By Nia Williams
(Reuters) – The federal government of Canada on Saturday apologized to the Inuit of northern Quebec for the mass killing of sled canines within the Fifties and Sixties, which devastated communities by depriving them of the flexibility to hunt and journey.
Federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree travelled to Kangiqsujuaq within the Nunavik area to ship the apology and promised C$45 million ($32.19 million) in compensation.
It follows one other authorities apology in 2019 to the Inuit of the Qikiqtani area, which incorporates Baffin Island, for the consequences of traumatic federal insurance policies together with household separation and the slaughter of sled canines, often known as qimmiit.
“Today, the Government of Canada accepted responsibility for its role in a terrible historic injustice and expressed its deep regret and sincere apology for the harms inflicted by the slaughter of qimmiit in Nunavik,” Anandasangaree stated.
Hundreds of sled canines have been shot by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and different authorities in Inuit settlements from the mid-Fifties onwards, stated Pita Aatami, President of Makivvik, the group representing Quebec’s Inuit.
Sled canine groups have been an integral a part of Inuit tradition and looking traditions, offering fast journey throughout the huge frozen landscapes of Canada’s far north. They have been additionally instrumental within the looking of seals and caribou.
The unjustified killing of the sled canines led to meals and financial insecurity for the Nunavik Inuit and the lack of conventional methods of accessing land, and precipitated deep and lasting emotional wounds, the federal government stated in a press release.
“Their independence was taken away, they could not go out on the land anymore and there was no means of hunting,” Aatami informed Reuters in a cellphone interview, including the apology and compensation are lengthy overdue.
“It’s been an intergenerational trauma and has taken 25 years of my life to get here,” he stated.
The RCMP launched an inside investigation into the slaughter of sled canines in 2006 and cleared themselves of any wrongdoing, stating that the killings have been accomplished within the curiosity of public security.
However Aatami and different Inuit leaders say the canines have been shot to maintain the largely nomadic Inuit in settled communities, and in contrast the killings to different main impacts of colonization together with the relocation of households in different components of Canada and being compelled to ship youngsters to residential faculties.
In 2011 the Quebec Authorities apologized for the canine slaughter that passed off in Nunavik by police and authorities within the Fifties and Sixties.
($1 = 1.3980 Canadian {dollars})
