True North Consulting provides research, writing, publishing, policy, and strategic advisory services to clients in several areas:
- Canadian and international public policy in the circumpolar Arctic
- Historical and contemporary relationships between the Canadian state and Indigenous Peoples
- Foreign and defence policies, with particular emphasis on Arctic sovereignty, security, and stewardship issues
- Research on modern Canadian history, military history, Indigenous history, public policy, and government strategies
- Facilitating meetings and organizing conferences, workshops and symposia
- Training and mentoring personnel new to Arctic research and affairs
- Project management support for research report and book projects, including a full suite of research, writing, editing, layout, and cartographic services
Our principals and associated consultants have extensive Northern and international experience working with government and non-government stakeholders and rightsholders to provide independent policy advice, research and writing services, and professional development training.
Specific past projects include research reports and books on information and influence activities in the Arctic, comparative Arctic policies, enhancement of Permanent Participant capacity at the Arctic Council, Arctic sovereignty and security issues, real property policy, conscription of Aboriginal peoples, First Nations veterans, Indigenous-military relations, Indigenous land and sea use, Arctic development principles, historical research on boundary issues, and non-Arctic state interests in the Canadian Arctic. We have also designed and delivered a range of professional development seminars, from three-day courses for civil servants on Arctic governance to individual lectures or panel presentations.
Our main partners are Whitney Lackenbauer and Jennifer Arthur-Lackenbauer. We also have a strong team of consultants with whom we partner on specific projects.
Whitney Lackenbauer, Ph.D., has more than twenty years experience working on Canadian foreign, defence, and Indigenous history and policy. He is Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in the Study of the Canadian North and a Professor in the School for the Study of Canada at Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario. He also serves as Honorary Lieutenant Colonel of 1st Canadian Ranger Patrol Group headquartered in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with patrols spanning Canada’s three northern territories. He is network lead of the North American and Arctic Defence and Security Network (NAADSN), funded by the Department of National Defence MINDS program. He was the 2017-18 Killam Visiting Scholar at the University of Calgary in fall 2017, Distinguished Visiting Professor at Canadian Forces College in Toronto in winter/spring 2018, and Landsowne Lecturer at the University of Victoria in fall 2019. Whitney has (co-)written or (co-)edited more than sixty books and more than one hundred academic articles and book chapters. Recent policy reports include Arctic Narratives and Political Values: Arctic States, China and NATO (2024); NAADSN Canadian Arctic Climate Change and Security Impact Assessment (2024); Selling the ‘Near Arctic’ State: China’s Information and Influence Operations in the Arctic (2024); Situating the Yukon in Canadian Defence and Security (2024); The State of Search and Rescue in Nunavut (2024); and Canadian Inuit and North American Defence Modernization: Background Considerations (2023). Whitney is also co-editor of the Documents on Canadian Arctic Sovereignty and Security (DCASS) series, to which he has contributed sixteen volumes. More on his background and credentials are found on the other pages on this website.
True North Consulting co-president Jennifer Arthur-Lackenbauer, M.Sc., has an undergraduate degree in political science and a master’s in rural planning and development from the University of Guelph. After graduate school, she worked as a social researcher for the City of Calgary for several years prior to moving into private consulting. A published author, she has designed surveys and analyzed results for policy research, conducted statistical analysis, provided editorial, cartographic and layout services to many authors on book and article projects, and has produced annual reports for non-governmental organizations.
True North Consulting
Otterville, ON N0J 1R0
Canada
Telephone: +1 519 589 2584
whitjenn@execulink.com