On Thin Ice: Asserting Canada’s Sovereignty in the Arctic

Kierans Lecture 2025 with P.J. Akeeagok, Jacob Isbosethsen, Professor Whitney Lackenbauer and Dr. Jessica M. Shadian

The C.D. Howe Institute's Annual Kierans Lecture has been made possible through a generous donation from Tom Kierans and Mary Janigan.

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P.J. Akeeagok, Premier of Nunavut

P.J. Akeeagok was elected as Premier of Nunavut by the sixth assembly in November 2021. He is a first time MLA, elected to represent the constituency of Iqaluit-Niaqunnguu with 84 per cent of the vote.

In January 2024, Premier Akeeagok joined Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. President Aluki Kotierk to sign the Nunavut Lands and Resources Devolution Agreement. Once implemented, the agreement will mean decision making about Nunavut’s public lands and fresh waters will be made at home. Premier P.J. Akeeagok and his Cabinet launched the territory’s most ambitious housing strategy to date, called Nunavut 3000. It has resulted in three times more homes being built in the territory at half the cost.

Prior to becoming premier, Akeeagok served for seven years as the president of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association. As QIA president, Akeeagok initiated numerous new projects and programs in the largest region in Nunavut. He negotiated a successful Inuit Impact Benefit Agreement for Tallurutiup Imanga National Marine Conservation Area and other companion agreements for interim protection of Tuvaijuittuq Marine Protected Area. These areas encompass Canada's largest bodies of protected waters. Akeeagok also secured an acknowledgement and apology from the Government of Canada for the colonial policies and practices imposed on Qikiqtani Inuit from 1950 to 1975.

Originally from Canada's most northern community, Grise Fiord, Akeeagok has devoted his career to representing Nunavummiut.
Premier Akeeagok is married with three children. He is an avid harvester who enjoys time on the land.

Jacob Isbosethsen, Head of the Representation of Greenland to the United States and Canada

Jacob Isbosethsen is the Head of Representation at the Greenland Representation to the United States and Canada. He previously served as Head of Representation at the Greenland Representation in China, based in Beijing, with official side-accreditation to Japan, Korea, and Singapore. Prior to that, he served as Head of Representation in Iceland (2018–2021), Acting Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs in Nuuk (2017), and Head of Department at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (2015–2017). He also served as Legal Advisor in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (2013–2015), Secretary to the Greenland Representation to the EU in Brussels (2011–2013), and as Head of Section at the Ministry for Fisheries, Hunting and Agriculture (2008–2011).

Born and raised in Nuuk, Greenland, Mr. Isbosethsen holds a Master of Laws (Cand.jur., LLM) from Aarhus University, completed in 2008. He has also undertaken advanced training in national and international security and defense at the Royal Danish Defense Academy and has completed specialized courses on UNCLOS and Continental Shelf procedures. Mr. Isbosethsen has spent his entire career serving the Government of Greenland (Naalakkersuisut).

Professor Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D., Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North, Professor, School for the Study of Canada, Trent University, Network Lead, North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN)

P. (Paul) Whitney Lackenbauer (pronouns he/him) is Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Study of the Canadian North and Professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University. He was Honorary Lieutenant-Colonel of 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group based in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories from 2014-2020 and was reappointed to this position from 2022-2025. He is also a Fellow with the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary History at the University of Toronto; the Arctic Institute of North America; the Centre for Military, Security and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary; and an adjunct professor with the Brian Mulroney Institute for Government at St. Francis Xavier University and the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience, School of Management, University of Alaska Fairbanks. Whitney specializes in Arctic security, sovereignty and governance issues, modern Canadian military and diplomatic history, and Indigenous-state relations.

Whitney has (co-) written or (co-) edited more than sixty books and more than one hundred academic articles and chapters. His recent books include The Joint Arctic Weather Stations: Science and Sovereignty in the High Arctic, 1946-72 (2022); Lines in the Snow: Thoughts on the Past and Future of Northern Canadian Policy Issues (2021); On Thin Ice? Perspectives on Arctic Security (2021); Breaking Through? Understanding Sovereignty and Security in the Circumpolar Arctic (co-edited, 2021); On Thin Ice? Perspectives on Arctic Security (co-edited, 2021); Canada and the Maritime Arctic: Boundaries, Shelves, and Waters (co-authored 2020); Custos Borealis: The Military in the Canadian North (edited 2020); Governing Complexity in the Arctic Region (co-authored 2019); Breaking the Ice Curtain? Russia, Canada, and Arctic Security in a Changing Circumpolar World (co-edited 2019), and China’s Arctic Ambitions and What They Mean for Canada (co-authored 2018). His book The Canadian Rangers: A Living History, 1942-2012 (2013) was shortlisted for the Dafoe prize, and his co-authored book Arctic Front: Defending Canada in the Far North (2008) won the 2009 Donner Prize for the best book on public policy in Canada. He is also co-editor of the Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security (DCASS) series to which he has contributed more than a dozen volumes.

Dr. Jessica M. Shadian, President and CEO, Arctic360, Distinguished Senior Fellow, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History

Dr. Jessica M. Shadian is the President and CEO of Arctic360, Canada’s Premier Arctic think tank. Over the course of her career, she has lived and worked throughout the Nordic and North American Arctic. Her commentary and publications focus on Arctic geopolitics, Canadian Arctic foreign policy and diplomacy, Arctic infrastructure investments, critical minerals, and innovating out of the Arctic. Shadian’s 2014 book entitled: The Politics of Arctic Sovereignty: Oil, Ice, and Inuit Governance (Routledge) is the first in-depth history of the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC) and Inuit sovereignty in global politics reaching back to pre-European discovery. She holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance, University of Delaware (2006) during which she wrote her dissertation at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), University of Cambridge, UK on an NSF award. Shadian spent the following 5 years as a researcher and professor in the Norwegian high north at the Barents Institute and then the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University. There, Shadian co-created an Arctic Dialogue series which brought together Norwegian, Alaskan, and Greenlandic political, Indigenous, and industry leaders and other Arctic experts concerned with Arctic offshore oil and gas development to share knowledge. As a Marie Curie COFUND Fellowship award recipient, Shadian then served as an Associate Professor at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Denmark before completing a two-year Nansen Professorship, co-funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Akureyri, Iceland in June 2017. Having settled in Canada, her experiences around the Arctic made it clear that Canada needed its own Arctic specific think tank. Working in collaboration with colleagues she dedicated herself full-time to build Arctic360.