ARVIAT
The vast majority of the time, a close encounter with a polar bear is to be avoided at all costs.

Gord Billard captured this awesome moment when he and a visiting friend, Baptiste Neis, came across this large polar bear hanging around the dump in Arviat. - photo courtesy of Gord Billard

Sometimes, however, an encounter will be safe, yet close enough to leave one breathless at its impact.

Arviat is well known for its bear traffic and employs stringent safety measures during bear season, yet Gord Billard, who has lived in Arviat for more than 15 years, had only ever seen one far out on the ice.

That is, until Oct. 23, when Billard's visiting friend, Baptiste Neis, motivated him to get the school Honda and take a tour up around the dump.

Billard estimates they were somewhere around 300 feet away from the bear when they spotted it.

"The bear was aware of us and looked at us a couple of times but he didn't seem very interested in us," he said. "He was walking across the old sewage lagoon foraging for food when we spotted him, and he went through the ice up to his knees a couple of times. He grabbed something from the water and shook it around in his mouth and, all the while, he was checking out the ravens, seagulls and other wildlife that was around."

Neis had always had an interest in visiting the North: her husband, one of Billard's former students and a member of his very first drama club who is now a professional actor, got in touch with him to see what sort of present they could arrange.

"He asked if I could take her in for a visit sometime, we managed to get it all worked out and she ended up here for a week," said Billard.

"That was the chain of events that led to this incredible encounter."

Billard said they watched the bear for about an hour in the afternoon, and saw it again that same evening.

Billard said the bear seemed to be in good shape. "We noted right away how healthy and plump he was, and he was clean too," he said.

"It's rear end was all dirty from sitting in the dirt but the rest of his coat was full, healthy and shiny."

Billard said the bear was quietly lumbering along as if he didn't have a care in the world

"If I had to guess, I'd say he was not long woke up," said Billard.

"It was very docile and non-threatening, which made for a nice encounter for my first closeup.

Still, Billard said he kept the Honda running and pointed at the gate, just in case nanuq got overly curious about them.

"If it had moved toward us at all, we would have been out of there real fast," said Billard.

He said as far as he knows, the bear left the community peacefully.

"I couldn't imagine a more serene bear but that didn't diminish the moment one iota in that it was a thrilling, yet humbling experience. When it was lumbering up the hill coming out of the lagoon, it stopped at the top of a little rise, turned around, and seemed to look right at us as if to say it was going to the dump now if we wanted to follow it," he said.

"That was a moment of mutual awareness, and it was pretty cool to be sharing the same space with the largest carnivore on Earth. I was genuinely awestruck and very, very aware of the moment I was in."

Neis is also a theatre professional and did some work with Billard's Grade 9 students on group collaboration, as well as shadow puppetry theatre with his Grade 10 students during her stay.

Billard said the trip was everything Neis could have asked for.

"She was really involved with everything we did here for the week and happened to get out and see a polar bear, so she was very satisfied with her trip when she left," he said.