Nunatsiaq News: Inuit org wants RCMP to acknowledge historical wrongdoings
“We ask that it be done quickly before more records and more memories are lost”
Hagar Idlout-Sudlovenick and Inukshuk Aksalnik of the Qikiqtani Inuit Association gave evidence at a hearing held by the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Iqaluit this week. QIA called on the RCMP to acknowledge its role in historical injustices to Inuit, including allegations that members slaughtered sled dogs and forced sexual favours from Inuit women. (PHOTO BY COURTNEY EDGAR)
In traditional Inuit society, sometimes couples would share domestic life with friends, Inuit witnesses told the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls in Iqaluit this week.
When a man was away on a hunting trip, he might ask a friend to take care of his wife, romantically, sexually, emotionally, as a means of survival. There would be an agreement between all parties, the witnesses said.
But when non-Inuit RCMP members arrived in the North in the 1950s, they may have seen these arrangements and assumed they did not have to ask for the consent of Inuit women.
“In this situation it was different, particularly because of the power imbalance,” Inukshuk Aksalnik, the Qikiqtani Truth Commission coordinator with the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, told commissioners on Tuesday morning.
The theme of this week’s hearings at the Frobisher Inn is the socio-economic, health and wellness impacts of colonial violence.
The RCMP has never properly acknowledged the historical violence perpetrated by its members in what is now Nunavut, Aksalnik said.
“The force has never looked into its history in a comprehensive way,” she said. “It has not tried to understand why Indigenous peoples in particular are exhausted by the RCMP’s repeated promises to do better. Many scholars and consultants have produced valuable studies, but the RCMP itself has not done the work.”
She continued to say that the QIA “would respectfully request that the inquiry into MMIWG consider asking the RCMP to examine the history of the force’s actions with Indigenous women and girls in collaboration with Indigenous scholars.”
“We would also ask that it be done quickly, before more records and more memories are lost,” Aksalnik said.
At Monday’s hearing, and continuing into Tuesday, the commission heard historical allegations about RCMP officers raping and otherwise sexually and emotionally exploiting Inuit women.
They also heard about the social issues that followed these alleged acts.
Hagar Idlout-Sudlovenick, the QIA’s director of social policy, also said the RCMP routinely slaughtered sled dogs, and that this contributed to Inuit becoming dependent on the federal government.
“Without a means to hunt, Inuit also became dependent on inadequate social assistance payments, store-bought food that was nutritionally poor and void of cultural meaning,” she said.
