Governor General kicks off visit to Nunavut with seal snack

Gov. Gen. Michalle Jean began a weeklong visit to Nunavut on Monday, as part of the territory's 10th anniversary celebrations.

She made a graphic gesture of solidarity with the country's beleaguered seal hunters by gutting and eating some fresh seal at a community festival in the central Nunavut community of Rankin Inlet attended by hundreds of Inuit.

"It was absolutely delicious," Jean said. "These are ancient practices that are part of a way of life. If you can't understand that, you're completely missing the reality of life here."

Earlier this month, the European Union votedto impose a ban on seal products after years of intense lobbying by animal rights groups that at times enlisted the support of celebrities like rock legend Paul McCartney. Theban still needs the backing of EU governments, which could be a mere formality since national envoys have already endorsed the legislation.

Expected to take effect in October, the ban would apply to all products and processed goods derived from seals, including fur, meat, oil blubber and even omega-3 pills made from seal oil.

People inthe CanadianNorthwarn it will be one more shock to a region that already suffers from chronic economic woes and a staggering array of social problems.

Visit includesthree Nunavut regions

Jean arrived Monday morning in Rankin Inlet, along with her husband, Jean-Daniel Lafond, and their 10-year-old daughter, Marie-den. While there, Jean visited the local friendship centre and high school and attended a meeting of the hamlet's council.

The familywill fly to Kugluktuk and Cambridge Bay, two communities in Nunavut's western Kitikmeot region, on Tuesday.

Marthe Blouin, Jean's official spokesperson, told CBC News the Governor General's visit will celebrate Nunavut's Inuit culture, as well as look at the territory's challenges as it turns 10 years old.

"It's a celebration. It's also a learning process. It's a sharing process," Blouin said. "She would tell you that she's looking at this visit as being a great moment of the year 2009."

Nunavut officially became Canada's newest territory on April 1, 1999. Before that, it was part of the Northwest Territories.

Jean will visit all three Nunavut regions: Kivalliq, Kitikmeot and Baffin. She is scheduled to stop in Rankin Inlet, Kugluktuk, Cambridge Bay, Resolute Bay, Pond Inlet, Clyde River, Pangirtung and Iqaluit, the capital.

She will wind up her tour in Kuujjuaq, in the Nunavik region of northern Quebec.

Kugluktuk man, RCMP chief to be honoured

When she arrives in Iqaluit later this week, Jean will recognize a man who tried to save his wife in a snowmobile accident near Kugluktuk in 2007.

Jean will present Jeffrey Hopkins with the Medal of Braveryin a ceremonySaturday at the Frobisher Inn.

On Oct. 27, 2007, Hopkins and his wife, Mary Jean Hopkins, were driving along a trail across the Coppermine River when their snowmobile broke through the ice.

Hopkins struggled for about 10 minutes to rescue his wife from the water, but he had to let her go when hypothermia set in.

Hopkins then crawled on his hands for five to sixhours toseek help backin Kugluktuk, about two kilometres away.

A local search and rescue crew found Mary Jean Hopkins's body the next day. Jeffrey Hopkins was medevaced to Edmonton to be treated for advanced hypothermia and frostbite.

At the same ceremony, Jean will award an RCMP Long Service Medal to Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, the commanding officer for the RCMP in Nunavut, and a Caring Canadian volunteer award to Beth McKenty, who runs the Arctic Youth Initiative in Iqaluit.

Urges PMto createnorthern university

Before leaving for Nunavut, Jean publicly urged Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government to build a university in Canada's Arctic.

In an interview with The Canadian Press, Jean said a university in the North would let Inuit youth get a degree close to home.

She added that Canada's claims to sovereignty over the North will be nothing but an "empty shell" unless the area's inhabitants participate in northern development.

As well, Jean said an Arctic university could help produce the engineers that mining companies will need to develop resources in the north.

The Governor General is a largely ceremonial role and it's extremely rare for the Queen's representative to advocate specific policies.

Jean has begun promoting the idea with government officials. Sources say they expect her to raise it with Harper.