Nunavut’s first Inuit RCMP troop graduates

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

MICHAELA RODRIGUE

IQALUIT — Pitseolak Koochiakjuke’s remembers the RCMP members of his youth as helpful, important members of the community.

“They did a lot of things when I was young. I can remember them delivering the mail, I can remember them delivering babies, I can remember them going out to the outpost camps and bringing food and supplies. They did a whole whack of things,” Koochiakjuke said.

Now an RCMP constable himself, Koochiakjuke wants to carry on the tradition. But he is also helping to create a new tradition of Inuit RCMP members from Nunavut policing Nunavut.

“I thought it was a different way of helping the people in the community, and to give something back to the community where I live,” he said.

Koochiakjuke is a member of Nunavut’s first all-Inuit RCMP troop. Last week, the six members of the troop came to Iqaluit to receive their badges.

All had officially been sworn in as constables earlier in the week in Regina, Sask. But the troop members came home for a special ceremony, attended by Premier Paul Okalik and many Nunavut MLAs, in the legislative assembly building.

All six troop members come from Nunavut, and all six speak Inuktitut. Their inclusion brings the number of Inuit RCMP members in Nunavut to eleven, said Chris Bothe, commanding officer for V Division.

“They understand the people, they understand the culture, they bring with them language skills. The language of Nunavut is Inuktitut and we have to start providing a policing service in that language. Our inability to do that is a handicap,” Bothe said.

The troop results from the RCMP’s first large-scale recruiting drive for Inuit members, Bothe said. The drive recruited about 35-40 applicants.

The V Division has since sent another Inuk cadet down for training in Regina, and hopes to launch another recruiting drive in the new year, he said.

The first all-Inuit troop will act as role models for the children in the communities where they are stationed, Bothe said.

“I think it’s important that we start putting a more human face on a poster,” Bothe said. “It has to be somebody that they can understand and relate to and realize that if that person can do it, I can do it,” Bothe said.

Each of the recruits completed six months of sometimes difficult training in Regina.

“Throughout the training I thought (Koochiakjuke makes a tired sounding groan) what have I gotten myself into. But by the end of the training it was a great feeling,” Koochiakjuke said.

“I realized this is what I want to do — I’m going to finish this,” said the 34-year-old Koochiakjuke, who previously worked as a security guard in Iqaluit and performed volunteer work.

Each new constable will begin life in their new communities this month with special supervision.

“They did well in training. They were an exceptional troop and I have every confidence that they’ll be able to carry out their duties without too much trouble,” Bothe said.

The new constables are:

Const. Ben Williams from Iqaluit, who will be posted in Rankin Inlet.
Const. Joe Baines from Iqaluit, who will be posted in Arviat.
Const. Pitseolak Koochiakjuke from Iqaluit, who will be posted in Cambridge Bay.
Const. Kevin Sudlovenuk of Pond Inlet, who will be posted in Rankin Inlet.
Const. Eric Ootoova from Pond Inlet, who will be posted in Iqaluit.
Const. Richard Tatty from Arviat, who will be posted in Iqaluit.

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