Time-witness reports: I was dealing with the nuts and bolts

Bernard Funston is one of the architects of key documents that still guide the Arctic Council’s work today. A lawyer by training monitoring the Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy and with experiences living and working in the Canadian Arctic, he early on joined the team around Mary Simon, then Circumpolar Ambassador for Canada. Their task was to drive Canada’s effort to establish an Arctic Council. In this interview he speaks about the Council’s early days, turning points – and how his muskox pelt got a role in the Council’s inauguration event. Bernard Funston has also been the Sustainable Development Working Groups’ Executive Secretary for many years and tells the story of how sustainable development made it on the agenda of Arctic cooperation.