The Canadian Arctic is at a pivotal moment—one that demands bold leadership, strategic investment, and true collaboration between government, industry, and Indigenous communities.
Join Canadian Club Toronto on April 23 for an important conversation on the future of Canada’s Arctic. The event will open with keynote remarks from Natan Obed, President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, who will highlight the critical role of Inuit in shaping Arctic policy and Canada’s position as a global Arctic leader. Following the keynote, a panel discussion will bring together industry and policy experts, moderated by Hannah Thibedeau, Executive Communications Officer at Global Public Affairs. This expert panel includes Sean Boyd, Chair of Agnico Eagle Mines; Heather Exner-Pirot, Senior Fellow and Director of Energy, Natural Resources & Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute; and Dr. Jessica Shadian, President of Arctic360. Together, they will explore Canada’s unique advantages in the Arctic, the opportunities for Indigenous self-determination, and the urgent need for strategic investments in infrastructure, resource development, and sovereignty.
With increasing global attention on the Arctic as an economic and geopolitical frontier, this conversation will address pressing questions: How can Canada bridge the gap between its Arctic ambitions and realities on the ground? What role should industry and government play in ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future for Inuit Nunangat? And how can Canada realize its potential as a true Arctic power while fostering economic growth and Indigenous-led development? During the federal election campaign, the Arctic is emerging as a key national issue—what does a new federal government need to do/get right post-election? How do we ensure that Canada seizes on the tremendous nation-building potential of a bold Arctic strategy in the face of foreign policy challenges in the Trump era?
*For virtual attendees, please note that the live stream will begin at approximately 12:30 pm ET & the link will be provided closer to the event date*
Natan Obed
President, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami
Natan Obed is President of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and Interim President of Inuit Circumpolar Council Canada, the primary governance bodies for Inuit nationally and internationally. Together, these organizations work to ensure that Inuit in Canada prosper through unity and self-determination. President Obed is originally from Nain, Nunatsiavut. A skilled negotiator and consensus builder, he is the architect of the Inuit Crown Partnership Committee, a collaborative leadership table devoted to addressing the most urgent policy challenges facing Inuit and creating conditions for Inuit to thrive.
He has devoted his career to working on behalf of Inuit. With Inuit Treaty Organizations in Canada, he led the development and implementation of national strategies intended to bring about transformational change in the areas of suicide prevention, research, food security and climate change, and is now forging a path to build an Inuit Nunangat University. He is a graduate of Tufts University and holds honorary degrees from Queen’s University and the University of Northern British Columbia.
Sean Boyd
Chair of the Board of Agnico Eagle Mines Limited
Mr. Boyd serves as the Chair of the Board of Agnico Eagle Mines Limited. Prior to this role, he was the Executive Chair of the Board from February 2022 until his retirement in December 2023, and Vice Chairman and the Company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from 1998 to 2022. Before his appointment as CEO, Mr. Boyd served as the Chief Financial Officer from 1990 to 1998 and Comptroller from 1985 to 1990.
During Mr. Boyd’s tenure as CEO, Agnico Eagle grew from a small, single mine gold producer to a multi-mine international gold mining company. In December 2020, the Globe and Mail ROB Magazine recognized him as its Global Visionary of the Year CEO. He was recognized as The Northern Miner’s Mining Person of the Year in 2007 and 2017 and appeared on the list of The Best-Performing CEOs in the World in the Harvard Business Review in 2010, 2016 and 2017.
In 2019, Mr. Boyd was recognized by the Chartered Professional Accountants of Ontario (CPA Ontario) as a Fellow, the highest honour bestowed upon a CPA within the accounting profession. In 2021, Mr. Boyd received the degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa, from St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia).
Mr. Boyd served on the Board of Directors of The Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation (2013 – 2022). He has also served on the Boards of the World Gold Council and the St. Francis Xavier University Board of Governors.
Prior to joining Agnico Eagle in 1985, Mr. Boyd was a staff accountant with Clarkson Gordon (Ernst & Young). He is a Fellow Chartered Professional Accountant (FCPA, FCA) and a graduate of the University of Toronto (B.Comm.).
Heather Exner- Pirot
Senior Fellow & Director of Energy, Natural Resources & Environment, Macdonald-Laurier Institute
Heather Exner-Pirot is a Senior Fellow and Director of Energy, Natural Resources and Environment at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute in Ottawa, Special Advisor to the Business Council of Canada, Research Advisor to the Indigenous Resource Network, and Global Fellow at the Wilson Centre in Washington D.C.
She has twenty years of experience in Indigenous, Arctic and resource development and governance. She has published on Indigenous economic development, resource politics and policy, energy security, Arctic human security, regional Arctic governance and the Arctic Council, Arctic innovation, First Nations equity and own source revenues, and more. She obtained a PhD in Political Science from the University of Calgary in 2011.
Exner-Pirot sits on the boards of the Saskatchewan Indigenous Economic Development Network and the Canadian Rural Revitalization Foundation. She is a member of the Canadian Defence and Security Network and a Network Coordinator at the North American and Arctic Defense and Security Network. She is the Managing Editor of the Arctic Yearbook (an international, peer-reviewed annual volume), a member of Yukon’s Arctic Security Advisory Council, and the former Chair of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust.
She has published over 45 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and edited volumes, and presented at over 100 conferences and events nationally and internationally, in addition to authoring dozens of op-eds in Canada’s top publications.
Jessica Shadian
President and CEO, Arctic360
Shadian spent 20 years living and working throughout the Nordic and North American Arctic as a researcher, professor, and consultant. Her research and publications focus on Arctic geopolitics, Canadian Arctic foreign policy and diplomacy, Arctic infrastructure, critical minerals, and innovation. Her expertise is regularly solicited by international media outlets, governments, think tanks, and other institutions throughout the circumpolar region and globally.
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. Shadian holds a Ph.D. in Global Governance from the 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 5 years in the Norwegian High North as a post-doctoral researcher at the Barents Institute and then as a Senior Researcher at the High North Center for Business and Governance, Nord University, Bodø. During this time, Shadian became the co-creator and organiser of an Arctic Dialogue series which brought together state and local political leaders, oil and gas and other industry leaders, local Indigenous communities, and academia (from Norway, Alaska, and Greenland) concerned with Arctic offshore oil and gas development to share knowledge and ideas. Through a Marie Curie COFUND Fellowship award, Shadian served as an Associate Professor, 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. Once settled in Canada, Shadian joined the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History as a Senior Fellow. From her experiences around the Arctic, it soon became clear that Canada needed its own Arctic specific think tank. Working in collaboration with colleagues and its founding members, Shadian decided to dedicate herself full-time to help build Arctic360.
Hannah Thibedeau
Executive Communications Officer, Global Public Affairs
An award-winning veteran journalist, Hannah Thibedeau has covered Parliament Hill for more than 20 years. She most recently served as National News Anchor of CBC News Live on Canada’s most-watched news network. Thibedeau and her team won the 2023 Canadian Screen Award (formerly the Gemini) for “Best Live News Special: Ottawa Occupation” for their coverage of the truck convoy in Ottawa in 2022.
Thibedeau has covered seven federal elections, four Prime Ministers, multiple leadership conventions, yearly Remembrance Day ceremonies, the first official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Royal Visits, and the 2014 shootings on Parliament Hill, among many others. During her tenure, she also reported on important international events such as G7, NATO and APEC Summits and Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s visit to Afghanistan.
Hailing from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Thibedeau has always had an interest in politics, news coverage and storytelling. She attended Dalhousie University in Halifax where she earned a degree in Political Science. Following university, Hannah wanted to combine her love of politics and media and went to Algonquin College in Ottawa and completed her Television Broadcasting Diploma.
Her range of skills and experience throughout the industry is extensive, beginning her career behind the scenes as technical support for hockey and football at ESPN2, producing stories for CTV National News, and as a reporter for Global National then reporting locally, nationally and internationally at CBC for all mediums: TV; radio; online; and, social media. Hannah has also spent time working as a reporter in Washington, guest hosting the National as well as Power and Politics and most recently becoming the anchor of her program on CBC News Network.
