Police investigate sexual assault at Raglan

Updated at 5:00 p.m.

The Sûreté du Québec provincial police are investigating a sexual assault complaint made by a female worker from Nunavik at Xstrata’s Raglan nickel mine.

According to an SQ spokesperson, Sgt. Benoît Richard, the woman was sitting in her room watching television on the evening of Oct. 3 when a man, who she knew only by first name, entered the room.

Richard said the sexual assault is alleged to have occurred about 1:00 a.m. on Oct. 4.

“He proceeded to sexually assault her and then left the room,” Richard said Nov. 2.

The Kativik Regional Police Force were notified about the incident Oct. 5. The file was then transferred to the SQ, which continues its investigation, Richard said.

Because the woman is unable to identify the man who assaulted her by his full name, police plan to show her photos of employees at Raglan to see if she can identify him.

An arrest will “hopefully occur in a short time,” Richard said.

According to information from the recent Kativik Regional Government council meeting, the mine, located between the Hudson Strait communities of Salluit and Kangiqsujuaq, has 29 Inuit in entry-level training jobs.

At Xstrata, there are 115 Inuit out of a total of 711 workers.

Overall, there are 128 Inuit workers out of a total workforce of 929, most of whom are French-speaking Québécois.

François Beauvais, co-ordinator of communications and external relations for Raglan, said that he was collecting more information about the alleged incident and would be respond in more detail as soon as possible.

“We are fully collaborating with la Sureté du Quebec on this very serious matter,” Beauvais said Nov. 2. “These are still allegations under investigation. So we have to be careful in our comments. We enforce a very strong sexual harassment policy and we do everything in our power to offer a safe and respectuous environment to all our workers.”