Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean Speech on the Occasion of the Opening of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Annual Science Conference

Halifax, Monday, September 22, 2008

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The sea is part of my personal landscape.

I was born on an island in the Caribbean Sea and spent my early childhood there.When my family and I left Haiti and “disembarked” in Canada, like so many other Canadians who came from abroad, only a map could give us a true sense of the immensity of this country that would become our new home.

It didn’t take long for us to learn that Canada was also a maritime nation in more than one sense.

Because of its geography—since our coastline, measuring over 240 000 kilometres, is the longest in the world and borders on three major oceans: the Atlantic, the Arctic and the Pacific.

Because of its history as well—since the European explorers made their way to the Americas by sea.

Maritime routes served as a link between continents, opening up the possibility for incredible encounters between European and Aboriginal civilizations.

In fact, the European explorers would probably never have survived in this “new world,” as they called it, without the knowledge of the First Nations that had already explored it long before they arrived.

Moreover, this year marks the 400th anniversary of the founding of the City of Québec by Samuel de Champlain and his companions in the spirit of encounters between European and Aboriginal civilizations.

So the sea is anchored, so to speak, in our collective imagination and heritage.

We know its riches.

We know its frailties.

And neither fierce winds nor shifting tides will keep us from preserving this natural heritage, so closely linked to the spirit of adventure that led to the birth of the Canada we know today.

Only the ocean breeze, as Acadian poet Serge Patrice Thibodeau wrote, can soothe our troubled brows.

As governor general of Canada, I am proud and honoured to extend a very warm welcome to the participants of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea Annual Science Conference, which I am opening this afternoon.

This is the third time that we have hosted this large-scale conference: first in Montréal in 1975, then again in St. John’s in 1994.

It is worth noting that while Halifax is a vitally important port in Canada, it was also the site, 250 years ago in 1758, of the first parliamentary assembly of its kind in Canada.

The impact of that event has been tremendous because, through the efforts and determination of men and women, young and old, to establish democracy on these shores, Canada is today a country of many possibilities, where each and every one of us is free to pursue our dreams and aspirations.

This country is made up of every hope we cherish, every dream we share, every project we realize.

And one of those hopes, one of those dreams, one of those projects, so dear to all of the Canadians I have met across this country over the past three years, is to ensure the integrity of our ecosystems, of which the sea is a vital component, for generations to come.

Particularly in a country such as ours, where our coastline seems without end.

I am reminded of Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco’s eccentric surveyor, who sought at all costs to determine where the sea ends, the “immense sea, the ocean sea, which runs infinitely beyond all sight, the huge, omnipotent sea.”

And I feel compelled to tell him that the sea has no end, in that the land, where it would seem to end, is in fact an extension of a living environment that we have a responsibility to protect against greed and carelessness.

In 1997, Canada became the first country in the world to adopt legislation for oceans management.

Through this law, Canada has committed to conserving, protecting and developing the oceans in a sustainable manner.

This year, Canada’s department of Fisheries and Oceans is celebrating a century of marine science research, and I am proud to congratulate its members before you.

We are delighted by our collaboration with the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, which shares our vision and objectives.

Because we believe that today, we need a global approach and a true globalization of solidarities and knowledge if we are to preserve our ecosystems.

This is the only way we can ever hope to find viable solutions to the issues we are all facing.

Be it sustaining marine resources and the resulting impact on the life of the communities that depend on them. I have visited many such communities here, in the Maritimes, on Baffin Island, on the West Coast, and in the Northwest Territories, and I am more convinced than ever that our development is dependent upon theirs.

Be it the impact that climate change is having on marine production, something whose effects on the environment the northern peoples were among the first to report.

Be it the urgent need to implement collaborative planning of marine resource management.

Or be it the role of sea ice in polar ecosystems, which affect not only northern populations, but the entire planet.

In other words, the very issues you will be exploring over the next week.

The founders of the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea were convinced that global collaboration was essential to tackle the major social issues linked to the oceans.

This conviction must remain alive and continue to propel your actions and inspire our commitment.

I believe that such commitment is vital.

Because our blue planet is first and foremost made of water. We tend to think of it in terms of land masses, but it is in fact marine.

Those of us on terra firma must maintain eco-systemic relations with the sea that concern more than just coastal populations.

What harms our marine space—over fishing, oil spills, pollution, dead zones, shipping—concerns us all.

We must not turn the sea into the Earth’s dumping ground.

This conference makes this abundantly clear.

And so I warmly encourage you to continue your work in this field so full of promise, and wish you a most enjoyable and productive visit to Canada.

Thank you.