Youth gang attacks toddlers, child care worker at Nunavik playground

A Kuujjuaq nanny says she and four children in her care were harassed and threatened by a group of youth at a Kuujjuaq park Oct. 5 (PHOTO BY SARAH ROGERS)

(Updated at 12:00 p.m.)

A Kuujjuaq childcare provider says she plans to be more careful when she’s walking around the Nunavik community with children.

That’s because of an Oct. 5 incident at a local playground when a gang of local youth attacked her and a group of young children in her care.

Marilyne Tétrault had four children in her care, aged between 18 months and five years, when they were approached by a group of about a dozen pre-teens at the playground, Tétrault said.

Tétrault said the youth began jumping on the large stroller she uses to transport the children, shaking it and threatening to tip over a wagon in which a 19-month-old child was still sitting.

Some members of the group began to taunt the young children and steal toys stored in the stroller.

Some of the youth carried wooden sticks that they used to hit Tétrault in the knees, she said.

“We were in a total state of panic,” she told Nunatsiaq News. “I was telling them to stop — and they weren’t listening.”

Tétrault, who moved to Kuujjuaq, population about 2,400, from southern Quebec last May to work as a nanny, speaks only French and doesn’t speak English or Inuktitut.

She said another mother, who arrived to pick up her child from Tétrault at the park, shouted at the children to leave.

When this mother took out her cell phone to call the police, the kids ran away.

The children were crying and shaken by the incident, but no one was physically harmed, Tétrault said.

She took the children back to the home she works out of. Later, she filed a complaint with the Kativik Regional Police Force.

The KRPF told Nunatsiaq News Oct. 7 that the youth involved were all under the age of 12.

Police met with families of the children Oct. 6 and the KRPF says it won’t pursue the file.

Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act applies only to young persons aged 12 to 17. Children under the age of 12 cannot be charged with a crime.

“It’s the first time this has ever happened,” Tétrault said. “I’m happy with how the police dealt with it. We’ll just be a little more careful when we walk in the streets.”

Tétrault said that, although the incident has shaken her, it could have been worse. Only four of her normal group of seven children were with her at the time.

She’s also glad another parent witnessed the attack and was able to call police.

A thread of comments on a local Facebook news page shows that many Kuujjuamiut are upset about the incident, with some suggesting it should be a youth protection matter.

“These [youth] need help,” posted one commenter. “With all the struggles some parents are going through with the personal challenges they are facing today… some are forgetting that they have children to raise.”

The KRPF could not confirm if the file was handed over to youth protection services.