Edmonton declares “Kiviaq Day”

The pugnacious lawyer and former broadcaster, boxer and Edmonton city councillor, Kiviaq, also known as David Ward, was treated to a special honour last week in Edmonton, his adopted city.

Bill Smith, the mayor of Edmonton, proclaimed Friday, March 14 as “Kiviaq Day” in Edmonton.

“[T]here is no better way to recognize Kiviaq than to designate a day in his honour,” the proclamation reads.

Kiviaq, 66, was born near Chesterfield Inlet, but was moved to Edmonton when he was three.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Kiviaq won numerous amateur boxing titles and used boxing and football scholarships to go to university in the U.S. After his graduation, an injury prevented him from playing football for the Edmonton Eskimos.

Ward later served on Edmonton city council, and got a law degree from the University of British Columbia.

While an Edmonton city councillor, he succeeded in winning recognition for David Pisurayak Kootook, a teenaged boy from Taloyoak who died while saving the life of Martin Hartwell, a medevac pilot whose small place crashed north of Yellowknife in the early 1970s.

Lately, Kiviaq has been campaigning for federal government recognition of the rights of Inuit who do not live in Inuit territories. His latest action is a Charter-based court challenge alleging that the federal government is failing to give Inuit the rights enjoyed by status Indians.

Although he’s now in the midst of a battle with cancer, Kiviaq is still pressing on with his fight for Inuit rights.