Team Nunavut under-15 hockey player Shea Karetak participated at the 2024 Arctic Winter Games until he found himself embroiled in allegations that he’d stolen vapes from a local store. Karetak denies these allegations. Alaska police say no charges were ever laid. (Photo courtesy of Panniuq Karetak)
Family of hockey player seeks apology from GN for treatment at AWG
Teen accused of theft during Arctic Winter Games in Alaska; made to spend 3 days in hallway with teammates
The father of a Nunavut hockey player says he wants an apology for the way his son was treated at the Arctic Winter Games amid allegations of theft from a local store.
Shea Karetak, of Rankin Inlet, played for the male under-15 hockey hockey team at the Games, held March 10 through 16 in Wasilla, Alaska.
On March 14, Shea’s father Panniuq Karetak and his wife Uja Karetak got a phone call from Team Nunavut’s mission staff. They learned local police came to the school where the youths were staying and that Shea was detained along with five of his teammates.
Shea and his teammates had gone the night before to a nearby gas station to buy snacks. There were no coaches or chaperones present for the excursion, Panniuq Karetak said. Shea and another teammate walked out of the station with bags of chips and some soft drinks and started walking back to the school.
That’s when, according to Panniuq Karetak, Shea saw four of his teammates running out of the store. Shea “put two and two together” and started running as well, his father said.
The 14-year-old was accused, along with his teammates, of stealing $2,000 worth of vapes from the gas station and selling them to older players from the under-18 team.
Shea, who declined to speak to Nunatsiaq News, told his father and the Team Nunavut staff that he had only witnessed the incident and didn’t participate himself.
Despite this, he and his teammates were forced to spend March 14, 15 and 16 in a hallway of the local school under supervision of Team Nunavut staff so that they “wouldn’t cause any more troubles,” Panniuq Karetak said.
Every morning, he said, the players’ phones were taken away and they had to sit still for the whole time. Food and water would be brought to them by supervising adults.
On March 16, after many calls and emails from his father, Shea was allowed to get his phone back so he could call his family.
“I guess they got sick of me and gave my son his phone back,” Panniuq Karetak said.
Shea’s hockey gear and Arctic Winter Games memorabilia were taken away from him and he was handed a letter saying he would be banned for two years from participating in any Sport Nunavut activities.
“Whoever was in charge of Sport Nunavut kept telling my son to admit that he stole and sold vapes and that if he doesn’t admit to it, they were going to send him to juvenile detention,” Panniuq Karetak said.
The whole incident made the news in March when Team Nunavut’s chef de mission, Mariele dePeuter, announced the under-18 hockey team — which was not at the gas station that night, according to Panniuq Karetak — would not be allowed to participate in the medal ceremony despite winning the bronze medal.
DePeuter said the under-18 team members had violated Team Nunavut’s code of conduct, but did not provide details about what they were accused of doing.
The Department of Community and Government Services declined to make dePeuter available for an interview for this story.
“No criminal charges were filed, and the incident was settled between the team leadership and the store,” said Amanda Graham, a spokesperson for the Wasilla Police Department, in an email Monday.
Panniuq Karetak said his son’s ban from participating in Sport Nunavut activities ended up lasting about three weeks, when he successfully made an appeal. As well, some of Shea’s confiscated gear and memorabilia have been returned to the family.
But that isn’t enough, he said.
“For us to get past this, it would be nice for them to acknowledge that they made some mistakes, that things could have been dealt with it in a better manner,” Panniuq Karetak said.
The Department of Community and Government Services is reviewing Team Nunavut’s processes and has commissioned a third-party review of how “incidents at the 2024 AWG were managed and communicated,” department spokesperson Greg Belanger said in an email.
Of course he didn’t, why would he leave his teammates and not wait for them if they were shopping together? Sounds more like the family doesn’t want their child to be banned from future events. Not a great lesson to teach your kid.
people this is exactly what privilege looks like
This is typical of the way elite hockey players are treated. This is especially true in the Kivalliq region, rankin inlet being the most extreme community. If you are a good hockey player you are treated like a god and the rules do not apply to you. It’s a slippery slope, as we have seen in recent years with all the Canadian major junior and hockey Canada scandals.
Go to a different country representing nunavut like that. Yeah real classy.
As a parent, you are going about it the wrong way. Be very careful about coming out in public like this to defend your son when you were nowhere near the incident.
It’s no wonder nobody wants to be a teacher today…….
Especially in Nunavut.
Fold Nunavut
Seriously, what kind of teachers do we attract? Those who can’t teach anywhere? Let’s say we attract a few good ones. How do we retain them? We plan failure, expect failure, and then… failure happens! Why change such a successful recipe? How many times do we need to repeat this? We need competent local teachers! In Nunavut, all the energy should be put into education. We deserve it!
Just wait until the current crop of NTEP students hits the schools. The school system is going to get significantly worse.
And who are you? Have you met all the students who are graduating from that program? You’re probably an outsider who doesn’t root for Inuit.
Wow! You are a fantastic piece of shoes spell check. Please do not come to my community.
Poor kid. Adults in this situation are idiots.
Guilty by association? Benefit of the doubt?
what they should of done was turned it over to the local authorities and let the kids and their parents deal with the fallout. That’s how real life works. MD is a saint for living and putting up with Baker Lake and the rest of the Nunavut shenanigans. This is a woman who has grown up in Nunavut and served for many years. As if she made up the whole thing and made irrational decisions. The parents should be issuing an apology to MD and the rest of Nunavut for wasting public dollars which a lot was spent on these kids to attend this event. A once in a lifetime type deal and repaid it with this.
MD is from Baker, but why mention her putting up with Baker Lake shenanigans? The kids in question are not from Baker Lake.
If , this was America , this would be one of those frivolous lawsuits.
By the way. Who won last nights’ hockey game between Panthers and Oilers? What was the score?
I was watching “The Beach Combers and Relic.”
Whether or not your son did anything wrong, this comes across as a very tone deaf double down.
He’s just young kid and this should have continued to be handled behind closed doors. Splattering his face in the news and providing a wobbly he-said she-said backstory doesn’t help him. Seems like this was a failed teachable moment over a possible ego trip. AWG staff were put in an impossible situation in a foreign country and now we’re publically casting doubt on their character.
Classic Uja
So, if I understand, the kid who never did anything wrong but witnessed four teammates commit felony theft and decided that informing someone what had happened wasn’t high on the list of priorities. And the parents feel this sort of attitude should be defended. One wonders where they’d draw the line on what sorts of crimes it would be acceptable for their son to report.
One more time PANTHERS!!!🤘👏🥳
Why would you go to the papers? If contacting Nunavut Sports didn’t get you an apology, some parents just don’t know when to accept facts and move on!!
Who gave Sprot Nunavut consent to seize the cell phones? In Canada and the US authorities cannot seize or confiscate property without a warrant signed by a judge.
This was a criminal act in both countries and who ever made this decision needs to be hed accountable because it deprived the kids from communicating with their parents for how many days?
It is obvious Sport Nunavut is trying to sweep this matter under the rug when they made the wrong call.
Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in the eyes of the law and this kid was determined guilty until the video proved him innocent and Sports Nunavut knew they screwed up.
They were saved from being taken to juvenile detention. Perhaps they should have been left in the hands of the American justice system. Perhaps you would have preferred that.
To answer your question :the permission slip the parents signed authorized them to seize the cellphone. It gives quite wide legal powers in absence of the parents.
As for claim about seizing cellphones …. You’re way off. Teachers and principals do it all the time right across the continent.
Do you really think that if a man upskirts a girl with his cellphone, nothing can be done until a judge issues an order? Really? Police have very broad powers to seize evidence.
If your innocent until proven gulity why do they fingerprint you and keep them on file even after your innocent, anyone who’s been to court knows your guilty till you prove yourself innocent and in Nunavut the lawerys tell u to plead gulity cause no time.. murders get gladue process what a mess get out do it again..
Ermagerd!! Had to sleep in a hallway? Harsh. 😱Tell a homeless person how cruel that was.
Hopefully someone told you a bedtime story and tucked you in.
Woe is me.😭
Get rid of the Arctic Winter Games. What a waste of money. “I can pee farther than you can. Neener. Neener.”…is all AWG is.