Siila Watt-Cloutier delivered the 9th LaFontaine-Baldwin lecture on May 29, 2009, in Iqaluit. Watt-Cloutier, one of Canada’s leading public figures, has long been a national and international voice for Northerners and the North. She is an Officer of the Order of Canada, the first recipient of Canada’s Northern Medal and was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

An audience of approximately 500 people packed into Inukshuk High School in Iqaluit to experience the first lecture of this scope in the North. Dignitaries included Governor General Michaëlle Jean, and the Institute for Canadian Citizenship’s co-chairs John Ralston Saul and Adrienne Clarkson. The lecture was streamed to venues in Vancouver, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal and Alice Springs by AustraliaIsumaTV, award-winning filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk’s production company.

Read the full speech

Watch the video

Further Reading

• Paix dans l’Arctique (La Presse, May 31, 2009)
• Needed: an official guardian – excerpt from Siila Watt Cloutier’s speech (Globe and Mail, May 29, 2009)
• Make indigenous people stewards of the North – excerpt from Siila Watt Cloutier’s speech (Globe and Mail, May 30, 2009)
• Nunavut’s birthday sparks debate about future (Globe and Mail, April 1, 2009)
• À quand une université dans le Grand Nord? (La Presse, April 1, 2009)