Canada Connections
On 31 May, Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of the World Maritime University (WMU) was a guest speaker at the Awards Ceremony for the Canadian Coast Guard College (CCG) Class of 2019.
President Doumbia-Henry noted the significant leadership role CCG and Transport Canada play in supporting the development of International Conventions, Regulatory Frameworks and Technology development to ensure safe commercial shipping, safety of seafarers and vessels, as well as Environmental Response and Protection of the marine environment from pollution, all of which promote effective and sustainable maritime and ocean governance and management across the world.
Canada has the longest total coastline among all of the countries of the world with 202,080 km long that front the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. The Canadian Government recently announced an immense investment (~19.5 Billion CDN dollars) in much needed CCG Fleet Renewal – as well as new multi-tasked ships and technology innovation to address future challenges. Canada also recently announced significant changes to its Oceans Act to strengthen environmental protection, and in doing so provides global leadership in ocean governance and management, such as its Marine Protected Areas Network towards its UN 2020 commitments.
WMU has strong ties with Canada. Transport Canada, with Environment and Climate Change Canada, has provided long-standing support to WMU with the establishment of the Canadian Professorial Chair in Marine Environment Protection in 2006. In addition, Transport Canada has supported WMU research as well as field studies to Canada for WMU students. In 2017, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with CCG on Academic Cooperation. Canada has also provided support for WMU events including the International Conference on Safe and Sustainable Shipping in a Changing Arctic Environment (ShipArc 2015), and the recent WMU Empowering Women in the Maritime Community Conference for which sponsorship was provided by Fisheries and Oceans Canada. In addition, numerous students have benefited from field studies to Canada, and an agreement with Dalhousie University provides invaluable collaboration opportunities.
The Government of Canada also provided generous support for research in the newly established WMU-Sasakawa Global Ocean Institute (GOI) in 2018. Through the GOI, Canada recently provided funding for a WMU Ph.D. Scholarship and Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme on Gender Empowerment in support of the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development through research, education and capacity building. The deadline to apply is 30 June 2019.