of a woman, and a world renowned whale expert. Lyne could not possibly be a better person, and I am so grateful that I got to know her and hang out with her for 10 days. Lyne spent most of her time doing field work, and in the on-board science lab, which is a re-purposed shipping container filled with state of the art lab equipment.

The green shipping container on the starboard side is the science lab.

The "Canadensis Lab" is on loan from Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS, and it is pretty freaking cool. Check it out:

One of the other scientists aboard for Leg 2 was Daniel Hatin, a fisheries biologist who "is involved in large-scale monitoring of fish movement such as American eel, lake sturgeon, muskellunge and striped bass."

Daniel in the lab, prepping equipment.

Everyday, there were a few spots open for journey participants (like me) to participate in the science program instead of doing the larger group activity. On the second day that we were docked in Quebec City, a small group of us went with Daniel to meet with some of his colleagues who were catching and tagging striped bass in the St. Lawrence River.

The protocol was as follows: There were four gill nets, each about 60 m long, set perpendicular to the shore line, in an area where striped bass are known to spawn. Each net was was hauled up on to the boat every 30 minutes, and when there was a fish in the net it was placed in a holding tank on the boat where it was then measured, sexed if possible, and had a couple of scales removed for analysis back at a lab on shore. Then a tiny electronic tagging devise was inserted just below the skin midway down the fish's body and it was released back into the river.

Hauling in the net.

That's Heather Rankin, second from right, hauling in a net like a proper Cape Breton girl!

I remarked at how warm the water was for such a large river. The water temperature was 17 degrees Celsius that day, and one of the researchers told me striped bass spawn at 16 degrees. Hot stuff!  

The holding tank on the research boat had a pump and a hose that was constantly recirculating water from the river, providing the fish with water that was the same temperature as the environment that they had just come out of, and lots of dissolved oxygen so they wouldn't suffocate.

This is the fish that I pulled in! Isn't he handsome?

Most of the bass that were pulled in were around 18" long. I asked one of the researchers if they ever caught any other kinds of fish, and she said that yes, on occasion they do. Their most exciting "by-catch" during this round of sampling was a salmon that was over one metre long. Holy mackeral! (haha)

Two of the researchers resetting the net.

Heather caught a fish.

Daniel, with Ville de Quebec in the background.

Heather, looking very satisfied with the day's catch.

Day 2 - Montreal, Quebec - Sunday, June 11, 2017

Day 2, like Day 1 was jam packed. We started the day with a guided walking tour of the The Village, the LGBTQ2 neighborhood of Montreal. Being as it was Sunday morning, the streets were busy but not packed. Our guide spoke about safe spaces the community has created for at-risk LGBTQ2 youth, and the history and evolution of the neighborhood. The main drag (pardon the pun) is decorated with ball-streamers all summer. Very festive, and in a rainbow motif!

  

One stop on our walk was this small public park, called the "Parc de l'Espoir" (Park of Hope) memorializing members of the community who have died of AIDS.

The monuments were designed for people to sit on, and also to look like coffins. The space currently contains a public piano, open to anyone to sit down and tickle the ivories. These pianos are all over Montreal, and we saw them in other towns and cities we visited as well. As we approached this park, there was an older man playing. He was shirtless, had a deep tan, and was pretty rough looking; he almost certainly lived on the street. He was playing Bach, one of the Goldberg variations, and it was really beautiful. When he was done, he got up and left to a smattering of applause, and another person immediately sat down and started playing a pop-jazz number. 

I'm pretty sure this isn't the take-away our tour guide had in mind, but the stand out thing for me in some sections of this district were the drug addicts, wandering around like zombies. We saw heroin being bought and sold, right out in the open. There was a police presence, but they were kind of just co-existing with the addicts and the dealers. Being from a small city that is very conservative, it's jarring to see that kind of drug abuse up close and personal. I know heroin and hard drugs exist in Halifax (and let's face it, everywhere), it's just that it's not nearly so open and acceptable in the small towns as it is in big cities.

After lunch we went to the Redpath Museum on the campus of McGill University. The museum is pretty old school (even for a museum) and has some incredible fossils and taxidermy, and some actual Egyptian mummies.

C3 was invited to do a presentation at the museum, Leg 2's first "Ship-To-Shore" event, Our Chief Scientist for Leg 2, Dr. Lyne Morisette, spoke in the museum auditorium about the various science programs happening on C3, and how they will serve to broaden our understanding of the ecosystem from coast to coast to coast. After the talk, we all went outdoors to the courtyard beside the museum to have an informal chat about the expedition to anyone who happened by and was interested. C3 staff rolled out these giant floor maps of Canada, showing the route of the expedition. Next thing you know, kids and adults are pointing out where they are from, places they've visited, etc. It was really fun, and luckily for me the language barrier was minimal in Montreal.

During the map presentation, some of us broke off from the main group and walked a short distance to another area on campus where we got a brief presentation on the historical presence of indigenous people in and around the Montreal area from Kakwirano:ron Cook. (I assume he's a professor, but don't quote me on that!)

The inscription reads, "Near here was the fortified town of Hochelaga visited by Jacques Cartier in 1535, abandoned before 1500. It contained 50 large houses, each lodging several large families who subsisted by cultivation and fishing."   Woah, woah, woah... cultivation? I legit did not know that First Nations were farmers. How could I not know this? I assumed all indigenous people in Canada were hunter/gatherers. It's such a basic fact about a whole population, and I had no idea. I wish I could go back in time to that afternoon and ask a lot more questions. I wish we learned this stuff in school!
The discussion around this monument centered around two things: 1) whether the area was actually abandoned as the settler explorers said it was, and 2) how long it took for this monument to be moved from a corner of the park to near a walkway. Apparently the monument had been sitting for years, facing a fence, and few people knew of its existence. It took eight years for Mr. Cook and other university staffers to have it moved, as it was seen as being controversial to acknowledge the presence of indigenous people on the land currently occupied by McGill. Eight years... now there's some bureaucracy at work. Yikes. There is a movement afoot to have the plaque updated, but don't hold your breath! 

We were back on the ship for dinner, and then we had a very special treat. The Association Latino-Américaine de Montréal came aboard ship for a showcase concert on the quarterdeck. They performed traditional songs in traditional garb and it was a really great time. The Leg 2 musicians (Heather Rankin, Andrea Menard, and Alex Cuba) each got up and performed as well. The weather was perfect and it was a really beautiful evening.