Bob Kadlun was a leader and first-class negotiator

Bob Kadlun, in a file photo likely taken some time in 1990. (FILE PHOTO)

I worked with Bob Kadlun from 1985 to 1991 as Research Director of the Tungavik Federation of Nunavut, the Inuit organization that negotiated the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement.

Your excellent obituary characterized Bob as “fearless.” Yes, he was.

I remember him chewing out the Government of Canada’s negotiators over the 1987 Meech Lake Accord, which dealt a blow to the political aspirations of northerners. He spoke uninterrupted for four hours!

Bob was a leader as well as a first class negotiator. He knew what Inuit wanted: a land claims agreement that delivered a new territory — Nunavut — and he was determined to get it. Bob Kadlun, Paul Quassa and Paul Okalik were in the late 1980s and early 1990s the three musketeers, the Inuit “A” team.

The Government of Canada’s negotiators took Bob very seriously, as did Tom Siddon, minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

Both signed the Nunavut Agreement-in-Principle in Igloolik, setting the scene for a final agreement less than three years later which generated news worldwide, including the front page of the New York Times!

As your obituary notes, Bob attempted suicide in 1991, and came close to succeeding. He was never the same again.

But what people don’t know, and this is my personal opinion, is that the stress of negotiation, particularly of the boundary to separate Nunavut from the NWT, contributed significantly to his attempted suicide.

Bob carried a burden on his shoulders — the rights, interests, wishes, hopes and dreams of his people — the Inuit of Nunavut. I for one will miss him greatly.

Terry Fenge
Ottawa

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