Beer sales could cut Kuujjuaq violence, mayor says

Town thinks relaxing beer restrictions would reduce flow of hard liquor.

By JANE GEORGE

IQALUIT — A killing in Kuujjuaq last week is prompting municipal officials to suggest over-the-counter beer sales in the community.

The solution to Kuujuaq’s violence, they say, is more beer and less hard liquor.

The slaying last week is the second alcohol-related fatality in the community since January.

On March 20, Thomas Suppa Angnatuk died at his home after being stabbed in the heart.

Martha Annanack, 35, a translator at Kuujjuaq’s Tulattavik Hospital and a local union activist, has been charged with first-degree murder in the death, and will appear in court April 10.

In January, Johnny Angnatuk died of injuries sustained during a drunken family dispute at his home.

According to mayor Michael Gordon, permitting over-the-counter beer sales may help stop the flow of illegal alcohol into town, reducing the increasingly lethal levels of boozy violence.

A referendum on April 12 will allow residents to decide whether beer should be sold in Kuujjuaq’s local stores. They’ll be asked a simple, yes-or-no question, such as, “Do you think beer should be sold in Kuujjuaq?”

Gordon said making beer more accessible might encourage drinkers to pass up more expensive and potent hard liquor.

“Liquor is stronger, and people lose it more when they drink it than they do when they’re drinking beer,” he said.

The municipality and regional government are also asking Quebec’s liquor board, la Société d’alchool du Québec, and Canada Post to see what measures they can take to curb illegal shipments of booze through the postal system.

Clamping down on bootlegged booze may also cut the supply of hard liquor to under-aged drinkers. Gordon said teenagers can easily conceal hard liquor, by camouflaging it in soft-drink cans. He noted intoxication has been a factor in many of Kuujjuaq’s youth suicides.

This isn’t the first time Kuujjuaq’s elected leaders have tried to improve social peace by altering the flow of alcohol in the community.

As a way of putting an end to a string of alcohol-related deaths in 1996, Johnny Adams, then the mayor of Kuujjuaq, closed Kuujjuaq’s Ikkaqivvik Bar for two weeks. During this period police noted that there was a drop in violent offenses.

Residents nevertheless later decided in a referendum to re-open the bar, and any future closure of the community-owned bar now appears unlikely. Last May, Kuujjuamiut decided to open the bar on Saturdays, and to extend its operating hours during the week. They also approved renovating the bar and enlarging its premises.

At the time, police and social services officials said they were not against opening the bar on Saturdays, because that’s when many drinkers over-consume booze at home.

Residents can also bring limited amounts of alcohol into the community, but increasingly they’re buying additional hard stuff from local bootleggers for their private partying.

This increase in the bootlegging of higher-proof liquor into the community for home use is widely thought to be behind the upswing in alcohol-caused mayhem.

The two recent deaths in Kuujjuaq were both linked to excessive drinking of hard liquor in private residences.

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