Nunavut’s 2023: Crumbling schools, fraud allegations, and a hunter found safe

From a major fraud investigation to a search and rescue happy ending, plenty happened in Nunavut during over the course of this year.

There was a lot of news to choose from, so in no particular order here are Nunatsiaq’s top five stories from Nunavut for 2023:

Gill twins, mother charged with fraud

Twin sisters Nadya and Amira Gill and their mother Karima Manji were charged in September with defrauding two Inuit organizations.

The sisters received grants and scholarships meant specifically for Inuit while attending Queen’s University, based on claims of Inuit heritage that have since been called in question.

They were enrolled as Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. beneficiaries, with Manji claiming she had adopted them from an Inuk woman was their mother. But that woman’s family denied having any relationship with the twins.

Questions started appearing on social media in March about the twins’ heritage. Soon after, NTI revoked their beneficiary status and RCMP launched an investigation. Manji and the Gills are scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 8.

Maintenance issues continue to plague Ataguttaaluk Elementary School in Igloolik, one of the oldest schools in Nunavut. (Photo by Madalyn Howitt)

School decay

During a visit to Igloolik in September, Nunatsiaq News reporter Madalyn Howitt heard from a resident about a long list of maintenance issues plaguing Ataguttaaluk Elementary School, one of the territory’s oldest schools.

The story followed an in-depth, three-part series written by Howitt that describes the crumbling state of schools in Nunavut, how these problems impact the education students receive, and what experts believe could improve things.

These stories described broken doors that have injured children, sewage problems, floods, fuel leaks and security issues.

Between September 2021 and June 2023, 16 schools closed a combined 31 times due to maintenance issues, which amounted to a total of 111 days of school time lost.

Chief public health officer calls Pang TB screening a ‘success’

The Government of Nunavut opened a multimillion-dollar, 10-week tuberculosis screening clinic in Pangnirtung over the fall.

Nunavut chief public health officer Dr. Sean Wachtel called the clinic a “success,” as more than 90 per cent of the target population volunteered to be screened.

The clinic revealed six active and 55 latent cases of the respiratory disease before it wrapped up Dec. 2.

A tuberculosis outbreak was declared in Pangnirtung in November 2021 and continues now. There are also TB outbreaks in Naujaat and Pond Inlet.

Ex-priest Eric Dejaeger arrested

Ex-priest Eric Dejaeger was charged with eight counts of historical sexual assault, RCMP announced in early June.

Dejaeger used to work as a Catholic priest in Igloolik. He was arrested in Kingston, Ont., and flown to Iqaluit.

In 2015, Dejaeger was convicted on more than 30 counts of sexual abuse for incidents that occurred between 1974 to 1989. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison, but freed in 2022 at age 75 after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

When Dejaeger was released in 2022, federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller said “I think people like that … should rot in jail, especially for the crimes they committed.”

The new charges stem from an investigation that spanned 2011 to 2015. It’s not clear when the crimes are alleged to have been committed.

Arviat hunter found after being missing on the land for 10 days 

Thomas Hiatalaaq Alikaswa had been missing for 10 days when his son, who was riding in a search and rescue helicopter, spotted an object on the ice.

Alikaswa usually went out in a red jacket. His son Jamie Kablutsiak saw a flash of red through binoculars. It turned out to be his father.

The hunter had gone out on the land on his snowmobile and qamutiik on May 2. A search and rescue mission started a few days later when he failed to return.

They discovered his qamutiik on May 10 and found Alikaswa on May 12.

“I got off the chopper, ran to my dad as fast as I could, hugged him really hard and tight,” Kablutsiak said.

“We had a big group hug… I had that fight in me to find him, I had that confidence.”