It took Mark Brazeau a while to cue up the polar bear video. The cursor kept bouncing to an old video of Grade 1 kids in sunflower masks singing Ring Around The Rosy in Inuktitut at the school where he works as principal in this isolated Inuit village, which was still buzzing from all the new hockey equipment Project North had donated a few hours earlier.
Brazeau eventually got the video going and began narrating a field trip taken in 2007 for an up-close encounter with the world’s largest land carnivore. Two distant polar bears came onto the screen, lured to a seal carcass slung atop a remote cabin outside the village. The video cut to the next shot with the bears about 70 feet away, sniffing the air and assessing the risk. Brazeau aimed his 30-aught-6 rifle, as did a fellow teacher, whi...