Nunavik Commission won’t send member to Makivik AGM

IQALUIT — A dissenting member of the Nunavik Commission says the commission is refusing to send her to the Makivik Corporation’s annual general meeting in Kuujjuarapik next month because she disagrees with its final report and won’t sign it.

The Nunavik Commission will use that meeting to make a public release of its recommendations on the design, operation and implementation of a new government in Nunavik.

Annie May Popert, who has publicly accused the commission of ignoring the right of Quebec Inuit to self-determination, says commission staff won’t pay the cost of sending her to the Makivik gathering, scheduled for the week of April 3 in Kuujjuarapik.

“They informed me that I could go if I wanted to, but if I paid my own way,” Popert said.

Last February, Popert issued a severe list of criticisms aimed at the commission’s work so far, and is refusing to sign the commission’s report.

She suggested that the Quebec government is using the commission to impose pre-conditions on any new Nunavik government that would threaten the Inuit right to self-determination if Quebec were to secede from Canada.

In a 1999 cabinet decree that gave Quebec’s approval to the creation of the commission, the Parti Québecois government said any new government in Nunavik must respect the “territorial integrity of Québec” and the “effectivity” of the Quebec government.

“Territorial integrity” is a code phrase expressing the notion that a sovereign Quebec may not be partitioned after the province leaves Canada.

On the other hand, Inuit inside and outside of Nunavik have always asserted that Quebec Inuit alone have the right to determine their political future if Quebec were to secede.

Popert says the commission thwarted her attempts to raise this and other Inuit rights issues, by refusing to include her comments in the commission’s minutes and refusing to incorporate her comments into their final report.

That’s why Popert says it’s important to have someone at the Makivik gathering who is able to raise those issues.

“It’s very, very important to have someone discuss the elements of the report that are missing,” Popert said.

Popert says, however, that the report also contains recommendations that she supports.

“There’s some good stuff in the report. There are some things that give us more power,” Popert said. “But it’s what’s not in the report that I’m so concerned about.”

She said the report’s ommission of questions like Quebec secession from Canada and the effect of Quebec’s Bill 99 may constitute “traps that have been set for us.”

Ironically, André Binette, a separatist member of the commission, is also refusing to sign the report, but Popert says she can’t understand why.

“He pretty much got everything he wanted. He raised certain issues and they were all agreed to,” Popert said. “Every last little thing he wanted in the report was put in there.”

When asked if she would pay her own way to the Makivik gathering in Kuujjuarapik, Popert said she still hasn’t made a decision on whether to go.

“I’ll have to reflect on it. People have to realize that this is not an easy thing to do. But the number of people who have called with the same message — ‘we’re grateful that you have spoken out,’” Popert said.