Rhoda Innuksuk ousted from Pauktuutit presidency

Pauktuutit’s board of directors removed Rhoda Innuksuk from the president’s job Nov. 17. Elisapie Sheutiapik of Iqaluit will take over as interim president. (FILE PHOTO)

Rhoda Innuksuk, the ex-president of Pauktuutit, the Inuit Women’s Association, says she feels “terrible” about just having been removed from her job.

“It’s an awful situation to be in when you look at the conditions faced by the people we are supposed to represent in the community. It’s such a pity that we blew this opportunity to make a difference out there. There’s so much work to do,” Innuksuk said.

Innuksuk spoke from her home in Ottawa on the the morning of Nov. 17, just hours after she learned about Pauktuutit’s decision to remove her as president.

The decision was made at a full board meeting chaired by vice-president Mary Mattoo, with a lawyer present to give advice.

Elisapie Sheutiapik, the Iqaluit mayor, will take over as interim president.

Asked if she was pushed out of office, Innuksuk said that’s what happened, after she was barred from entering her office, talking to executive and board members, the media and other politicians.

“I have never experienced an organization like this because when you’re a president your job is to take direction from board and to have a line of communication with other founders, organizations and funders,” she said.

Innuksuk said her conflicts within the national Inuit women’s association started not long after after she was re-elected as president last March by delegates at the organization’s annual general meeting, when the 15-member board decided to make the position of president a voluntary position.

Innuksuk said comments she made in an interview with CBC in June and to Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami about this decision appeared to fuel the dispute.

A letter sent to Innuksuk on June 15 by Pauktuutit vice-president Mary Mattoo refers to Innuksuk’s lack of agreement with the board’s decision to “limit the role of the president” to a voluntary position not responsible for the day-to-day management of the association.

“I was given two options last June, to step down or take a volunteer position,” Innuksuk said.

The June 15 letter suggested Innuksuk could remain as a volunteer president if she agreed to go to the Sparks St. office on an “infrequent and occasional basis” and vacate her personal office so it could be used by “staff at the executive director’s direction.”

Or Innuksuk could resign as Pauktuutit’s urban representative and from the presidency by June 19 and agree not to be part of the organization for three years. She would also receive $3,600 in disputed honoraria.

In accepting this option, Innuksuk would have to “solemnly promise that the terms of this agreement will be kept strictly confidential,” the letter says.

At the end of June, Innuksuk learned she had been taken off the internal email list, even though she was still president.

But Innuksuk said she remained on the job to deal with administrative issues, even though she was “muzzled” by the organization.

The tensions reached a crisis recently, resulting in the Nov. 16 decision to oust Innuksuk, after Pauktuutit received comments and inquiries about Innuksuk’s role.

Documents obtained by Nunatsiaq News include an Oct. 29 letter by Elisapie Sheutiapik, chair of the policies and procedures committee for Pauktuutit, in which she asks Innuksuk not to go to the Pauktuutit office “from the date of this letter until a board meeting is held.”

Sheutiapik also asked Innuksuk not to discuss anything with staff and refrain from all public appearances.

An October report to the board of directors from Sheutiapik’s committee, also obtained by Nunatsiaq News makes numerous allegations.

According to the report, these allegations include:

• questioning the board’s decisions;

• expressing displeasure with her role at Pauktuutit with ITK representatives;

• “Instead of portraying a positive image of Pauktuutit to third parties and partners such [as] ITK, Rhoda is trying to gain support from them for her own personal interests causing harm to Pauktuutit;”

• creating a “poisonous environment in the head office by showing favoritism to the Inuit employees and by ignoring or dismissing the other employees'”

• not respecting the role of the executive director, Tracey O’Hearn and not “treating the staff, including the executive director, with dignity or respect;”

• disclosing “internal” matters to CBC and ITK.

None of these allegations have been proven.

Sheutiapik could not be reached on Nov. 17 to provide immediate comment.

Related documents:

• Pauktuutit policy and procedures report recommending Innuksuk’s dismissal: (112k, PDF)

• Oct. 29 letter signed by Elisapee Sheutiapik (32k, PDF)

• Email concerning Innuksuk’s removal from staff email list (24k, PDF)