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arctic visit

Governor-General Michaelle Jean, centre, helps an Inuit elder skin two seals during a community feast in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on Monday.Sean Kilpatrick

On the first day of her trip to the Arctic - a day when she gutted a freshly slaughtered seal, pulled out its raw heart and ate it - Michaëlle Jean said she hopes her fifth and perhaps last Arctic trip as Governor-General will help capture the attention and interest of southern Canadians in the resource-rich and internationally disputed region.

Ms. Jean said Monday that Canadian sovereignty over the Arctic is an "empty shell" unless the Inuit benefit from new mines, military installations, oil projects and shipping.

After landing on a frosty airstrip, Ms. Jean delivered a speech at a high-school gymnasium, where she asked students to speak about their aspirations.

"The reason I'm here is I really want people down south to know what life is like here," Ms. Jean said. "Development in the North cannot happen without you. It has to be about you."

Hundreds of Inuit at a community festival gathered around as the Governor-General knelt above the carcass and used a traditional blade to slice the meat off the skin. After repeated, vigorous slices at the flesh, the Queen's representative turned to the woman beside her with an enthusiastic query: "Could I try the heart?" Ms. Jean then grabbed a tissue to wipe clean her blood-soaked fingers, and explained her gesture of solidarity with the region's Inuit hunters.

Ms. Jean is making an unusually forceful pitch for the federal government to help build a university in the North so that more Inuit share in economic growth in the region.

Ottawa has said it's not looking to build a university in the Arctic soon. The Conservatives say they've increased funding for colleges in the area and donated to an international project to improve school programs in different Arctic countries.

But Ms. Jean says the region needs more. She points to the University of Tromso, which serves Norway's Sami aboriginals, as an inspiration for Canada.

Tromso's medicine, law and geology faculties are the kind of programs, she says, that could inspire more Canadian Inuit to pursue an education. The high school graduation rate in Nunavut is the lowest in Canada, at a mere 25 per cent.

With so few university students in the North, Ms. Jean suggests opening up the school to students throughout Canada and breaking it up into smaller satellite campuses throughout the Arctic.

Several town councillors applauded the Governor-General at a round-table meeting for speaking up in favour of the idea.

"I am totally convinced that this kind of infrastructure would be something worth considering," Ms. Jean told them. "It's very important for those young people to see that [a degree]is possible, that it is accessible, not too far away from where they are.

"I was able to see what an incredible tool for development that was [in Norway]"

Ms. Jean handed out achievement awards Monday and invited a recipient - Adine Sandy - to describe her dreams. The teenager remained tongue-tied while an auditorium full of classmates cheered her on. Eventually, she shyly whispered in the Governor-General's ear that she wanted to study management and run a business.

Ms. Jean reached around to caress the baby swaddled on the teenager's back.

Ms. Jean's own daughter, Marie-Eden, is taking a week off school to see the Arctic. She had never made a Northern visit before, and got a quick introduction to the region's less-than-balmy temperatures.

The delegation was greeted by snow flurries and sub-zero temperatures, and Marie-Eden wrapped a red scarf around her face to ward off the whistling wind.

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