Federal apology for dog slaughter 25 years in the making

This post was updated on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at 2:30 p.m.

Emotions were high in Kangiqsujuaq’s community centre Saturday when the official apology came.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree flew into the community over the weekend to begin to make amends for the “unjustified killing” in the 1950s and 1960s of more than 1,000 sled dogs primarily at the hands of RCMP and Quebec police, although other community members including teachers and Hudson Bay Company employees took part in some communities.

The practice led to food insecurity and loss of Inuit traditions.

The apology came with $45-million compensation for Makivvik Corp. to use for programs that will promote healing and cultural revitalization.

Lucy Grey, who has been working to get the federal government’s acknowledgment of these actions since 1999, said the day was intense, joyous and bittersweet.

“What happened really devastated our way of life by misguided policies and the denial that followed for many years,” she said.

The road to the apology began with a community tour Makivvik Corp., conducted in 1999 to hear from beneficiaries. In Kangiqsualujjuaq, Grey said, a woman talked about how her husband’s dogs were killed.

At the time, Grey was an information agent for Makivvik. She was tasked to find out if the account was true.

“This was the first time I had ever heard about it,” she said.

She said her team ended up interviewing 200 people who said they were either witnesses or victims of the dog killings. With these testimonies, Makivvik Corp. went back to the provincial and federal governments.

Lucy Grey has been working with Makivvik Corp. since 1999 on the Nunavik dog slaughter. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

RCMP investigated the allegations in 2006 and determined there was no evidence to support them.

But the Quebec government gave retired judge Jean-Jacques Croteau a mandate in 2007 to visit every Nunavik community to investigate further.

Croteau concluded in 2010 that while there was no “systemic” dog slaughter, the activity was caused by the government’s forced relocation policy, in that forcing Inuit to settle in communities led to the spread of canine disease and the number of loose does.

Officials did not consult Inuit in addressing this problem, the report said, and instead chose to enforce loose-dog laws by shooting and gassing the animals.

Croteau recommended both the federal and provincial governments issue an apology and offer financial compensation for the killings.

This prompted the Quebec government to offer an apology in 2011, alongside a sum of $3 million as compensation.

Thirteen years later, over the weekend, the federal government followed suit.

“Those elders who were waiting for an apology, for an acknowledgement, a lot of them are gone,” Grey said. “We have only a few elders left, the last of the nomads.”

Saturday’s apology provided relief nonetheless. Now, Grey said, Nunavik Inuit can concentrate on healing.

There was a reason Kangiqsujuaq was selected as the site where the federal government would apologize — it was reported that more than 200 dogs had been killed in a three-day period there in the mid-1960s.

Grey said officials killed all the dogs, piled them on the ice and burned their bodies.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree stands next to the Kuujjuaq Inn on Nov. 24, the day after he delivered the federal government’s official apology for the Nunavik dog slaughter. (Photo by Cedric Gallant)

After delivering the apology, Anandasangaree went to Kuujjuaq later on Saturday and stayed there for much of Sunday meeting with local mushers.

“We had a very deep and emotional conversation,” he said in an interview, adding he met with elders who shared their experiences, many of them crying.

“It is one of those introspective weekends where you contemplate what we have and the priorities we set as individuals.”

Anandasangaree admitted the federal apology was late — the visit has been on the department’s list of priorities since 2022. Following through, he said, was nonetheless a powerful experience.

“The truth shall set you free,” he said.

“This is the end of one long journey, but the beginning of another one, because this is going to help us towards building trust and moving forward on reconciliation.”

Sylvie Bérubé, the MP whose riding includes Nunavik, said she has been in contact regularly with Anandasangaree since her visit to Kuujjuaq last January, pushing for the apology.

“If you don’t push on the gas, no action is being taken, so I did not let go of the minister and demanded that he makes the apology and provides compensation,” she said in a French interview.

“I hope that [Nunavimmiut] will be satisfied to some degree, I know that it will not solve their suffering but at least it relieves.”

Clarification: This story was updated to include more information about who participated in the dog slaughter.