Canadian Sheila Watt-Cloutier the World’s Leading Voice on Arctic Climate Impacts and Human Rights

In 2005
she issued a legal petition against the US which focused on the relationship
between climate change and human rights. This landmark effort helped to earn her
a Nobel Peace Prize nomination alongside Al Gore in 2007. In addition to the
nomination, she holds a number of honorary degrees and other awards. She
received the Order of Canada in 2006. 

In 2010 she was
recognized as one of 25 “Transformational Canadians,” a program which celebrates
living citizens who have made a difference by immeasurably improving the lives
of others. In a 2013 book by Ken McGoogan, she was recognized as one of “50
Canadians Who Changed the World.”


Unlike some of her contemporaries she
is not an advocate of conflict. “I have always engaged in the politics of
influence rather than the politics of protest,” she said, “The style of
leadership that I have is one of bringing people together and understanding that
we’re all one here. The planet and its people are one.”


While she is a
champion of Arctic ecological issues, she is not anti-business. When it comes to
development in the north she advocates finding a balance between business
interests and ecological concerns.


Her political leadership began in
1995, when she was elected corporate secretary of Makivik Corp. She then headed
the Canadian and subsequently the international branch of the Inuit Circumpolar
Council (ICC). At the ICC, she led Northern indigenous people from four
countries in a campaign against persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which have
long poisoned the Arctic food chain. She was also instrumental in negotiating a
global treaty that seeks to ban these toxins.


Now Watt-Cloutier is on a
mission to transform public opinion into public policy. As part of that endeavor
she published a book in 2012 called The
Right to Be Cold. In the book she explains that the Arctic is the
early-warning system for climate change and its fate is relevant to everyone.



Recently, Watt-Cloutier was among a group of
Canadian Inuit leaders who fondly remembered an impromptu meeting with Nelson
Mandela whose plane briefly touched down in Iqaluit on July 1, 1990. Ten years later Watt-Cloutier met Mandela in Johannesburg, and the
man reportedly remembered their brief encounter in 2000.  


When Mandela died on December
5, she said that she was inspired by his leadership, “he modeled such integrity,
strength, and resilience in the face of such public
persecution.”


Watt-Cloutier’s life story on the international
scene may seem glorious, but the truth is that for much of the last 14 years,
her journey has been defined by an abiding sadness and sense of loss. First she
lost her sister, then her aunt, then her mother, and most recently her young
cousin and young niece. This string of tragedies allegedly helped her to
cultivate her insights and led to a profound understanding of the nature of
existence.


“In those places of deep grief I deepened my personal
journey,” she said. “I could eventually translate my new perspectives into
powerful opportunities for personal change and growth. I came to see in a vivid
way that all things are interconnected and that all things happen for a greater
cause. I came to know trust in the life process. I came to know courage,
tenacity and commitment. I needed these character skills in order to survive my
grief. As it turned out, I also needed them to strengthen and raise the volume
of my own voice on the global stage.”