1 T h e Book True North Rising B y Tom Clark The book True North Rising, 2023, Random House Canada , by Whit Fraser, intrigued me. I like just - issued books in paperback that I c an hold easily ! Th is one is an account of W h it Fraser’s 50 years living with emergi n g Dene and Inu it leadership as they were overturning the colonial order and transforming Canada’s North . One of them , Mary Simon, is now Canada ’s first indigenous Governor General and Whit Fraser is her husband But in 1967, i n his first job as a know - not h ing repo r ter from the south , Whit Fraser worked as a CBC reporter in the far north . He immersed himself in his new environment and became friends with many around him . He hopes his book will help readers know the people of the north a little better. It wil l Thi s book is a collect ion of well - told stories gro uped into three parts: 1. Discovery ; 2. Turbulence ; and 3. Builders . The six chapt ers in the part on Discovery involve earlier days in the north. The pa rt on Turbulence covers big political issues inclu ding t h e Mackenzie Valley P ipeline proposal and th e Berger inquiry . The last ten chapters , c omprising the part on Builders , are stories about leaders emerging in the north and building it Most st ories are focussed on one or more north ern persons A s t h ei r f r iend , Whit Fraser convey s some of his own story Th ere is a sto ry Where is Frobisher Bay: Always Trust your Gut A s a teenager of 17yrs about to fail high school math, Whit decided to get a job i n New Glasg ow , NS H e asked about jobs at a publis h ing c om p any, an d met the manager who sa id “ H ow about radio? ” H e did that for a brief time before h e was let go. H e joine d the RCAF. A t age 20, he married his high school sweet heart and soon they had children. When discharge d , it was to the CBC. He was o ffered a job in Frobisher Bay and a few months lat er he a nd his family had been moved there Jonah Kelley was an Inuktitut - speaking CBC reporter and a significant name at the 1981 Ottawa Government Conference Centre g athering with Trudeau and Provincial Premier s about the repatr iation of the Constitution. W h en Whit was asked to name the best radio show he ever heard he said Jonah’s coverage of the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King J unio r Jonah understood the parallels between struggles of Inuit in the N o r th and the injustices again st Black Americans His t apes were p owerful . He had translated th e famous “I have a dream” speech into In u ktitu t and captured the emotion and what it mean t for self - determination in the North. Joe Tobie met Whit when Whit move d to CBC Yellowknife. Joe wor ked for Health Canada as a translator for doctors and nu rses. He had a part - time job with CBC. Once, Joe quietly confide d to Whit that he was born at the woodland place where they we re sitting and sai d that at age 7 he had bee n s ent to residential school a nd had never se en his par ents again. 2 Pa rt two is the central part of the book. In the late 60s and early 70’s it was little known that Aboriginal rights were protected by Briti sh law and Can adian law by th e Royal Proclamation of 1763. Governments and settlers were unwilling to re cognize or even discuss Aboriginal rights. The discovery of ar c tic oil in 1968 followed by 1970s gasoline shortages create d a demand to open up arcti c oil The title “ Minister of Indian Affairs and No r th ern Development ” that J ohn C h r étien had in the Trudea u government tells it all. In 1968 C h r étien came to Yellowknife to announce a jump start in development of northern riches for “all Canadian s”. Few Inuit or Den e we re invited. Whit’s s tory for CBC was ab out the meeting of youn g Dene leaders to establish wh at became the Dene Nation. The oil industry wanted subsidies and need ed to be in touch with the rest of Canada. They got both - b ig communication dishes an d 80% tax r elief . Caterpillar tractors and lo n g lines of mobile work camp s became the landscape. I ndi genous resentment grew But t h e big dishes allowed indigenous to organise ! In 1973, 27 oil companies formed Canadian Arctic Gas and filed an application to build a pipeline down the Mackenzie Rive r Val ley. The Dene Brotherhood o pp osed it, join ed by the Inuit , the Métis a nd the environmental lobby across Canada. Th ere was a parallel in the 1971 plan of Quebec premier Bourassa to launch the James Bay hydro project to dam northern Quebec rivers to pow e r ge nerating stations without dis cussions with Inuit and Cree livin g there. When t he 1972 election returned a minority , the minority Liberal government appointed Justice Thomas Berger of the BC Supreme Court to write his own rules for it and conduct a n inquiry to report on the impact of a natural gas pi peline down the Macke nzie Ri ver Valley. Stars in t he Northern Lig hts , begins with Wh it’s team delivering an impressive TV presentation on CBC’s National. T h anks to Whit and his bosses, CBC North ern Serv i ce got a big fin ancial package to cove r the inquiry March 1975 to 19 November 19 76. travell ing with the commission up and down the Mackenzie and western Arctic; thro ughout Yukon; and, across Canada Whit assem bled a team of northern ne wscaste rs capable of h andling 7 languages : Dogrib and Chipewyan ; Eastern an d Western Inuktitut ; Gwich ’in ; Slavey S o und record ing added Yukon Dene. Cameraman Pat Scott was the other white on the team Pat met t he love of his life at the hearings in the v illage Rae - Adzo , marri e d her an d stayed in the Nort h. The CBC t eam members were able to point out error s in propos als by pipeline engineers R es pect for the northern newscaster team grew. The y served as translators for members of the community. They served as witnesses when th e inquiry was in their tow n. All Equal Now, gives some detailed insight into the Berger commission A nother short chapter t ells how the Berger inquiry went to 10 southern citi es across Ca nada in 3 weeks The story The Shit H its the Fan t ells how Whit felt h e had to testify – knowing it wa s wrong and inappropriate for a newscaster to do so H e d id n ’ t want the pi pelin e because the people who live there d id n ’ t want it. He testified that if we want to live and work in this area where they ar e majority, we are going to h ave to l et the m take ov er. The print media reported he had compromised his objectivity. His CBC boss rage d at 3 him . H e wasn ’ t sorry; it was something he had to do but he wouldn ’ t do it again without re signing firs t. CBC would stick with h im Be r ger re comm ended a 10 - yea r moratorium , no pipelin e in Northern Yukon , and a possible Foothills Maple Leaf route w ith environment al safeguards However, b y the time of the report, the Middle E ast Oil Embargo was gone as was pressure for Ar c tic deve lopment T oday, land claims a re long settled and no pipeline has been built. Of the young indigenous le aders who testified, Jim Antoine wa s elected to the territorial legislative assembly , became a cabinet minister a nd then premier 1998 – 2000 T h e third part o f the book , Bu ilders: Fi rst Canadian, Canadian First, begins with a chapter that tells how Whit en ded up married to G overnor General Mary Simons in 2022 He met Mary , an i nterp reter at an In uit gathering he was covering in 1973 . He had given up drin k i ng n ot long before and sh e showed sympathy A lthough there was some attraction , Whit was married with 3 children between 2 and 10 at the time T h eir path s continued to cross. In 1989 Whit ’ s yo ungest ch ild was now 20 y ea rs old . H is and his wife ’ s int e rests had d iverged. T h ey separated and she es tablished in Ottawa. A s the separation was underway, he was asked to speak at the Ottawa C BC reti rement party honouring the man who fi rst hired him , someone who m Mary also kne w. Mary h a d sep arated som e mont h s earlier. W h i t suggested she come to Ottawa. She did. Fast forward to 2022 – he is sitting next to the Governor General. Vice - Regal Boot Camp, the 15th chapter , covers Mary ’ s time as Canada ’ s circumpolar amb a ssador and lat er ambassador t o Denmark. Mary s uccessfully challenged the US notion of a nation - state Arctic Council – gaining a seat for the Inuit Circumpolar Conf e re nce on the C o uncil. She b ecame Canada ’ s ambassador to the Council T hen she was made amba s sador to Denmark After a couple of years, they found t h at ambassadorial wo rkload too much. She was o ffered C ircumpolar A mbassador again and kept it to 2003 In 2007 she becam e president of t he national Inuit Tampi ri i t Kanatami Whit ’ s story Amaujaq , is about Jose Kusuga k (Amauja q is is Inuit name) , who was the founding president of the Inuit Tipir iit Kanatami Aft er Mary ’ s return fro m Denmark, Whit needed a job and became an advisor to Jose and later Whit became CEO of the organization This was the beginning of Nunavut T he l a nd claims were settled bu t bi g social , hea lth and edu ca tion issues remained D iscussions with the Martin government lead to the Kelo w na deal. Sadly, the gains of Ke lown a were put on hold by the Harper government Changing Canada: The other John A tells t he story of John Amagoalik the Inuk who b r ought Nunav ut in to Canada John ’ s family was forcibly relocated in the 70 s. But h e was s electe d for Churchill Vocational School , liked it and flo urished Fr om a job in communicatio ns with the government of th e Northwe s t Territories , t hen a job with Inuit Tapirisat , h e moved to the nationa l stage in a fight for indigenous rights in the Constitution He was behind a huge land claim and was concerned to keep “ a unique r ace of people i n Canada ” In 1990, John A with Tagak Curley and minister Tom Si ddon of the Mulroney go vernment reached land claim agreement but “ Nunavut ” was a sticking 4 point T he Oka issue co st Mulroney support so the Inuit said they could wait for the next government ! Th at provoked a deal. It e nded with John A. work ing on the Nunavut Implementation Commi ssion to bring about a Nunavut government The proclamation c reating Nunavut was signed i n 1999 in the ne w capital Iq aluit Tagak : Curley was a young radical, then member of the legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories seeking to create Nunavut Next, h e went into business – the Nunavut Construction Corporation Finally, he wa s elected a member o f the Nunavut government and served in the cabinet. Tagak also read over the records of the end of the Bri tish Franklin Expedition and findings which appe ared to indicate cann i b alism C h arles Dickens had said they had to ha v e b e en k illed by E s qu imaux Tagak ’ s familiarity with Inuit culture , Inuit oral history and the cuts into bone showed that cannibalism and not “ savages ” was invol ved He won an apology fr om Dicken s ’ heirs. Char lie Watt: The comeback Elder tells the s tory of someone who made t he first comprehensi ve Inuit land claim - challeng ing the plan for the massive James Bay project . T he court agreed The re had to be negotiat ion with th e indigenous. B oth sides ma d e deals and compromi s es. T wo years later in November 197 5 , the claim agreemen t was signed Charlie became a Liberal Senator until 2018 I n 2018, Charlie, the found ing first president of the Makivik L and C laim C orporation who had lo st ever y pre sidential election since , was r e - elected Sadly, he lost in 2021! May he remember the vict ories. Meet my Elders, tells of W hi t as chair and CEO of the Canadian Polar C o mmission, with academics and corporate leaders. A 1991 creation of the Mulr o ney governm ent , the Commission brought to g ether those li ving in the ar c tic and those attracted to it The Polar C o mm i ssion hosted a major conference in 1994 towards n orthern f or eign p olicy. T he foreign affairs minister scooped th at by announcing an Arcti c Ambass ador – a position Mary Simons was awarded. Later in 1994 there was a policy conference in Yellowkni f e on TV at which indigenous dominated while the north was wa tching. R eporting results of studies to the lo cal indigeno us people was appreciated but was too rare R eporting needs to be in their language. And i ndigeno us can help in studies too Glac i ers, Grads and Geezers: Climate Change You Can See and Touch , tells of a summer program by boat to expose students to seas above the arctic circle – “ Students on Ice. ” S tudents come from big Canadian cities , small a rctic settlements as well as the US, Eur o pe and Asia. Distinguished educators lead them on exploratio ns of Arctic and subarctic areas from La brador and the Northwest passage to the High Arctic and Greenland. L ectures come with a melting and receding glacie r as a back drop The Jakobsha v n Glacier loses 6 0 metres every day Postscript : The book ends with a short reflecti on T he comparative statistics o f the north show far higher suicide rat e s, more tuberculosis, poor er housing and polluted water. There is more violent crime and a higher rate of incarceration. However, Whit hope s new young leaders willing to better life in the n orth will keep emerging . “Stay tuned” he says