An affogato in Canada’s high Arctic! Malaysian-style rendang! Pancit from the Philippines!
Somehow it was a surprise to find a restaurant serving these drinks and dishes in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, where the Canadian Armed Forces earlier this year launched their biggest ever Arctic exercise amid temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees Celsius with the wind chill. But then perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise at all.
As I saw once again in the hamlet of Cambridge Bay, where I spent a week covering the exercise with the photographer Renaud Philippe, there is diversity above the Arctic Circle in Canada, and increasingly so. Newcomers to the country who came for work and the Canadian-born who came for something different have established themselves in Inuit-majority hamlets that only a tiny number of Canadians have visited. Though if you’re up for it, now is a good time to go. For the next few months, temperatures will reach 10 Celsius.
When I visited, there were the dozen or so African arrivals — Nigerians, Ghanaians, Senegalese — working in Gjoa Haven, a hamlet of about 1,500 people. A young couple from Nova Scotia, both chefs, run a hotel there. In Cambridge Bay (population about 1,800), there was a young Canadian-born woman who had previously lived in Thailand. Cambridge Bay’s current mayor, Wayne Gregory, is one of the first Black elected officials in Nunavut.
And then there is Adrian Nocon, who owns the Kuugaq Café in Cambridge Bay with his wife, Marielle. They are both immigrants from the Philippines. Housed inside a prefabricated building on piles, the restaurant has local artwork on its walls, a variety of seating and tables in a cozy atmosphere. Its menu includes everything from shrimp tempura and Reuben sandwiches to muskox burger and Arctic char chowder.
Mr. Nocon, now 42 years old, was in his early 20s when his family left Manila, the capital of the Philippines, for Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 2007. He studied to become a chemical engineer, like both his parents, but he was always more interested in business. He went to work for a bank in Halifax.
[Read: In Canada’s Frozen North, With Canada’s Frozen Soldiers]
Then, in 2018, he heard of an opening as an adviser at the branch of the Royal Bank of Canada in Cambridge Bay through a friend of his wife.
“They wanted me to fly the next week,” he recalled. “I was, like, Give me two weeks at least.”
His family was skeptical at first. Moving from tropical Manila to Halifax was already a big deal. Now he was going where?
“I said, You know what, it’s an adventure,” Mr. Nocon recalled. “It was my first time to be away from my family. It was time to grow up. Take a leap.”
Marielle joined him six months later after finding work as an accountant at the local housing agency. Mr. Nocon began moonlighting at the Kuugaq Café. In 2020, when the restaurant’s previous owners put it up for sale, the Nocons pounced.
“It was always a dream of mine to have a business, a restaurant,” he said.
The couple had planned to stay for only two years. Here they are, eight years later, now with children aged 5 and 2.
Since their arrival, the Filipino community in the hamlet has grown to 30 people from about 10, with many working at the health center, local grocery stores and Mr. Nocon’s restaurant.
When I came in from the cold for lunch one day in February, I was disappointed to hear that I’d just missed out on a limited-time, Malaysian-themed menu. A muskox burger made up for the missing rendang.
The restaurant began filling up with Inuit and non-Inuit people. The diverse coffee menu — surprisingly diverse! — beckoned. Maybe it was the unexpected offer of an affogato in the high Arctic, or the contrast between the warmth inside the restaurant and the extreme cold outside, but the pleasure of espresso poured over vanilla ice cream increased tenfold.
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The barista was also from the Philippines, Mr. Nocon said.
“She worked in Dubai before coming here,” Mr. Nocon said, “and so she has a lot of experience with different drinks, like affogato.”
Norimitsu Onishi is a Montreal-based correspondent for The New York Times covering Canada.
A glow-up for 24 Sussex Drive
Prime Minister Mark Carney announced on Friday that the federal government would hold a national design and build competition to restore 24 Sussex Drive, the official residence of the prime minister. The restoration will be mostly paid for through a national fund-raising effort, Ian Austen reported from Ottawa.
“We will not let it crumble,” Mr. Carney said. “We will set it right.”
No one has called 24 Sussex Drive home for over a decade, and it shows. While President Trump oversees the construction of a new ballroom at the White House, Canada’s equivalent sits empty — unfit for a political leader, or anyone else. Read the full story.
Canada at the World Cup
Canada advanced to the round of 32 despite falling 2-1 to Switzerland in Vancouver earlier this week, and is considered the heavy favorite entering its first knockout game in men’s World Cup history. Canada faces South Africa in Los Angeles on Sunday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. South Africa upset South Korea 1-0, drew 1-1 with the Czech Republic and lost to Mexico 2-0.
For Vancouver, the city with the N.H.L.’s worst team and an M.L.S. franchise that is threatening to leave, the World Cup has been a glorious addition to the sporting landscape. And it was able to celebrate after hosting Canada’s first victory in a men’s World Cup. Read the full story.
Memories of Saturday night
Last week, the CBC and Rogers Sportsnet announced that the national broadcaster would no longer air “Hockey Night in Canada” on Saturdays when the N.H.L. season returns in the fall. We asked how you felt about the decision to do away with this largely beloved weekly ritual, and we received so many responses that we’re still reading through them all. There were many touching memories and we’d like to turn them into a future newsletter, and will reach out to ask permission to use your comments. Thanks for taking the time to write.
Trans Canada
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A Montreal police officer was killed in a shootout on Monday that left three dead, including the gunman. For almost three tense hours, city residents were urged to shelter in place, Norimitsu Onishi and Vjosa Isai reported.
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Syrians and Haitians facing deportation from the U.S. after a Supreme Court decision on Thursday won’t find a smooth route to safety with Canada, a neighbor that is typically associated with welcoming refugees, reported Matina Stevis-Gridneff, the Canada bureau chief for The Times.
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Canada may be several thousand miles from Europe, but it could soon take part in the Eurovision Song Contest, the high-camp singing competition that is watched by tens of millions of music fans every year, reported Ian Austen and Alex Marshall.
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David Clayton-Thomas, a once homeless Toronto runaway who learned guitar in prison and went on to become the lead singer of the gritty, blues-inspired band Blood, Sweat & Tears, died on Wednesday in Toronto. He was 84.
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A floating convenience store appeared in Toronto, attracting the curious. Someone got stranded after swimming out to it.
The Canada Letter was edited by Shawna Richer, who oversees Canada coverage on the International desk at The Times. She lives in Toronto.
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