By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunavut News Inuit guardians are on the front lines of maintaining sovereignty over the Northwest Passage, but small yachts are still allowed to travel through Nunavut’s waters undetected, experts told a conference in Iqaluit on June 26. Because Inuit monitoring teams don’t have enforcement capabilities, any ships entering restricted waters in environmentally sensitive areas are simply referred to federal authorities, the Arctic Sovereignty and Security Summit heard. “We observe and report because we don’t have the power to observe a vessel unless Transport Canada comes in to do that kind of work, so we still have a gap there,” said Daniel Taukie, the Inuit Marine Monitoring Program coordinator at Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated. The summit heard several accounts of Inuit spotting vessels they…
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