Nunavik has a serious journalism problem

Cedric Gallant

There are only a handful of journalists who work in Nunavik. Radio-Canada and Nunatsiaq News hold permanent reporter positions in Kuujjuaq, and CBC provides radio content, with most of its broadcast and reporting operations based in Iqaluit.

This is not enough.

Journalism in Nunavik is frail and spread thin. Reporters who are established in the region are in Kuujjuaq, and have little means to travel to the 13 other communities. So much is missed when a reporter calls the mayor from their home office, instead of being there and seeing the story unfold.

The alternative is what is known as parachute journalism, where reporters are sent to Nunavik from down south for a few days to report on a specific story.

Major events, like the November 2024 dog-slaughter apology by the federal government in Kangiqsujuaq, attracted a bunch of camera operators and reporters — yet they left in the blink of an eye after the story was over.

The trend is for journalists to be story-takers, rather than storytellers, in Nunavik.

The relationship between Inuit and reporters is strained, because the habit is for journalists to take stories during a one-time trip without making the time to foster a lasting, co-operative relationship with Inuit. A relationship like that could yield far better journalistic results in the future.

That is not counting the fact that those journalists — both parachute and Nunavik-based, including me — are not Inuit, do not speak Inuktitut, and do not have the capacity to fully understand the context in which Nunavimmiut have lived for their whole lives.

Lacking these assets is to miss huge potential for layered, in-depth, and Inuit-centred reporting in Nunavik.

The only Nunavik-based, Inuit-led news broadcasting is done through CBC Tuttavik, a weekday hour-long Inuktitut radio program hosted by Alec Gordon, who has been spearheading Inuit journalism in Nunavik for over 50 years. But for journalism to thrive, it requires multiple outlets: videojournalism, investigative journalism, print journalism, podcasting, and documentaries.

I believe the key lies in more media education in the region. Journalism is not a job that Inuit kids get to consider as a genuine opportunity for them to explore. There are no workshops that talk about journalism, and there are no positions available for them to apply to.

Quebec’s only journalism degree available in English is offered at Concordia University, requiring them to travel and live down south for up to three years to even be eligible for positions in journalism.

The educational infrastructure to prepare the next generation of Nunavimmiut journalists is simply not there. So let’s create it.

Media companies working in the Arctic should make an extra effort to provide a space for youths or adults getting into journalism to flourish and feel validated in this field.

If every actor taking part in Nunavik’s media landscape can help in developing local journalism, it is one step closer toward Inuit taking control of their stories.

Who better to keep Nunavik’s governing bodies in check, all the while bringing to light initiatives that could be part of the solution, than an Inuk reporter?

Cedric Gallant is a graduate student at Concordia University in Montreal. He worked for Nunatsiaq News as a reporter, including in Kuujjuaq from 2023 to 2025.