Nunavik groups demand changes in policing after man’s shooting death
KRG, Makivvik call for reform of the Nunavik Police Service after second police-involved shooting in 6 months
Both Makivvik Corp. and Kativik Regional Government are demanding changes after a male in Kangiqsualujjuaq was fatally shot Tuesday during an altercation with police. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Two Nunavik organizations are demanding action after a male in Kangiqsualujjuaq was shot and killed Tuesday during a confrontation with Nunavik Police Service officers.
Both Kativik Regional Government and Makivvik Corp. called for changes in the way policing is handled in Nunavik, and for more transparency in the way police-involved incidents are investigated.
“On behalf of the mayor and council, I extend my heartfelt support to the family,” Nancy Etok, deputy mayor of Kangiqsualujjuaq, said in a news release issued Friday by the Kativik Regional Government.
“We pledge to make every voice in Kangiqsualujjuaq heard on this terrible tragedy, and we will not rest until we feel comforted by just outcomes and a restored trust in those who seek to protect us.”
KRG is working with local officials to co-ordinate grief and trauma counselling for residents in the village of just under 1,000 people, the release said.
The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, Quebec’s police watchdog, is investigating the shooting.
News releases issued by the bureau and by the Nunavik Police Service say that at about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday, two Nunavik police officers located a person who was wanted on an arrest warrant in Kangiqsualujjuaq.
He was found inside a tent, and the officers used pepper spray to try to force him out. He came toward the officers holding a “bladed weapon,” the bureau’s release said.
An officer allegedly used a conducted energy weapon — also known as a stun gun — and then allegedly fired their gun, injuring the person, who was then transported to the local health centre and pronounced dead.
Tuesday’s incident was the second officer-involved shooting death in the region in about six months.
Last Nov. 4 in Salluit, one man was shot and died and his twin brother was severely injured during an altercation with Nunavik Police Service officers. The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes is also investigating that incident.
“Two fatal shootings of our Nunavimmiut brothers in six months is two too many,” said Mary Arngaq, KRG’s vice-chairperson, in the same news release.
“We need answers soon to how these tragedies occur, and the steps we all must take together to make sure the solemn trust we need in our police is restored.”
In a separate news release issued by Makivvik, president Pita Aatami said Tuesday’s incident “reflects a systemic failure in the way policing is delivered in Nunavik.”
“Despite repeated warnings, commitments, and investigations, police interventions continue to fail our communities. We condemn this fatality, and we demand immediate and measurable accountability.”
Makivvik is the Inuit-rights holding organization responsible for the administration and management of the heritage funds for Nunavik’s Inuit.
On Friday, social media posts promoted a planned demonstration to protest the fatal shooting in Kangiqsualujjuaq. Attempts to contact protest organizers were unsuccessful.
Neither the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes nor the Nunavik Police Service released the name of the male who died in Tuesday’s shooting.
Nunavik Police Service did not respond to a request for information about the planned protest in Kangiqsualujjuaq.
This news article is all about the response of leaders blaming policing in Nunavik. Not one of the leaders has said anything about the increasing use of alcohol and drug use in Nunavik. In this I’m not saying drugs and alcohol fuelled this incident, but it’s common citizens knowledge that we need a big intervention of hard drug use and the continuous outrage behaviour from alcohol, within a population that cannot control its use. Keeping watching the beer and wine stores to pop up in other towns sooner than later too, and a measure on the problem as well as seeing it every where every day, watch also the indicator of a population that can’t handle it well, as by the restrictions impose when the population is permitted to buy it, under stringent rules, outstanding in our country and province.
Disappointed with leadership only responding because ties to the village.
I can’t even fathom how healing of Nunavik can be achieved – the system is so broken and corupted (KRG = cronyism and all the other too). The traumas are so big, the weight of sadness so immense. Mental health issues so prevalent. Resource-less people. I am resource-less too – what to do.
I think it’s really gone too, beyond repair. The only thing left now if any hope for a better life in Nunavik is for a total take over from the south. I’m not saying that because I want that, I don’t want that, I want the population to be prosperous and strong, but if you really think about it, it’s gone, the vision is bleak. When I say a total take over by the greater, larger Quebec and Canadian society, I mean leadership, and the mental illness together has proven over and over, that’s it not getting any better, it’s at all time low. The number of children at risk, the alcohol and higher drug use. The number of absenteeism from school, work place, it’s unprecedented. So many great people in Nunavik has been over shallowed and have no hope in the mess around the communities. The death rate from unnatural cause skyrocketed. Morbidity, mortality, suicide, homicide, it is gone to no return.
Just pull all of the police services from Nunavik and Nunavut – it’s a thankless job when the people who call for help then turn around and point fingers when things inevitably go wrong. The communities refuse to admit and address the drug and alcohol-fueled violence that has become the norm up here. Time for the police to up and leave and let’s just see what happens next. Grab the popcorn.
You can go anywhere on Native land in the parts where trees grow, (Stolen land) and go get your boxes of popcorn and go to ANY street and see all these drug addicted and alcoholics who are european canadians who fill the streets, tents, violence, it’s all over the world.
Demand changes? So what you going to do, what can you do? Don’t seem like much you can do , other than fixing yourself. I don’t see and results of the protest from the salluit shooting. So this shooting will be same, nothing you can do. The Inuit society of Nunavik needs to change the social setting. Focus on mental health of the population. An inquiry into the making of a society from mental health in jeopardy. Focus on the kids being vulnerable, to the point of being taken away. Even that little part of the focus will highlight the problem, yes just focus on the kids situation and it’ll open up the truth about what needs to change. We don’t need much change in policing, what we need is a change into what kind of calls are made to police and why such turmoil.
The root of the problem is KRG. They have been mismanaging Nunavik’s funds for many years. Resulting in poor policing, water infrastructure and especially internet. As the list goes on, the basic fundamental rights are degrading at the hands of an organisation put in place for beneficiaries best interests.
Yes Depending on government is always a problem, we need to learn better not to, but not an easy task. I disagree that government is the root of the problem, even if I agree with you that Government is a problem. The root of the problem lives in the people that make the problem, that the root. Other than that, the great side orders of drinking alcohol, when it goes directly to your bad day thoughts adds to the watering of the roots. Now we got good /bad smoke and pills to add the the cells in the brain of naughty immature people, that’s the root.