23 for 2025: Quotable quotes from the past year

January

“I cried. And I cried many times before hoping that it was going to be mine. And I cried many times after knowing that it was.”
Iqaluit actress Anna Lambe, talking about landing the role of Siaja in the CBC comedy North of North

Actress Anna Lambe is seen during shooting of North of North, a comedy series that premiered Jan. 7 on CBC and APTN. The series was shot in Iqaluit in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Jasper Savage/Netflix)

February

“The crimes he committed against children make him one of the worst criminals in Canadian history, and nobody knew about it because it happened in the North.”
Journalist Kathleen Lippa, on her book about convicted sex abuser Edward Horne

“It takes a special type of crazy to be a cop, and I guess I’m that special type of crazy.”
Const. Inuuki Burke, the first Inuk cadet from Nunavut to graduate from the RCMP Academy, Depot Division in Saskatchewan, since 2023

March

“You cannot take bits and pieces of [someone’s] body and weld them onto somebody else.”
Steve Cooper, the lawyer representing five Inuit suing the federal government alleging they were subjected to biological experiments in the late 1960s and early 1970s

April

“If you decide to do something in the Arctic, it’s gonna cost you an arm and a leg, 32 teeth and your hair.”
Ken Coates, a senior policy fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, on the federal government’s desire to beef up Canada’s Arctic security

“We’re going back to Ice Cove, baby!”
Iqaluit-raised actress Anna Lambe, sharing the good news that North of North, the CBC show she stars in playing lead character Siaja, has been renewed for a second season

May

Tiivi Tullaugak says he was excited to cast his first ballot ever in the 2025 federal election. But Elections Canada didn’t arrive in Ivujivik on election day to set up polling stations. (Photo courtesy of Tiivi Tullaugak)

“All other provinces had the chance to vote and us, we couldn’t do anything.”
Tiivi Tullaugak, 18, describing the frustration of having many Nunavimmiut shut out of voting in the April federal election over problems in Elections Canada’s system for Nunavik

“Smells like a dirty diaper.”
Referring to a Department of Family Services facility that houses foster children, a parent describes the condition of the place where parents said children slept on the floor with only blankets for bedding

June

“We’re on a pathway to possibly do that.”
Nunavut Housing Corp. president Eiryn Devereaux, who said he “can’t predict” if building 3,000 new homes in Nunavut by 2030 — as outlined in the territory’s Nunavut 3000 housing plan — is an achievable goal

“We were going on a fishing trip, we weren’t going on a hunting trip!”
Elijah Gosman, a high school teacher in Pangnirtung, after one of his students had to kill a polar bear that came too close during a high school trip on the land

“If you’ve ever thought there were animated arguments in the courtroom, you have no idea of what the Iqaluit Hockey Association board meetings are.”
Former Nunavut chief justice Neil Sharkey, welcoming new judge and fellow hockey lover Mark Mossey to the Nunavut Court of Justice

July

“A poop test can save someone’s life.”
Dr. Ekua Agyemang, chief public health officer for Nunavut, explaining why the Health Department was bringing a giant inflatable colon to communities across the territory this past summer

“These repeated fatal shootings deny Nunavimmiut the opportunity to heal and to feel fully safe in their communities.”
Mary Arngaq, vice-chairperson of Kativik Regional Government, after KRG launched a review of policing in Nunavik

August

“It’s pretty hard to fundraise in a small community where the population is around 500 people.”
Whale Cove girls soccer team coach Sheila Nattar, who said in August that the Nunavut Soccer Association needs to do more to help hamlet teams with their travel costs

September

“Though I loved music, it was a conflict from my parents’ gospel music versus devil’s music.”
Inuk singer Susan Aglukark, describing her early years in music. She released her memoir in September

“It hasn’t panned out to the way we wanted.”
Then-premier P.J. Akeeagok, speaking in September on the government’s stalled plan — announced nearly a year previous — to launch elder mobility vans in five communities

“There are people coming [from] outside of our country that are taking over the Inuit positions.”
Solomon Malliki, then the MLA for Aivilik, speaking in September

“It’ll be like a polar bear sandwich.”
Sandi Chan of Iqaluit, admiring the new polar bear-shaped licence plate she got for her car. It’s “curvy and stoic” with “a lot of curves,’ she added

“We got ’em, boys.”
Tactical RCMP officer speaking to a group of children at the end of the 16-hour standoff in September

October

“You guys are bugging me so much.”
Nunavut chief electoral officer Kiran Situt, before hanging up the phone on a Nunatsiaq News reporter the day after the Oct. 27 territorial elections

November

“He told me to fight like an old man.”
Nunavut judo athlete Azriel Tagnigou Petnkeu, on the advice his coach gave him after he was injured at a tournament in November

Azriel Tagnigou Petnkeu, left, and Charlotte Smook, both aged 14, earned the right to flex after their medal-winning judo matches in Quebec. (Photo by Daron Letts)

“I do like to present them with a gift at the beginning of every hockey match — something I know they love. A box of cop food: doughnuts.”
Iqaluit fire Chief Solomon Tagak, prior to the firefighters’ annual Guns and Hoses game against the RCMP

December

“It’s so cool to share our music in a soup kitchen.”
Susánna Herálvsdóttir, who performed with Aske Mattias Folkmann at Qajuqturvik Community Food Centre in Iqaluit in December