Hamlet squabble leads to radio station shutdown in Taloyoak

The hamlet radio station in Taloyoak is off the air, following a dispute over how the hamlet government’s deficit-cutting efforts have affected water and sewer service. Hamlet officials allege that some people have been going on the radio to make racist and defamatory statements about hamlet employees. (WIKIMEDIA COMMONS IMAGE)

The mayor and hamlet councillors in the western Nunavut community of Taloyoak voted to shut down their local radio station March 15, after a local resident took to the airwaves to criticize two municipal staff.

Some local residents say the move infringes on their freedom of speech.

But municipal staff and the mayor say the shutdown was necessary under the policies of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission — or CRTC — on broadcasting racist and slanderous comments that target individuals.

The CRTC is the federal watchdog that regulates broadcasting and telecommunications in Canada.

Taloyoak Mayor Joe Ashevak, who told Nunatsiaq News April 8 that the radio station was shut down according to CRTC policy, could not say which policy applied in this case.

Tensions in the community between residents and hamlet officials — both elected and administrators — have been rising for some time, especially with regards to municipal services like trucked sewer and water services, Taloyoak resident Linda Tucktoo told Nunatsiaq News.

“I know some people who’ve gone for up to a week without services. Some houses have 10 or more people living in them. That’s so gross and unhealthy,” Tucktoo said.

Tucktoo, a local videographer, spoke on local radio just before it was shut down to encourage community members to sign two petitions she started calling for the dismissal of the senior administrative officer and the director of trucked services.

But Taloyoak’s SAO, Greg Holitzki, told Nunatsiaq News April 9 that’s not why the local radio station, which operates out of the hamlet office, was shut down.

“The mayor and council passed a motion to restrict access of the radio station personnel to the hamlet building due to some racist comments, and some slanderous comments made on the radio,” Holitzki said.

Those slanderous and racist comments were mostly directed towards himself, Holitzki said, and to the trucked services director, Larry Banks.

The motion passed by the hamlet council will stay in effect until the local radio committee drafts policies and procedures to ensure this doesn’t happen again, Holitzki said.

“Some people have a skewed thought about what freedom of speech is. They think they can say anything on the radio. You can’t say anything on the radio, there’s still limits to what you can say.”

But Tucktoo denies making any racist comments on local radio.

“I went on local radio and said how come people from the south are really big nobodies down south, but become really big somebodies up here? It goes to some of their heads,” Tucktoo said.

Speaking in Inuktitut on the radio, Tucktoo said she used the word “Kabloonaaq” to describe southerners, and that’s why some people are saying her comments are racist.

“In Inuktitut we describe the south as Kabloonat Nuna. I meant that in no racist way at all. It’s the best way I know how to describe things for elders.”

But mayor Ashevak said April 8 that Tucktoo crossed a line when she targeted Holitzki, Banks and all southerners.

“We don’t have educated people to take on administrative jobs, so therefore we hire people from the South to work in our community. It’s the same all over the North,” Ashevak said.

“I don’t know the name of the [CRTC] policy on that, but I heard that there is a policy that you can’t slam another person on the radio,” Ashevak said.

The council has invited a member of the local radio committee to come before council to explain what the committee plans to do to address this problem, Ashevak said, but that appearance has not yet been scheduled.

Meanwhile, the radio waves in Taloyoak remain silent, to the disappointment of many residents.

“We’ve been communicating by radio for so long: for birthdays, for illnesses, deaths, who’s missing, stuff like that,” local business owner Dennis Lyall said April 9.

The hamlet has not been communicating about the radio shutdown, possibly because the radio is shut down.

“What about important visits from government services, like renewing your passport or birth certificate or Social Insurance Number? How will we know about those?” Lyall said.

And tensions continue to rise between some residents and a hamlet that has had to cut services to reduce its deficit, which Holitzki said has decreased from about $3 million to under $1 million in the last two years.

A council meeting scheduled after the radio closure was cancelled because there were no agenda items, Holitzki said, which, to some residents, has given rise to conspiracy theories.

“I think councillors are avoiding everything. And I think the mayor is protecting the SAO and the director [of trucked services]. It seems to me like there’s a dictatorship going on,” said one Taloyoak resident who didn’t want to be named.

In Canada, public criticism of elected officials and government workers is protected as long as the criticism targets their job performance.

If that criticism consists of personal remarks that are malicious and false, then, under Canadian law, it can be considered defamation or slander.

At the end of the Baffin mayors’ meeting last month in Iqaluit, some mayors shared how they’re subjected to constant demands and pressures, especially on the community radio airwaves.