Comments did not taint vote, Aatami says

ODILE NELSON

Pita Aatami, who coasted to a third term as head of Makivik Corp. on March 28, this week dismissed allegations that a well-known Makivik employee’s public comments against a presidential candidate tainted election results.

Last week, Annie Popert, who competed against Aatami and Johnny Oovaut for the presidency two weeks ago, said Harry Tulugak, a long-time employee of the birthright organization, conducted a “smear campaign” against her on local radio stations.

But Aatami told Nunatsiaq News this week that, to his knowledge, Tulugak made comments in only three villages, while votes for Popert lagged at most polling stations.

The results, he said, show Tulugak’s comments did not cause Popert’s defeat. He suggested Popert’s years of living in the South may have affected her chances.

“Even at the annual general meeting [where a candidate debate was held the day of the election], people were asking her where has she been in the last 20 years?'” Aatami said.

Tulugak did not speak in Puvirnituq or Kuujjuaq, Aatami said, yet in those communities, Popert received only 13 and 24 per cent of the votes respectively.

A Makivik spokesperson said Tulugak was not going to comment on the allegations. Aatami could only confirm Tulugak had made public comments in Salluit.

In Salluit, both Aatami and Popert won 41 per cent of the vote.

Popert received the majority of votes in Quaqtaq. But she disputed Aatami’s assertion that Tulugak spoke to only three communities and that his public comments did not have an impact on the vote.

“I know for a fact that he did many more communities,” Popert said.
Popert declined to identify the communities because she said they might be “targeted.” She would not elaborate on what this meant.

But she said she was able to rebut Tulugak’s statements on two community radio stations the night before the election and she said her election results in those communities were good.

Relations between Tulugak and Popert have been acrimonious ever since the two worked together on the 2001 Nunavik Commission. Popert refused to sign the report but Tulugak remains a supporter.

Last week, Popert said Tulugak publicly stated she had lied about the Nunavik Commission, was an unreasonable individual and had once bumped a released hospital patient off an airplane so she could have a seat.

“His intention was to smear my campaign, that’s all,” Popert told Nunatsiaq News. “For the many people who voted, that did not know me or my principles, it may have put a question mark in their head and then they wouldn’t vote for me then. I don’t know that for sure, but that’s certainly what I would do if I had three people running and one of them’s being called a liar.”

Aatami said as soon as he heard of Tulugak’s comments, he immediately told Tulugak to stop.

Popert also suggested Aatami had bought the votes of Nunavimmiut with the Sanarrutik agreement, an economic deal signed with Quebec in 2002. Popert said the deal promises a lot of money to Nunavimmiut but at the cost of the right to veto hydropower development in the region.

Aatami dismissed the suggestion. He said the agreement gives Nunavimmiut a say in their economic future. He also said Makivik has developed a series of projects under his leadership, including a trappers fund, sewing fund, food baskets for Nunavimmiut in need and travel subsidies on Air Inuit.