Quebec moves on Nunavik detention problems

In its overhaul of Nunavik corrections, Quebec has already equipped Kativik Regional Police stations, like this one Puvirnituq, with adequate bedding for its busy cells. (FILE PHOTO)

Conditions for Inuit detainees and the overall corrections system will improve in Nunavik, Quebec politicians vowed Sept. 2 in Puvirnituq.

Among their announcements: that the Makitautik halfway house in Kangirsuk will get money to operate, along with a green light to start accepting clients once again.

As well, a new working committee, with members from Quebec and Nunavik, will also look for new “infrastructure solutions” to the ongoing detention woes of Nunavik, where the number of incarcerated Nunavimmiut jumped by 64 per cent between 2010 and 2015.

Unlike Nunavut, Nunavik doesn’t have a correctional facility.

That’s because in 2006 Nunavik chose to funnel money earmarked for a regional jail into Ungaluk, a crime prevention program that puts roughly $10 million a year into wellness activities.

“The creation of a working committee will definitely support us finding the best solutions possible for our people in a manner that is respectful of our culture,” said the Kativik Regional Government Chairperson, Jennifer Munick, in a Sept. 2 joint news release from Quebec and the KRG, which oversees public security in Nunavik.

For now, apart from short-term jail cells at police stations, Makitautik remains the only correctional facility in Nunavik. Its operations will now receive a seven-month grant of $550,000, which will be renewed for same length of time, according to the news release.

Makitautik first opened in 1999 in the Ungava Bay community of 470 to house low-risk offenders from Quebec jails. It later moved to new $3 million, 14-bed facility, but that closed down after federal inspectors in October 2013 found it was understaffed and lacked proper management.

At that point, the centre’s director had also resigned. By mid-2014, Quebec’s department of public security stopped sending clients to the centre.

Makitautik, which means a place of support, has since hired a new director, Lucy Grey, and trained new staff.

The Nunavik visit by Quebec politicians included Quebec’s aboriginal affairs minister Geoffrey Kelley, municipal affairs and public security minister Martin Coiteux and Ungava MNA Jean Boucher, who also announced a program renewal for municipal infrastructure in the region, worth $100 million.

Their visit follows a February 2016 report from Quebec’s Protecteur du Citoyen (Ombudsman) — a watchdog for the province’s public services, which released a report last February which conditions for Inuit detainees in the region are “substandard” and “unacceptable,” while crime prevention measures in Nunavik are “woefully lacking.”

“After publication of the Ombudsperson’s report concerning detention conditions in Nunavik, I made it a priority to visit the region, to better understand local conditions and strengthen cooperation with Inuit. We all agree on the need to offer sustainable solutions to Nunavimmiut,” Coiteux said.

The ombudsman’s report, called “Detention conditions, administration of justice and crime prevention in Nunavik,” also noted that inmates in Puvirnituq and some other communities were confined to their cells 24 hours a day because they didn’t have access to a fenced-in outdoor courtyard.

When Nunavimmiut are arrested, they are held in cells at a local Kativik Regional Police Force station until their first court appearance by telephone.

But if a prosecutor objects to their release, offenders must travel south for a bail hearing. Up to 14 days can pass between a prisoner’s arrest and their arrival at the hearing in Amos in Quebec’s Abitibi region, the report found.

Since the release of the ombudsman’s report, Quebec and the KRG have adopted an action plan with 31 recommendations and about 60 action items.

Among those items which already been acted on:

• after every court visit to Kuujjuaq, Puvirnituq or Kuujjuaraapik, correctional service officers report on the detention facilities to ensure these are running well so, if there are problems, these can be responded to quickly;

• basic supplies, such as mattresses and sheets, are now stored nearby the Puvirnituq police station; and,

• There are now more chartered flights between Abitibi and Nunavik, so fewer remain in detention cells in Nunavik.