Rhiannon Russell

2 months ago | thewalrus.ca | Rhiannon Russell

Frustrated and a little heartbroken, Whitehorse resident Karen McColl decided to send a breakup letter to the mayors of two small coastal towns in Alaska. As she read headline after headline about President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats to turn Canada into the fifty-first state, the government employee and former journalist felt she had to take a stand. “What does this breakup mean?” McColl wrote to the municipal leaders of Skagway and Haines.

2 months ago | thelogic.co | Rhiannon Russell

It shouldn’t rain for days in February this far north. The sea ice shouldn’t turn to slush. People shouldn’t fall through the ice by the dozen. For the residents of the Inuit community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, Labrador’s northernmost permanent settlement, this was the new reality greeting them in 2010. The sudden thaw made people wary of travelling by snowmobile to collect firewood or hunt. Encrusted in ice, a communications tower collapsed, leaving residents without internet and phone service.

2 months ago | uphere.ca | Rhiannon Russell

EVAN RICHARDSON watched from the helicopter as it flew over frozen inlets where the ringed seals rear their pups. He was part of a team conducting a polar bear survey north of Wynniatt Bay on Victoria Island on a -25°C morning in April 2012. “What is that?” one of his colleagues exclaimed over his radio headset. Richardson looked out a rear window and was surprised to see a large grizzly bear chasing a small polar bear across the sea ice.

2 months ago | uphere.ca | Rhiannon Russell

Cold-water swimming is now more than a New Year’s ritual or a rite of spring. It’s booming globally and, in Whitehorse, has been a winter-long activity among hardier residents for about five years. The Yukon Ice Swimmers Facebook group boasts 1,500 members. But the practice is not new. As early as 400 B.C.E., Hippocrate was writing that cold plunges relieve muscle fatigue. Vikings bathed daily in freezing water and the practice has centuries of history in Eastern Europe and Nordic countries.

Mar 28, 2025 | uphere.ca | Rhiannon Russell

Jeela Palluq-Cloutier sat at her dining table in Iqaluit, staring at her aging MacBook Air. One side of her laptop screen listed English sentences, while the other featured Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun translations. She rated each sentence for accuracy from zero to 100 per cent. “War in Afghanistan” became “pandemic outbreak in Arviat.” Zero. “Prime rib” became “prime minister.” Zero. Some text about housing in Nunavut mentioned single units, apartment buildings and then—usuup puunga. Condom. Huh?