Since first stepping off a floatplane in 1989 for a canoe trip through the central Barrenlands, Laurie has been in love with the North and its people. Since then, she has devoted her career to working for Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., the Nunavut Inuit Land Claims organization, providing legal advice to Inuit and Inuit leadership as they advance toward their goals of prosperity and self-determination.
From a corporate litigation practice in the wilds of Manhattan, Laurie was whisked away to the shores of the Northwest Passage in Cambridge Bay to assist Inuit in Nunavut in implementing their treaty with the Crown in right of Canada. She has never looked back.
Laurie has travelled to most Nunavut communities, working with local Inuit—from hunters and trappers to educators and politicians— to provide advice on the things that matter to them. Laurie’s work with Inuit dates from just after the signing of the Nunavut Agreement in 1993, to the establishment of the Nunavut Territory and Government in 1999, through the first twenty-five years of implementation of the Nunavut treaty, and onward, with many challenges still to be faced and opportunities taken.
In addition to Laurie’s work, she and her family have spent many happy years canoeing in the Arctic and sailing the waters of Atlantic Canada, most especially off Newfoundland and Labrador. In keeping with their love of wild places, Laurie and her husband David continue to have off-the-beaten-track adventures, hiking in Ecuador and Morocco, sailing in the Baltic Sea, and skiing and snowshoeing with their dog at their home beside a lake in the Quebec woods.