Mourners remember Joshua Qiyuk as a bright light

Dozens of mourners lit candles Sunday in memory of Joshua Qiyuk, considered a bright light in Ottawa’s restaurant scene and a kind man who brightened the lives of those he met.

Joshua Qiyuk is being remembered by his friends and colleagues as a sweet, innocent young man with “that smile.” Qiyuk, 21, originally from Baker Lake, was found dead Oct. 22 in Ottawa, a victim of a stabbing. (Photo courtesy of C’est Bon)

“My baby makes me proud and I want him to know that,” his mother Brenda Qiyuk said at the end of a candlelight vigil in Ottawa for the 21-year-old aspiring chef, originally from Baker Lake.

“My baby inspires me,” she said, offering the last of about 20 tributes during the vigil.

Qiyuk died Oct. 22 in Ottawa, stabbed in what Ottawa police are investigating as a homicide. Police told Nunatsiaq News on Friday they had not made any arrests.

“Joshua may be gone but his light remains in every kitchen he worked in, in every heart he touched,” said Trudy Metcalfe-Coe, who helped train him when he was a culinary arts student, and who helped organize Sunday’s vigil.

More than 100 people attended the vigil in Hemlock Park just west of Ottawa’s Aviation Parkway, not far from where Qiyuk died.

One after another, speakers shuffled through the fallen, rustling leaves to a microphone set up in the park to offer tributes.

The crowd was a mixture of Ottawa’s Inuit, some Nunavummiut, people who knew Qiyuk from Ottawa’s restaurant scene and high school friends.

People who worked with Qiyuk in restaurants, as well as some family members, wore white T-shirts with the message “Yes, Chef.”

In the bustling kitchen of a restaurant, the chef calls out direction to sous-chefs and other staff. The anticipated response is for them to acknowledge, “Yes, Chef” as a sign of respect.

Qiyuk embodied that attitude, said Patrick Garland, the chef at Absinthe restaurant in Ottawa’s Hintonburg area where the recent graduate of Algonquin College’s culinary program landed a job and where he was making his mark.

“Josh is definitely ‘chef’ from here on in,” Garland said.

He retold the story of the first time he met Qiyuk, who showed up at the restaurant without an appointment looking for a job but wearing the full chef’s attire.

Garland asked him if he always wore chef’s clothing when he applied for jobs. Qiyuk said another chef once told him he should dress for the job you want.

From that moment on, Qiyuk worked in Garland’s restaurant.

Qiyuk was born in Baker Lake and was proud of his heritage, Metcalfe-Coe said. He was Inuk on his mother’s side and Cree on his father’s side. He came to Ottawa with his mother and two brothers, Curtis and Stuart.

Curtis Qiyuk, the middle of three brothers, said his younger brother had a naiveté and that he understood the world through what his older brother told him, but “eventually, he was his own person.”

Eldest brother Stuart said Joshua had a successful work life, colleagues and friends that he didn’t know about, and that he was proud of how much his youngest brother had touched people’s lives.

Friends and cousins described a young man who loved playing video games, was looking into buying a car and making plans for a trip to Niagara Falls with his brothers.

Three high school friends shared their memories of a friend they said was focused and driven.

“Seeing him every day put a big smile on my face,” said Ahmed Obaidi, who recalled gym classes where Qiyuk gave 100 per cent to everything he did.

“He was a very good person. He made all of us a better person.”