Nunavik must act on police reform
to restore confidence
No time to waste on recommendations in KRG-commissioned audit of Nunavik Police Service
An audit report of the Nunavik Police Service recommends 35 reforms aimed at rebuilding trust, increasing Inuit representation and improving community policing initiatives. (File photo by Jeff Pelletier)
An audit of the Nunavik Police Service offers plenty of advice for improving policing in the region, but will the proposed changes be enough to make a difference? And can they be implemented fast enough to restore public trust and to prevent more shootings of Inuit by police officers?
It should make for an interesting discussion at the Kativik Regional Government’s upcoming council meeting, set for the week of May 25.
On Tuesday, Kativik Regional Government released a report it commissioned last year to review the Nunavik Police Service’s practices.
It includes calls to create an Inuit-led police-training program, to change Quebec’s Police Act and to give Inuit greater control over policing in the region.
They’re among the 35 recommendations included in the report Toward a Distinctly Inuit Public Safety System in Nunavik, aimed at rebuilding the public’s trust in policing.
That trust has been eroded in the past two years, the consequence of four deaths of Inuit civilians that occurred when police have fired their weapons.
Unfortunately, neither KRG nor Nunavik Police Service would speak to a Nunatsiaq News reporter the day the regional government released the report — or in the days since.
The stage is set for Nunavik Police Service Chief Jeff Bernier to address the report during the KRG’s upcoming, quarterly meeting.
In July 2025, after the third fatal shooting of an Inuk civilian by Nunavik police in eight months, KRG’s executive committee held an emergency meeting to discuss police operations and how to ensure communities feel safe. They decided to launch an audit.
A Nunatsiaq News editorial, published that same month, argued that policing in the region isn’t working the way it should. It can’t continue that way, and big changes are necessary.
Since then, another death occurred — in December 2025. A six-year-old girl died during an exchange of gunfire between police and her father.
One of the audit’s recommendations call for the provincial government to amend the Police Act to let KRG determine hiring standards for officers in Nunavik, which could affect education level, physical standards and medical requirements. Another calls for the creation of a list of “minor” offences that shouldn’t disqualify Inuit recruits from joining the force.
Unfortunately, with the Quebec legislature winding down before an October election, it seems unlikely there will be any immediate action.
Hopefully police reform in Nunavik will get some attention during the provincial election campaign. It must be considered one of the most important issues currently facing Nunavik.
By the time Bernier and KRG councillors sit down to talk about the audit at the upcoming meeting, nearly two weeks will have passed since its release. If they deem this audit’s recommendations as a solution to the erosion of public trust in police, they need to move quickly to start making changes. There’s no time to waste.
I had this on my laptop but tapped the wrong key key and it erased everything, so starting over and briefly… Indigenous police forces may be called upon, as YUL is a centre for Nunavik Inuit and as Mohawk reside in the area, a collaboration can be made in training. And as Inuit when working with non indigenous people tend to take the backseat that would not be the case in such a collaboration.