Whit Fraser Broadcaster and Author

Good Luck, and far flung assignments allowed Whit Fraser to see Canada’s Arctic as few others have. A Former CBC News reporter, he covered the changing north from Colonial rule to enshrining indigenous peoples rights in Canada’s Constitution and creation of Nunavut.

After broadcasting, Fraser became Chairman of the Canadian Polar Commission and later, Executive Director of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization.

His award willing and best memoir, True North Rising, documents the remarkable changes that took place over the past fifty years. He describes it as “an eyewitness account of courage, reliance, and commitment by “young radicals who changed the north and Canada.” Among them, was Fraser’s wife of 30 years, Canada’s Governor General, Mary Simon.

Many reviewers said the book is a “must read” if one wants to understand today’s North.

True North Rising details pivotal events like the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry under Justice Tom Berger, where Fraser’s team of exceptional Indigenous broadcasters- changed Northern radio by producing daily reports in English and six Indigenous languages.

Whit Fraser is also the author of a novel, The Cold Edge of Heaven, set in the Arctic in the 1920s when Canada was asserting Soverienghty without knowing the people who lived there.