magazine / jf02
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January/February 2002 issue |
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Testing the waters
Jonathan Tessier and Sophie Cassis were taking a break from kayaking on lac Guillaume-Delisle
in northern Quebec when they witnessed a circus-like performance that took them by surprise. "We
were on the beach when a seal came near," says Tessier. "It was pirouetting in
the water and watching us."
Tessier, 24, and Cassis, 23, both graduates in outdoor education and adventure tourism at
Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, spent a month last summer exploring
lac Guillaume-Delisle and nearby lac à l’Eau Claire to scout out the potential for
developing ecotourism in the remote region. Their trek was supported in part by The Royal
Canadian Geographical Society’s expeditions
program.
Linked to Hudson Bay by a narrow channel, Guillaume-Delisle is an unusual lake, with brackish
waters that attract freshwater fish and shorebirds as well as a number of marine species,
including seals and belugas.
The students’ research is of interest to a number of their sponsors, particularly la Société de
la faune et des parcs du Québec, which is planning a conservation area near the lake.
— Monique Roy-Sole
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Spreading the word
 Dickson Mansfield
has spent thousands of volunteer hours over the past decade spreading the gospel of geography
across Canada.
The lifelong educator, now teaching at the faculty of education at Queen’s University, received
this year’s Camsell Award for his dedicated service to the educational arm of The Royal Canadian
Geographical Society, the Canadian Council for Geographic Education (CCGE). As co-founder and
past chair of the CCGE, Mansfield says his primary role was to develop a network of "geo-evangelists," as
he calls the teachers who "ignite a passion for geography" in their students.
His tireless work helped launch the popular summer-institutes program for teachers and The
Great Canadian Geography Challenge, a national geography competition for students.
"I think we’ve made a difference," says Mansfield. We do too.
((Photo by McElligott.com)
Southern exposure
Since its inception 73 years ago, The Royal Canadian Geographical
Society has sponsored many
geographic and scientific expeditions to Canada’s North. This winter, it is supporting some
virtual exploration a little farther south.
From January 15 to March 31, the RCGS will help celebrate 200 years of Antarctic travels in
an exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, in collaboration with Natural Resources
Canada. "Echoes in the Ice" comprises some 40 collages of letters, maps, paintings
and diaries from dozens of Antarctic expeditions. With material from such stalwart adventurers
as Cook, Shackleton and French explorer Jules Dumont d’Urville, the exhibit highlights the
geographical quest to expand our knowledge of the natural world, even at its most extreme and
inhospitable.
Serving it up
We are big on food here at Canadian Geographic.
In fact, leaf through back issues of the magazine and you’ll find it is one of our favourite
topics. With the ups and downs in the agriculture and fisheries industries and cutting-edge
Canadian innovation in the food sciences, there is certainly no shortage of ingredients for
savoury stories. We’ve covered the country, from Newfoundland’s cod fishery in better days
(CG June/July 1988) to the cranberry capital of Canada in British Columbia’s Fraser Valley
(CG Sept/Oct 1993) and all the fruits, vegetables, grains and livestock in between.
Teaching by the book
 Phyllis
Arnold has never had much use for traditional school books. As a teacher in the early 1960s,
she grew frustrated with those filled with references to presidents and kings but with little
Canadian content. In 1967, as a graduate student at the University of Alberta, she scrounged
up $150 to develop an audiovisual kit on the Frank rock slide of 1903. It was such a hit
with students and teachers that it launched Arnold into a career in educational publishing.
Since then, Arnold Publishing has sold about a million innovative and highly visual geography
(left), history and social sciences texts nationwide. That dedication to geographic education
has earned Arnold the 2001 Geographic
Literacy Award from the Canadian Council for Geographic
Education.
Arnold has topped up her $5,000 (U.S.) award with a personal donation to establish the $10,000
(Cdn.) Phyllis Arnold Endowment Fund, an annual award that will help teachers attend conferences
or professional-development courses in geography. "There are a lot of teachers doing
good work who never get any recognition," says Arnold. "This is a way of saying
thank you to some of them."
— Monique Roy-Sole
Up, up and away
Aside from the wind-whipped weather, the mechanical breakdowns and an utterly exhausted
crew, the film shoot ran rather smoothly.
"Polar
Safari," the newest CG Presents documentary, scheduled to air on
the Discovery Channel Canada in January, takes viewers to the unforgiving landscape along eastern
Hudson Bay, where four adventurers sought to experience the region from a different perspective — in
hot-air balloons.
The expedition, led by veteran Ottawa balloonist John Davidson and shot over six weeks last
winter, offers a rare glimpse of what it’s like to travel in the North.
But for all the challenges, Davidson hasn’t lost the desire to balloon across the harsh yet
stunning environment. "I’m certainly going back."
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