CBC Nunavut: Federal government apologizes to Baffin Inuit for sled dog killings, forced relocations
Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett gave a wide-ranging apology to Inuit of Baffin Island in Iqaluit on Wednesday.
“We failed to provide you with proper housing, adequate medical care, education, economic viability and jobs. We took away your independence by imposing our own priorities and forcing you to survive in a difficult environment and in locations that were not of your choosing, nor your traditional home,” Bennett said in the apology.
The apology is the first step in the Qikiqtani Inuit Association’s (QIA’s) action plan to move forward from the wrongs done to Inuit by the government of Canada from 1950 to 1975.
The QIA represents Inuit who live mainly on Baffin Island. It flew in 40 elders from across Nunavut’s Qikiqtaaluk region — from Grise Fiord on Ellesmere Island, to Sanikiluaq in Hudson Bay — to hear the apology.
From 2007 to 2010, the association gathered interviews from 350 Inuit during the Qikiqtani Truth Commission and compiled them in a report.
The commission was set up in response to an RCMP investigation that found there was no conspiracy by police to kill Inuit sled dogs, called qimmiit in Inuktitut, but its findings grew to capture the larger picture of hardships faced by Inuit.
