Group rallies for Coral Harbour elder’s return from Ottawa
Supporters of Raymond Ningeocheak say Nunavut government should do more to bring him home
Sarah Netser stands in the centre of the crowd that gathered in support of Raymond Ningeocheak, an elder living in long-term care in Ottawa who wants to return home to Coral Harbour. (Photo by David Lochead)
About 30 Iqaluit residents gathered beside the legislative assembly Friday afternoon in -30 C temperatures to rally to bring a Coral Harbour elder home from a long-term care home in Ottawa.
Raymond Ningeocheak, 80, has spent the past year at Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa.
Anne Crawford, a lawyer advocating on behalf of his family, said the Government of Nunavut will not pay the money required to bring Ningeocheak back to Coral Harbour because he is not medically cleared to return.
The GN has told the family there are not enough resources in Coral Harbour to provide proper home care to Ningeocheak, Crawford said. But the family has provided the GN a list of people with elder care experience and resources that can provide 24/7 care to Ningeocheak, she said.
Crawford said the group wants the Health Department to help the family find a solution to bring Ningeocheak home.
Raymond Ningeocheak, 80, wants to return to his Coral Harbour home. For the past year he’s been living at Embassy West Senior Living in Ottawa. (Photo courtesy of the Ningeocheak family/GoFundMe)
Ningeocheak’s family is holding an online fundraising campaign to pay the cost to bring him home. Katelyn Netser, Ningeocheak’s granddaughter, said the costs of a medevac and hospital bed are close to $40,000.
Their goal is to raise $40,000 and Netser said they are currently at $3,000.
Ningeocheak was supposed to go south for physiotherapy on his legs so he could improve his walking. Crawford said the visit was supposed to be temporary but now Ningeocheak has been stuck in Ottawa and has not even received physiotherapy.
Embassy West Senior Living director of operations Selma Basic said that Embassy West does not comment on individual cases because of privacy protection.
The family says Ningeocheak’s health would improve if he was able to have country food again and be surrounded by family.
At approximately 12:15 p.m., the crowd stood silently in a half-circle for two minutes to acknowledge the challenge in bringing Ningeocheak home.
Earlier, Crawford handed out paper cards of geese flying, which she said represented how birds that go south later return north, just like they hope Ningeocheak will do.
“With COVID and the circumstances they’re under, their voice is always muffled,” Crawford said of elders in the south.
She added that if a member of the family is advocating for an elder to come home, like Ningeocheak’s family is in this case, then they should be listened to.
Adamee Itorcheak was at the rally as well. He said he got to interact with Ningeocheak through the elder’s work and involvement in Inuit causes.
As a long-time second vice-president at Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Ningeocheak was heavily involved in development of the territory. Itorcheak said Ningeocheak was always dependable.
“We called him ‘Steady Ray,’” Itorcheak said.
Itorcheak added he came to the rally for a simple demand.
“Let Raymond go home in peace,” he said.
Health Minister John Main said in an emailed statement that he intends to improve elder care and appreciates the passion of those at the rally.
“As minister, I welcome all expressions of political views through peaceful actions and events,” Main said.
Where else in Canada would the government be required to pay for returns home? Nowhere. In southern Canada the patients foot the bill for ambulances. Did you not have medical insurance? Why should taxpayers pay for this. Why should the GN expose itself to liability if this individual, who is not fit to fly on a commercial plane, doesn’t survive the trip? The sense of entitlement here from Crawford and crew is indicative of so much about this territory. Good to see they are fundraising though because that is what we call standing on your own two feet.
Maybe the Ningeocheak family should call themselves a “senior living facility” and offer to care for Raymond for a mere $15000 a month.
They could pay for the trip home and earn back the money in 3 months.
Too bad the People from Coral Harbour called themselves a family and offered to set up a roster for the fourteen people who were willing to take a turn to care for Ratmond out of love and respect. Now the world will call them “freeloaders” and a “tax burden”.
Business First Ladies and gentlemen, you won’t get any respect from this government by being so foolish as to volunteer!
Wow, you really sound like someone from the south, correct me if I’m wrong but with your tone you don’t sound like someone who is from the north.
Nowhere in southern Canada do your elders have to travel thousands of miles to a foreign place and be cared for because where you live does not have the facilities. Where your government spends hundreds of thousands for each individual to be taken care of by a for profit old folks home.
The entitlement on your part is deafening and your lack of sympathy for this elder and the family is disappointing but not surprising. We hear such things far too much from southern folks who think we should just be like them but without the infrastructure or support in the north.
I’m sure who ever is deciding at the GN has a similar view as yours and that has been a huge problem with our government since the start.
Wow, you’re a really compassionate, kind, generally benevolent person! (NOT) I hope karma never shows you what it’s like to need help that others feel you’re not entitled to. Actually, I hope karma shows you exactly what that’s like.
I don’t want to assume anything from this cases of an elder in Ottawa supported to get back home to the north, but I got to say something in general. How do so many elders get to leave their beloved home land and end up in Ottawa and other southern centers in the first place? Ok I’ll accept that certain specialized services are only available in the south. But are all elders living in Ottawa and southern care homes in the need of specialized services? If that’s the case! I’ll rest my case, but I’m concerned that there are many elders from the north, who have been sent down to these care centers in the south in vain. The same elders are named as our elders that we all should listen to, and worship in inuit ways, but instead of being valued and cared for by the very people that speaks so often about caring for elders, it’s absolutely ridiculous that families and communities could let that happen to elders. Don’t even talk about respecting elders, if you are having them live out their last days in another cultural setting.
Are all elders living in Ottawa and southern care homes in the need of specialized services?
Yes. Elders who can be cared for in Nunavut are rarely relocated (at great cost) to Ottawa. Most of the residents of Embassy West require 24/7 care in a clinical setting, something that is not available in most Nunavut communities.
Thank you Anne Crawford for all the tireless work you have been doing for our Elders. I hope this new government makes Elders a real priority.
This government, and any territorial government, is stuck. There will be little to no change. We do not have the human resources in-territory to staff long-term care homes for residents with serious medical needs, and it will be decades before we do. We can barely staff care homes for residents who are relatively healthy.
It is a complete non-starter to have a care home in every community, we can’t begin to afford it, so regional homes is what we’d have to look at for the minimal – care residents, Anyone, with anything approaching serious chronic-care conditons can not find the support that they need in this territory, and this isn’t going to change for a loooonnnnggg time.
Nunavut is no different than many of the other impoverished, rural, and sparesely populated areas of the country. It is, sadly, pretty standard for patients with high care needs to be separated from their families and homes since care is not available locally.
My mother’s life ended in conditions very similar to what Nunavut residents face – many hours from family in a strange language and culture (she was an Anglo, her care providers were all Francos – communication was a daily challenge) purely because the level of care was not available locally.
It is very far from ideal, but the Nunavut situation is not at all unique.
There was a patient who was dying repeatedly needed biopsy done to his body. He never got to see his family. Another who was promised to go home after one more test, but doctor’s promised went couple of weeks without her going home and needed to have more tests and the doctor knew she didn’t have very many days to live. I got mad at the doctor and she reported to our boss and I was fired for trying to help. Also, I was telling the doctor that the nurses I was working for had to listen to the doctor. So, I was really fired for those incidents. The reason why I am telling you is because I am really thankful for the lawyer, MP John Main and Adamee is there to help Raymond and his family. To me the Patient Services in Ottawa should let Interpreters to do more in which if they can ask for the nurses/doctors how the patients is doing and not coming from the organization of nurses. To see if a patient wants to know whats going on with their medical health and report to them and many more. When I was working for them I was only there for Interpreting and no more. Many times I wonder if it is like that today. After been working in Montreal so long ago. It was very different working in Ottawa. Like in Montreal if, the discharge summery was not ready. I was able to ask the doctor if he can call his worker to give me in an hour or so. And, If surgeon was telling a patient to come back in two weeks, his worker would tell me that he could only see him in about two months and I would answer if the patient stays that long that’s a lot of taxes for us to pay next year. I wonder a lot about our people who is in Ottawa. I am really thankful for our Nunatsiaq news. I am thankful for higher people who would chip in to help. We need more people like that. Is there someone who can visit and see if they need something, someone who can call the patient services if they need a message and something else and so on?. I didn’t mean to be so hard on medical team as they are our precious and giving back our health back many many times.
If they manage to fundraise to get this man home, it will fall again to the taxpayer to send him back for care if and when the family can’t manage, and will fall on the likely already overextended health centre to make things work until that can be arranged.
There are downsides to living in remote wilderness areas. Life is full of tradeoffs. If you want tertiary health care in your own town, you pretty much have to move to a city, just like those in Southern Canada have to do. They do send palliative patients home if that is their wish, but I am guessing this man is not considered to be at the end of life, and that the family might have higher expectations than the health systems knows the care in the community can realistically meet.
Great idea. Now let’s make all flights free. The government will pay for them, right?
So, there was a retreat conveniently prior to the shutdown where Ministers met to come up with new and surprising issues that need to be addressed. New and not redundant discussion on housing, healthcare and other new and shocking developments were discussed. The answers were the same answer to every and all issues: sad face and open hand to the Feds. There was another one scheduled but most likely will not occur. They should have it in Iqaluit nothing came keep schools or the B and W closed there. Couldn’t the Mins have a Microsoft Teams Meeting? Isn’t that the GN’s approach… oh per diems.
Money to bring Raymond home could have come from that non-critical, non-essential travel waste of time
Tens of millions spent on people partying, sharing cigarettes and getting hammered at Isolation Hubs – more worthy than Raymond. Just ask my “Main” man…
Yes, and many non-essentials travels will be to high arctic, tours by employees at GN expense. 3.8 million non essential travels within by GN staff alone and additional 2.5 million on GN appointed boards and staff. Main stream Canadians; you should not even be complaining; projects housings, taking in all walks of life from the world at tax payers expense totaling millions and additional in millions again to rebuild what Canada has destroyed in warfare.
If that was your relative, do you think it would get this much attention? Just because he used to be the v prez doesn’t mean he should get the best treatment. If he needs to be down south due to his health. Leave him down there.
If he’s ever so craving for country food there’s flights to the south everyday. I thought TI was giving out country food a month or so again. Are the elders at west embassy not Inuk?
I suspect that list of people with elder’s experience will dwindle quickly once people realize the amount of care someone suffering from dementia and other medical conditions will require. I’ve known families who insisted they were prepared to take care of an elderly relative in a similar situation and one things was true for all of them: no, they weren’t. Some eventually managed, but not one of them really knew what they were in for.
How come no one is hitting up NTI or KIA to ship him home? Apparently he was high up in Inuit orgs for years. Why don’t they ship him home?
Because that is the GN’s responsibility, the GN can easily send him home and on top of that provide support for some food weekly and still save some money compared to what they are spending at embassy, problem is they would have to commit and be accountable. We know GN does not want that.
Paying for his medivac back to Coral without clearance will cause a dangerous precedent. He can get country food in the hospital so this argument is just a red herring.
A few weeks later when his family can no longer care for him, does the GN then also pay for his medevac back to the south?
I understand that Mr, Ningocheak suffers from an advanced form of dementia. Are Ms. Crawford and his family aware of the extraordinary medical measures that will have to be put in place to ensure that he receives proper care and attention for what may be years to come? How does the GN justify that kind of expenditure for one individual with all the other problems that the Territory faces in terms of youth mental health, addictions etc.?
When will Nunavut listen to us especially our elders hat want to go home
Raymond was among those visionary Inuit leaders who were instrumental in the creation of the Nunavut Territory and the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement. Indeed, 29 years ago he was one of the signatories – on behalf of Inuit – to that historic Agreement.
Though we worked for different organizations, it was my exceptional honour to know him as a trusted colleague during those first tumultuous and crucial decades following the ratification of the Agreement. Throughout those years, Raymond’s dedication to the cause of Inuit was legendary. A devoted and steadfast leader, he now deserves to return to his home and his family – and in due course, to enter eternity secure in the knowledge that he made this beautiful, sad world a better place.