Julien Gignac

Julien Gignac was The Narwhal’s Yukon correspondent, based in Whitehorse. Of Mohawk and French descent, he has a penchant for writing about Indigenous and environmental issues. He’s worked at several newspapers, including The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and, most recently, Yukon News, where he covered politics. He likes a good landscape.

Stories by Julien Gignac

Fortymile Caribou Herd

The delicate art of stabilizing Yukon’s Fortymile caribou herd

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Dec. 17, 2020 8 min. read

Once considered to be in dire straits, Yukon’s Fortymile caribou herd is now on the...

Caribou standing near water with mountains in background

Scotiabank becomes fifth major Canadian bank to refuse to fund oil drilling in Arctic refuge

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Dec. 14, 2020 6 min. read

‘I think the financial institutions have sent a very large signal to the rest of...

Placer mining alongside the Indian River, near Quartz Creek

Yukon wetlands pushed to tipping point by placer mining, First Nation and conservationists say

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Dec. 11, 2020 9 min. read

The Yukon Water Board is asking the public to weigh in as the territory considers...

Moose Mount Cameron Beaver River watershed Yukon

First Nation warned Yukon the ATAC resource road would ‘impair the process of reconciliation’

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Dec. 4, 2020 6 min. read

The First Nation of Na-Cho Nyäk Dun said the controversial all-seasons road would have ‘fundamentally...

Beaver River watershed Yukon

Yukon cancels 65-kilometre ATAC resource road into Beaver River watershed

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Nov. 30, 2020 5 min. read

The proposed access route, controversially approved without a land use plan, would have opened up...

a mine seen across water

Nunavut ‘repeatedly refused’ to disclose impacts of Baffinland’s Mary River mine expansion on caribou: mayor

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Nov. 24, 2020 5 min. read

A plan to double production at one of the world’s northernmost mines involves building a...

Landscape on one of the Arqvilliit islands Yvan Pouliot Arqvilliit IPCA Steering Committee

Canada gives $1.4 million to support Nunavik Inuit’s management of Arqvilliit Indigenous Protected Area

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Nov. 19, 2020 6 min. read

Federal partnership to aid Indigenous-led monitoring and research of 24,000 hectares of remote Arctic islands...

Placer mining Klondike River Dawson City Yukon Peter Mather

‘Mining at any cost’: Yukoners say territory needs major mineral development overhaul

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Nov. 16, 2020 9 min. read

'People are generally unsatisfied with the status quo'

Aerial images of Ogilvie Mountains, Demspter Highway, and Tombstone Territorial Park in bright fall colours on the tundra.

‘It kind of defeats the purpose’: Yukon won’t pause mineral staking for Dawson land use planning

By Julien Gignac (Local Journalism Initiative reporter)

Nov. 9, 2020 8 min. read

Valuable, roadless wilderness in the Dawson region could become protected under a new land use...

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