Inuit org takes truth commission report to the communities

James Igloliorte, head of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, listens to witnesses at a hearing in Iqaluit held in June of 2008. (FILE PHOTO)

Inuit throughout the Qikiqtani region will get a chance over the next three weeks to learn about the final reports of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, the Qikiqtani Inuit Association announced Feb. 21.

The 12-community set of presentations starts Feb. 26 in Pangnirtung and Sanikiluaq and ends March 13 in Qikiqtarjuaq.

Local community directors and community liaison officers, along with QIA support staff, will do the presentations, QIA said.

The presentations will include the showing of a DVD and discussions about an “implementation plan” and the next steps that QIA will take on the QTC project.

“It is important that individuals who provided testimonies as well as their family and community members know where things are at in the process,” QIA president Okalik Eegeesiak said in a news release.

The Qikiqtani Truth Commission, headed by James Igloliorte, toured the Baffin region in 2008, taking testimonies from witnesses about numerous actions by government that damaged the lives of Inuit during the 1950s and 1960s.

The commission released its final report in October 2010, but that represented only part of its work.

In October 2013, the QIA released final versions of the QITC’s other reports, in two large volumes.

One is a set of community histories for each of the 13 communities in the Qikiqtani region.

The other is an analysis of a 2006 report from the RCMP on the killing of Inuit sled dogs, a report on the thinking of government authorities during the colonial period between 1950 and 1975, and other reports on housing, health care, economic development, policing, education, dogs and the mobility of Inuit.

The truth commission started after 12-year-old campaign by the Qikiqtani Inuit Association to seek an apology and compensation from the federal government for the arbitrary killing of Inuit dogs in.

But after they appointed Igloliorte and set up the commission in late 2007, QIA leaders gave the body a broader mandate: to review all actions of government that scarred the lives of Inuit, especially in the years between 1950 and 1975.

Each community presentation will occur between 5:30 p.m. and 9 p.m.

Here is QIA’s schedule:

Arctic Bay — March 4

Cape Dorset — Feb. 25

Clyde River — March 11

Grise Fiord — March 8

Hall Beach — March 3

Igloolik — March 7

Kimmirut — Feb. 27

Pangnirtung — Feb. 26

Pond Inlet — Feb. 28

Qikiqtarjuaq — March 13

Resolute Bay — March 6

Sanikiluaq — Feb. 26.