MLA Karen Nutarak ‘excited’ at chance to join cabinet
Motion nominating her was introduced Friday, will be voted on by legislature Monday
MLA Karen Nutarak says she’s excited at the chance to join cabinet. A motion nominating her will be voted on in the legislature Monday. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Tununiq MLA Karen Nutarak is set to become Nunavut’s newest cabinet minister if a motion introduced in the legislative assembly Friday is approved.
Kugluktuk MLA Bobby Anavilok and Aggu MLA Joanna Quassa put forward the motion nominating Nutarak to cabinet.
“The motion will be addressed on Monday,” said Sima Sahar Zerehi, chief of strategic operations for Premier P.J. Akeeagok, in an email to Nunatsiaq News.
“As she is the only person nominated, she will become a member of the executive council at that time as long as she gets a majority vote.”
The vacancy in cabinet was created when Joelie Kaernerk stepped down in mid-January after being stripped of his responsibilities as minister of culture and heritage, minister of languages, and minister responsible for Qulliq Energy Corp. by Akeeagok, who said Kaernerk had violated cabinet’s code of conduct.
In an interview during a break in proceedings Friday, Nutarak said that being in cabinet would allow her to have an impact in the time remaining in the current legislative term.
The next general election will be held in October 2025
“We have a year left, five sittings, I want to learn how the government operates and represent my community one-on-one with the ministers,” she said.
Nutarak didn’t say which portfolios she’s interested in taking on, adding she wants to meet with Akeeagok before discussing that.
“I’m excited, I’m scared, I have all sorts of emotions going on right now, but I’m happy to be able to represent my constituents and the whole Nunavut,” she said.
Hailing from Pond Inlet, Nutarak has been MLA for Tununiq since the 2021 election.
Before politics, she was an educator and a founder of Pirurvik Preschool.
Best of Luck! We need al the help!
Good Luck young lady. And, don’t let those other guys try to beat you down as it happens so often to women here. Be strong.
Can we please stop stereotyping Inuit and Inuit politicians as being sexist and misogynistic. Indigenous people are like any other people and they are no more or less misogynistic then anyone else. These old colonial stereotypes are so tiresome to read in 2024……
Not all cultures treat women the same and Inuit treat women atrociously.
One just has to look at all the violence against women in Nunavut and how women leaders are treated.
Misogyny is off the charts in Nunavut and it’s NOT “old colonial stereotypes”.
Blaming everything on colonialism is what’s tired and disempowering. Stop it!
I don’t see Mr. Murphy mentioning indigenous people at all. What did I miss?
I know you’re trying to be clever but every member of the Legislative Assembly is Inuk, except for one or two members. So we all know exactly what Mr. Murphy was trying to say and who he was referring to in his comment. Can’t we be honest with each other.
“Can’t we be honest with each other.” – Yes, I believe we can. Allow me to start.
Just because (nearly) every member of the assembly is Inuk does not mean Mr. Murphy’s comment is stereotyping Inuit.
You are mistaken to categorically reject the possibility that an Inuk might under any circumstance try to “beat anyone down”. Do you imagine there some Inuit essence that precludes acting like other humans might under certain conditions?
Your reaction shows a lack of maturity. It also shows an inability to distinguish between valid and unfair criticism, as if the former not only does not exist (for Inuit anyway), but any attempt to present something that pretends to be a fair critique suffers ‘a priori’ from bad motives (again, lack of maturity)
What do you think?
Your comment infers, and the other comments above state explicitly that Inuit as a race of people treat women worse than other races. I think that’s wrong and not fair criticism. I really wish that non Inuit who believe this stuff would look at their own race with a critical eye. No race of people is perfect, I don’t care who you are. There are some things I’ve been trying to say about non Inuit that I think is fair comment but sadly NN has chosen to allow it. They allow others comments which infer that Inuit men are misogynist but won’t allow my fair comments about stereotypes regarding non Inuit. Very disappointing.
“Your comment infers… that Inuit as a race of people treat women worse than other races.”
No, I didn’t imply that. Can you show me what makes you think so?
“There are some things I’ve been trying to say about non Inuit that I think is fair comment but sadly NN has chosen to allow it.”
Do you think it would be productive to add a few stereotypes of your own to this discussion?
Either way, I don’t want to chase this red herring. Paul’s point was about politics and I don’t see how it implied anything about race. So far you haven’t explained how it does.
Perhaps your own expectations and biases are animating your reactions? I suspect this is the case.
No one said anything about Inuit anywhere in the comments. There was ‘we’ and ‘here’.
Don’t worry, be happy …cuz every lil thing is gonna be alright….again don’t worry…she’s going to her heaven’s gate and where she will be met by the high top man is God who she feels is Nunavut’ God sent! Great addition to the failing Government. Du o o o o o o ! Adam should go back with the CaB as he was so against and never trusted the Government before he became a minister but all of a sudden as been Pro GN. He may not have the opportunity in less than 2 years.
That’s my panniq’s name.
💖💖💖
I’m going to try this one last time. Stereotypes are bad because, while there is always a grain of truth behind them, they end up unfairly labelling people. “Wife beaters unite” wrote that “Inuit treat women atrociously”. I’m actually quite surprised that NN allowed that comment on this forum. But, I’m all for free speech. And in that spirit, let’s also talk about some assessments of non Inuit in Nunavut that maybe non Inuit may not want to hear. One assessment is that a lot of non Inuit are in Nunavut because they have to be here. They don’t have the abilities and skills to live in the south so they have to live in Nunavut amongst these people who “treat women so atrociously”. The stereotype that many non Inuit live up here because they can’t cut it down south is unfortunate, but there is a grain of truth to it. So, if we’re going to be passing judgements on others such as “ treating women atrociously”, let’s also be prepared to accept judgements about us. And, NN, you allowed the comment about Inuit “treating women atrociously”, so I hope you have the spirit of fairness to allow this comment as well.
I agree with you that some of the responses to your original comment were totally reactive, off the mark and unnecessary.
Unfortunately, people are often quick to react and can be slow to think through what they are even responding to. We’ve all done it, including myself.
However, your problem is a similar one, you’ve hallucinated stereotyping into a comment where there is no evidence it exists.
Will you help us see it? Or do you expect others to participate in a shared delusion because you say so? So far, this is not a compelling case on your part.
All of us know at least one non-Inuk who routinely complains about life in this territory, the people who live here and all of the perceived problems. And yet these very same non-Inuit who think this territory is such a terrible place with all of these problems choose to remain here year after year. Do I have to draw you a picture? Why do you think these people stay instead of returning to southern Canada ? They stay because they have to!!! Thats my evidence!! If you went to bed and the street was dry and woke up and the street was wet, you would probably deny any evidence that it rained over night….. Please…..
Thanks for the glimpse inside your broken thought processes. That is good to know.
Good luck Karen. It will be difficult putting up with Joe and George’s vindictive onslaught