ITK, University of Saskatchewan sign onto Inuit identity verification process
Deal is ‘first of its kind’ and more are being worked on says ITK president Natan Obed
From left, University of Saskatchewan provost Prof. Airini, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed, and University of Saskatchewan president Peter Stoicheff sign an agreement Friday for a system to verify the Inuit identify of school applicants. (Photo courtesy of University of Saskatchewan)
The University of Saskatchewan announced a new system for verify the Inuit enrolment status of people applying for opportunities or positions meant specifically for Inuit.
The university and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Canada’s national Inuit organization, signed the memorandum of understanding Friday in Saskatoon.
The agreement capped more than two years of negotiations and is the first of its kind between Inuit and an academic institution, said ITK president Natan Obed.
“It’s inspiring and reaffirming to co-develop a modern agreement that outlines our shared commitment toward ensuring Inuit students, faculty and staff are able to access the benefits and opportunities that have been reserved for them,” Obed said at the signing.
The event took place a day after an Ontario woman, Karima Manji, was sentenced in an Iqaluit courtroom to three years in prison for fraudulently acquiring Inuit beneficiary enrolments for her twin daughters.
With those enrolments, the girls benefitted from opportunities and received scholarships intended for Inuit students.
“This policy came about after a considerable amount of turmoil across the country of individuals who were fraudulently claiming to be Indigenous and seeking and gaining material advantage from that claim,” said Angela Jaime, vice-provost of Indigenous Engagement at the University of Saskatchewan.
The system is designed to verify the Inuit identity of anyone applying for awards or financial assistance, employment, or research funding that is based on Inuit status.
Under the agreement, ITK will work as a liaison between the university and Canada’s four Inuit regional organizations: Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., Makivvik, Inuvialuit Regional Corp., and the Nunatsiavut Government.
“We look forward to providing our support in the administration of this agreement and our land claim organizations are in solidarity with you in ensuring that we navigate this very difficult world together in this age of identify fraud and material advantage for being a First Nations, Métis, or Inuk person in this country,” Obed said.
People seeking to access Inuit-specific opportunities will upload their documentation to a confidential portal to be verified.
Jaime said close to 3,000 applications have been received into the verification process since February 2023, when it went into use
Obed said ITK is currently negotiating similar agreements with other Canadian universities, but did not identify the schools.
“The system is designed to verify the Inuit identity of anyone applying for awards or financial assistance, employment, or research funding that is based on Inuit status.”
But yet, my two children had grown up down south, whom are half Inuit. And have collage degree’s had moved to their mothers home town in Nunavut. After working in their fields for more then 8 years decided to move up north to help try better their people, and couldn’t get a job because they were told by others in GOV’NU departments, that they would not get any jobs because the head of HR is jealous of them, which was confirmed by many! SAD! and all they wanted was to help their people. Now they work for first nations down here in BC. They are so caring and bright, it’s a shame that all they wanted was to live their life up north.
Sure you’ll verify whom someone is, but your problems start within your system.
I couldn’t agree with you more, Garret. I have seen my share of nepotism and jealousy in the hiring practices of Directors, especially within the Department of Health for the Government of Nunavut. It’s unfortunate to say that nothing will change as long as these long-term directors remain in their current positions.
Same thing happened to me, I was born in the north however moved south and lived and was educated in the south. I am half inuk myself and couldn’t get any benefits with my beneficiary card or financial support. As an adult, I moved back up north for 10 years only to be out casted by my own culture. The north is cruel, I moved back south.
True story.
My children went through the same. Raised in an urban setting, tried going back to show them their roots. Constantly bullied into hiding and dropping out of school. Almost. Ostracized.
Luckily we got out.
Now we know where NOT to go.
“None of it”.
The GN seriously needs a change with their management, weather they are middle or senior management. All this micromanaging, jealousy of other employees, power tripping ways needs to stop. Imagine if they didn’t treat their employees that way, it would more than likely be fully staffed. I’ve seen way too many good people leaving cause of how the GN management are treat their employees. And they wonder why the positions can’t be filled or they have high turnover rate. I hate hearing of other inuit/people that move back up from the south and they are turned away cause they have better credentials. Grow up GN management!!!
This is very important as more and more fake natives have been coming out of the woodwork to scam and take advantage.
There are some that fly under the radar and hopefully this will catch them.
I’m sure it’s making some nervous knowing they will probably get caught and also deter others from pretending to be native.
The GN system is broken, you have to know the people that hire employees, it’s usually someone from back home who’s a cousin or friend or even just from the same area.
Status quo is important for the GN, we can’t have educated and experienced Inuit working for the GN, it’s too threatening for the ones in power.
I know lots of educated Inuit working for the GN – they are often fast-tracked into management programs.
Why do we need Saskatchewan to verify who is Inuit or not?
It s called ” MAKE WORK PROJECT ” .
ITK doesn’t speak for Inuit. Most staff who represent Inuit are non aboriginals. Natan doesn’t know any better either.
Great! That means that the 6 or less Inuit students and staff currently enrolled or employed at the U of S. can now sleep easy as they are protected. And this took two years and how many thousand of hours of staff time and energy on both sides? Priorities folks, priorities.
The main academic train of thought teaches us to never question someone’s identity. Then this happens.
Why is ITK reaching out to a non-Inuit agency to come up with a way to identify Inuit? How did NTI agree to this? NTI soul purpose is the implementation of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement, and to ensure Nunavut Beneficiaries rights are being protected. How and why would they reach out to a non-Nunavut organization to verify who Nunavut Inuit are? This is disgusting, why is NTI even around if they can’t do their job? Is it NTI or the leadership? Why isn’t Aluki speaking up about this agreement. It’s pretty sad that NTI doesn’t even notify their beneficiaries of this new plan, or that they didn’t consult Inuit. What a job…
This is a way to help Universities verify the identity of applicants who seek to utilize the benefits of their identity. I really don’t see the problem with that and suspect you didn’t even read, let alone understand the article. Am I wrong in that?
Nunavut is NOT the only Inuit region in Canada, that is why ITK is involved.
Why would NTI have anything to do with verifying identity of other Inuit regions?
NTI only verifies Inuit from the Nunavut Agreement.
Dont forget it was also NTI that gave membership to the Gill sisters, so maybe they need to look into their own policies first.
ITK stepping in to do a job, I would think is a NTIs responsibility.
ITK represents the 4 Inuit regions, not just Nunavut. The President of NTI is one of the Board members of ITK. Natan would likely have required Board approval for something like this…
‘The President of NTI is one of the Board members of ITK.’ Is this not double dipping? Should this be allowed? Seems sketchy to me, big salaries give out here.
It’s not double-dipping. It’s executives doing what they were appointed to do…
It is a lobby group turning into an unelected level of government is what it is.
Notwithstanding voter turnout, the DIOs such as NTI are governed by a democratically elected Board…
Okay but, we’re talking about ITK here
Can someone tell me what ITK has accomplished over the years?
First of all, it’s not that the University of SK is the ones identifying who are inuit, it’s them confirming identity through ITK for people applying towards programs and services from the UofS that are deemed for Inuit. Read the article.
Second, ITK represents all Inuit, NTI solely represents NCLA. You should know, there are many Inuit in Canada that are not NCLA Inuit. Just read the article next time, it’s all clearly explained.
ITK represents only ITK. I never voted for Natan Obed. ITK has no mention in the Nunavut Agreement. ITK has never been made into a Designated Inuit Organization. ITK therefore cannot be my representative. Natan Obed is our chief lobbyist in Ottawa. Nothing more.
This is just an ITK MOU with the university. Individual land claims agreements have a way of identifying their beneficiaries, by blood quantum and in the case of Nunavut by way of our culture.
No land claim organization uses blood quantum. I don’t even think any First Nation band does.
There’s a place in Toronto one can send a blood sample to and they’ll prove one is “native”.
A guy sent his Chihuahua dogs ‘ blood sample and the company said that the Chihuahua was “Native”.🤣
Now ,let’s see all the Inuit owned business pass this test in each community as they claim all is Inuit owned as with CDN North and Nuna Logistics !! all of them claiming to be Inuit owned businesses.
These days you can identify as whoever you like – unless of course you start pocketing someone else’s free money! Ultimately this is good. We have found out the limits of identity politics.
Peter Stoicheff is the most progressive university president in the country, so no surprise that the U of S has pioneered this kind of agreement with ITK. Congrats to both Peter Stoicheff and Natan Obed!
Duck and Run and hide behind your lawyers…”Inuit owned” business.🤣
D-OH!!
Shouldn’t this have been done before division? 50 year later… you think of this? Nunavut is doomed.
….
What is Blood Quantum? Blood Quantum is a strategy used by the government and tribes to authenticate the amount of “Native blood” a person has by tracing individual and group ancestry. The amount a person has is measured in fractions, such as ¼ or ½.
….
Nobody knows what NTI does anymore. The president or vice never speak up or explain to beneficiaries. They are totally just there for money and trips out of Nunavut. NTI is getting millions for housing , education , language and culture through Inuit Partnerships. There is absolutely nothing going on with NTI.
Natan has messed up Nunavut Government with Inuit Partnership. Millions that can be used for the benefit of Nunavut communities are sitting with NTI such as housing money. Nunavut Government is a sleeping body, no leadership.
Yep, anyone can identify as Inuk, as long as they don’t access tangible benefits.
The privileges associated with Inukness make it tempting to some.
Under Article 35 of the Nunavut Agreement, it is NTI’s job to develop and maintain an Inuit Enrolment List, and provide updated copies to government and the public, upon request.
Article 35 makes no specific requirement for Inuit to be identified as such other than being on the Inuit Enrolment List. Indeed our beneficiary cards are only meant to provide for Inuk ID for purposes of harvesting under Article 5, because we have the right to hunt without a license.
Article 35 also requires that for NTI to consent to any change in an enrolment procedure, our Enrolment Committees must consent to it.
With ITK working with a southern university to “verify” whether an Inuk is an Inuk, ITK and the University are establishing procedures over and above and contrary to Article 35. As far as I can see, they seem to have done this without the consent of our Enrolment Committees.
NTI, with an every growing staff list sucking up our Trust income at ever higher rates, and with the bloated ambition of becoming self government in Nunavut, cannot even do the job it is meant to do, and is allowing the lobby group it is part of to interpret the Nunavut Agreement as it sees fit.
All this because NTI has the job to decide who is Inuk or not, and in one case, declared that it decided wrong.
Talk about the the tail wagging the dog. Sad.
Is John Fanjoy Inuit?
False, Nunatsiavut Government uses blood quantum to ensure beneficiary status.
Inuit are not First Nations.
Are the three stakeholders working together on this (GN, NTI & ITK) ?