News/North: A great success: 200 people showed up. Could you give us an idea how you felt the event went?

Elise Maltin: I can't get over how many people came. They knew what we were doing and why we were there.

N/N: Getting the word out through leaflets and e-mails -- it is quite a "by-word-of-mouth" community.

Kim Cummings: That definitely had a lot to do with it.

N/N: Obviously the cold didn't stop anybody.

Kim: It might have kept a few people away, but it didn't affect people that much.

N/N: It seemed that people were coming (to the start point at the legislature building) from everywhere.

Jack Hicks: It was a great feeling standing on the steps. There were so many people down there and you could see more people coming.

Kim: It was such a good mix of people culturally or age-wise -- it was a wonderful turnout.

N/N: Perhaps we could talk a little about what the walk was about.

Jack: It was anti a war against Iraq. Large demonstrations are the most effective way for average people to send a message to their respective governments that they don't support this kind of aggressive military action.

The really interesting thing is, it took 10 years for the really big demonstrations to happen against the Vietnam War, but with this war we're seeing even bigger demonstrations before the war even starts.

There's no question it's already put huge pressure on governments around the world.

Elise: The thing I was thinking is just the fact that a lot of people showed up here because they wanted to feel connected to people across Canada and all across the world.

The images yesterday (the main day of protest, Jan. 18), we saw 75,000 people in Washington, D.C., alone. I felt this was a way for us, especially in the Eastern Arctic, and in a community of only 6,000 people -- we were saying that per capita we were probably the best represented community in the whole country.

That to me was so reassuring, that other people feel the same way.

Also the proximity of us to Greenland and a big U.S. base not that far from us, we need to speak out against having that kind of militarization so close to us in Thule, Greenland.

N/N: Could you speak to the point that you're not supporting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, or that you're not anti-American.

Kim: Well, I'd say we were anti-U.S. policy on the war. But we're here to support the innocent people of Iraq who will be killed if there is a war. As well as the issue of "why a war?" we would argue that it's about oil, and it's about U.S. imperialism.

Part of organizing this was to educate people as well. A lot of people don't know a lot about the issues.

The purpose of this march was to get some of those issues out there, to get people thinking about it.

N/N: Jack, on the stage (of the walk's end point, the Anglican Parish Hall) you said that this isn't in support of Saddam Hussein, this about something larger.

Jack: People know what Saddam Hussein is about. People know about the other dictatorships in the world today that (U.S. president George W.) Bush isn't targeting because they are our allies ...

N/N: ... and they have no oil.

Jack: And they have no oil. When I spoke to two high school classes on Wednesday, I was really struck that the students were totally clear, they had already seen through all the rhetoric, all the distortions, all the lies and they knew exactly about the war.

A keynote speaker in San Francisco put forward the idea that this is a war that can be stopped, and the most effective way for people to stop it is to march.

N/N: On that idea, people showed up in great numbers in Washington, in San Francisco -- often when foreign policy rhetoric comes out of Washington, they would make it seem that there's a monolithic front of support.

Obviously these marches show that this isn't the case.

Kim: We've seen with the anti-globalization marches that people are better equipped to confront these issues.

I think this is another issue where people want to say: "No, I don't agree with the U.S.'s take on this."

N/N: In the anti-globalization marches, there was a factor of violence that sort of spoiled the message of these marches. Yet today we saw 200 people peacefully marching along. Is this the real message: that the common folk have other ideas how the world should be handled?

Kim: Peace marches are exactly that: peace marches. When the Gulf War happened, there were no violent marches at all.

Elise: I think there's some media bias in what they choose to show.

I heard from several people that there was very little on CNN about the big demonstrations in the States. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what I've been hearing.

N/N: When the news media reports on these things, is there the problem that buildings blowing up or scud missiles being shot down is sexier to look at than a lot of people behaving nicely and just waving a couple signs.

Kim: There is that. If the media choose to show a demonstration and there is some violence, they'll show that part of it.

N/N: What does the turnout here say about Iqaluit. That this is not just a little backwater on the tip of Frobisher Bay?

Kim: Obviously there are a lot of concerned people in Iqaluit who are concerned with what's going on in the world and who don't want to see a needless war happen.

Jack: We're Canadians, too. We have as much right and have just as many obligations to send messages to our government.

Elise: Because we're the capital of the territory, people felt a sense of obligation to get out and make sure we're also on the map (of people seen to be protesting). I'm glad we had such a good turnout. It was very invigorating.