Kuujjuaq killer gets off with short jail sentence

I am writing this letter today because I feel it is time the world knew about how the criminal justice system works in Nunavik.

I worked as a police officer in the small community of Kuujjuaq in Northern Quebec. After working there, I came to realize that for some reason, the justice system doesn’t think that Inuit need to be punished with the same punishments as the rest of Canada. The criminal laws don’t apply to Inuit the same way as they do to the other ethnic groups in Canada.

In August of 2002, I was awoken at six in the morning with a phone call from my friend and fellow police officer.

She felt I needed to hear from her that my cousin, Aloupa Watt, 27, had been shot in the head and probably wouldn’t make it. And he didn’t make it. When I asked her who did it, I wasn’t surprised when she said “Elijah Snowball.”

A few weeks before this, my partner and I were working together when we had to arrest Elijah Snowball for the third time in approximately three months. The second and third time he got arrested, he was breaching conditions that were given to him by the court.

The conditions were given to him because of the first incident that we arrested him for. The first time, he got drunk while out on the land camping, and after a heated argument with family members, he decided to deal with the situation by taking a 12-gauge shot gun and shooting it in the direction of a tent.

As a result of this shooting, two people were hit with pellets from the shot. (Thankfully, both overcame their injuries.) But after being arrested, Elijah Snowball, then 18, was released, with some conditions, (which he later breached on two separate occasions).

When we arrested Mr. Snowball the third time, I told my partner that the next time, we’d arrest him for murder. Well, he was arrested for murder.

But as I was reading the Nunatsiaq News on May 7, I was outraged to find out that Elijah was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to only 12 years in prison! Having served one and a half years to date, he only has eight years left to serve. He’ll therefore be back in the community in probably four years.

I don’t understand how a person who went out of one building to go home and get a gun, then came back to the first building and shot someone in the head, is not charged with first-degree murder. The Crown attorney’s reasoning for only charging him with manslaughter was that the he’s still a young boy, and the judge wouldn’t give him murder one. How will they know what the judge gives until he gives it?

To top things off, as the judge was rendering his decision in the Kuujjuaq court, he said that this issue – of murder – was not a matter for the courts to solve but rather, that it was a matter for the community to solve! How does a murder, manslaughter or whatever you want to call it, become a community matter?

One thing I have a hard time understanding is this: why didn’t he go to jail for the other three arrests? I can tell you from first-hand experience that he should have.

But it should also be known that this is a recurring problem everyday in Nunavik. People commit murders, assaults, rapes, yet they never get the same penalties as other criminals do. Why?

Because they are poor Inuit and they don’t know any better. That is the answer we get from the court officials! Personally, I can’t accept that. I strongly believe that the only way to bring crime rates down is to give everyone, including Inuit, the same punishments for the crimes they commit. How do the courts expect people to learn from their lessons when all they receive as a lesson is a piece of paper telling them not to do it again? Every criminal in Nunavik knows that if they get this piece of paper, they can keep getting away with their crimes again and again.

My cousin’s heart was always in the right place in life and in death. It was one of his wishes, he once told his mother, to donate whatever organs he can when he died. Today, three people are alive because of Aloupa’s generosity. So I am sure that his heart is in the right place even today.

Aloupa is no longer with us. His daughter will never see her father again. A young man who is violent and has serious problems took him away. This young man, Elijah Snowball, will be reunited with his son and family in eight and a half years. Aloupa will never be given back to us.

And the only person to blame for this is the justice system in Nunavik. The system is corrupt. The government doesn’t want to pay for “poor Inuit” to spend time in jail, so as a solution to this problem, they let the criminals get away with their crimes, or shift the responsibility towards the community.

The police officers in Nunavik have a work over-load, and the justice system does absolutely nothing to help them. People are arrested for their crimes, yet they get released, only to be out committing crimes again, a few days later. What’s the point of arresting them? They’re going to be released anyway.

Perhaps it’s time for the justice system to be examined and corrected! Or maybe they should get rid of the Crown attorneys in Nunavik and hire new, more competent people, who want to do their job properly. The KRPF chief does a lot to get better working conditions for his police officers, but the way the criminals are being treated – like kings and queens – makes his job seem so much harder.

I lost a cousin, and the rest of Nunavik lost a son, father, loved one, and friend. Writing this letter may not get us anywhere, but at least the world can know the truth about the way things are done in Nunavik.

Julie Grenier
Dorval