Iqaluit lawyer and Qajuqturvik Food Centre board member Beth Kotierk is resigning her position on Nutrition North’s advisory board in protest of the federal government’s support of Israel in its military strikes on Gaza. (Photo courtesy of Beth Kotierk)
Nutrition North advisory board member resigns in support of Palestine
Food security advocate Beth Kotierk spent 2 years on board
Nunavut food security advocate Beth Kotierk is resigning from her role on Nutrition North’s advisory board in protest of the Canadian government’s support of Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza.
“I cannot, with a clear conscious, continue this work with a government that supports the genocide of the Palestinian people while purporting to seek reconciliation for the same genocidal tactics and mindsets being used against Indigenous peoples,” Kotierk wrote in a letter of resignation shared with Nunatsiaq News on Dec. 8.
Kotierk is a civil lawyer in Iqaluit who also serves as a board member of the local Qajuqturvik Food Centre. She was appointed to Nutrition North’s advisory board in July 2021.
Nutrition North is a program that provides food subsidies and nutrition education. Its board members are not policy decision makers. They meet once a month to share updates on programming and ideas for how to improve access to food in the North.
In her letter, addressed to Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal, Kotierk specifically criticized Canada’s ongoing military and political support of Israel over the past 75 years, and the government’s current “support of the genocide that has killed over 16,000 innocent civilians in Palestine.”
“The settler colonial violence that we see in Palestine is intrinsically linked to the settler colonial violence carried out here in Canada against Indigenous peoples,” she wrote, citing Israeli forces’ blockage of humanitarian aid like food, water and medical supplies from entering Gaza.
“Similar tactics have been used in Canada to displace Indigenous peoples from the land, force economic dependency and spread anti-Indigenous propaganda while suppressing Indigenous voices.”
In an interview Monday, Kotierk said that while the current bombardment on Gaza was what ultimately compelled her to resign, she’d actually been considering the move since the spring.
“I started to feel that board activities were not exactly what I had thought they would be when I first joined,” she said, adding she felt the work the board was doing wasn’t as effective as she had hoped.
In her letter, Kotierk also cited cuts to the Harvester Support Grant program as another factor in her decision.
“[To learn] that the funds are going to be cut by 80 per cent alongside the fact of the current government support of the genocide happening in Palestine, I feel like personally, I can clearly see the connection between the genocide against Indigenous peoples in [this] country and the ongoing genocide. It’s not hard to make that leap. They’re connected,” she said.
“Then to talk about reconciliation while still participating in genocide, I just felt like all of this was just a game of politics. I felt so disheartened and I felt like I couldn’t just continue to do this work without speaking out.”
The Harvesters Support Grant is funded through Nutrition North. It’s meant to make it easier for northerners to access traditional food through hunting, harvesting and food sharing.
Money is paid out to individual community and Indigenous organizations. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. received $28.8 million in a funding deal that is set to expire in March 2024.
In a statement to Nunatsiaq News, Vandal’s press secretary Kyle Allen said: “Let’s be clear: We are not cutting funding for the Harvesters’ Support Grant by 80 per cent.”
He said the federal government provided a three-year funding increase to the Harvesters Support Grant. That agreement is set to expire in 2024, but Northern Affairs is working on proposals to renew that funding.
Kotierk said she hasn’t heard from Vandal’s office since she announced her resignation, but said she has received support from other advisory board members which she called “encouraging.”
“I encourage Nunavummiut to speak out against things that they see that are wrong and to not be afraid to do so, and that support will be there for you if you choose to speak up,” she said.
Allen told Nunatsiaq News that Vandal thanks Kotierk for her service to the Nutrition North advisory board and “relentless advocacy” for Inuit in Nunavut.
“He wishes her well in all her future projects,” Allen said in an email.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position on Gaza appears to be shifting slightly.
Trudeau urged Israel to “respect international humanitarian law” Tuesday in a joint statement with the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand.
They also said they support “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire” and that the price of defeating Hamas cannot be the “continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
“This cannot be one-sided,” the statement said.
“Hamas must release all hostages, stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and lay down its arms.”
Good bye and good riddance if you tie cut in funding to Inuit Harvesters and what is going on over there. Pathetic and brainwashed.
Thank you for your hard work advocating for the North on that important committee. I hope things will get back to a place where you can continue to create positive change from inside our nation’s systems.
Not allowed to criticize , the other guy or you will be labeled ” ANTI ******* ”
gen·o·cide (jĕn′ə-sīd′)
n.
The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group.
–
If Israel wanted to commit genocide, exterminate, or wipe out Palestinians from the river to the sea it would’ve been done weeks ago. If Palestinians laid down their weapons there’d be peace. If Jews laid down their weapons there’d be no more Jews. Jews have always been there, even before there was Palestine, the archeology speaks for itself.
Jews have always been there, but Israel was created in 1948 by Western governments. Jews, Muslims and Christians lived in peace in Palestine before an entire people were forcibly displaced, blockaded, and killed with impunity. Their movement, food, and water is controlled and used against them. Israel has not put its weapons down since 1948.
I think you need to see the history of Israel. Some dude from Rome annexed and made Palestine where Israel was. Israel was formed way before that dude from Rome conquered it.
Yup, the Jews are an indigenous people of that land. The Palestinians are ‘settler colonialists’. Since ‘settler colonialists’ are bad, it must follow that Palestinians are bad. It is interesting to me how this woman can support the ‘settler colonialist’ oppression of another indigenous people.
Not sure if the European Askenazi Jews who founded the modern state of Israel, and who still constitute a significant portion of the nation, can be considered more ‘indigenous’ than the Levantine Arabs that they are dropping bombs on. It’s akin to a Japanese Buddhist making claims to northern India just because his religion was born there.
The Ashkenazi did indeed rejoin their brethern, the Sephardic, who never left Israel. The majority of the Jewish population of Israel are not of European ancestry, they are Sephardic. Simple fact, the Jews are Indigenous to Israel.
More accurate to say that Israel is a nation of refugees – initially from Europe but subsequently from the MUSLIM WORLD – with an ancestral (in the case of the Mizrahi Israelis) and religious connection to the land that had to organize politically and militarily to resist violent antisemitism from Palestinians and neighbouring Muslim countries. None of which is to say that the war is being prosecuted in a reasonable way.
When does a piece of land cease belonging to the people who were driven from it? I’m wondering just in case I need to stop advocating for the return of indigenous North American land. Or do you only apply this statute of limitations when it suits you?
73.6% of Israelis are Jewish
Less than half of those who are Jewish are Ashkenazi,and many have both Ashkenazi and MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) ancestry (around 60% of Jews in Israel). Ashkenazi Jews are still the minority at around 30% of the Israeli population.
Whitewashing MENA Jews who have been ethnically cleansed in the middle east is hugely problematic and emblematic of white supremacy.
There are all kinds of reasons to criticize the Israeli government for their actions past and present but focus on the genuine problems. Don’t get your information from influencers and hashtags and don’t engage in racism.
Palestinians are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites. Some Jews are as well. Not hard to find out. DNA tests are banned in Israel btw, probably because of how many Europeans are there.
I thought , it all started 2-3 thousand yrs ago, between 2 guys sitting in a bar ,arguing , who s god has a bigger d***.
The Levant has been a hotbed of violence between competing empires since the 2nd millennia BCE. The first example we have of the word “Israel” being used is in a stone stele where an Egyptian Pharaoh claims to have laid waste to the lands of the Israelites.
I know this an unpopular opinion but history started well before the fall of the Ottomans and the British Mandate.
Israel has much to answer for both during the current war and in the years leading up to it. It may be that war crimes have been perpetrated. Is that genocide? And how exactly has the Canadian government supported genocide?
As we think about that, where is her condemnation of the murders and terrorism carried out by Hamas? Hamas has made it clear they want to wipe the state of Israel off the map and Israeli Jews with it. Is that OK?
There is evil on both sides. And innocent victims on both sides.
The condemnation against Hamas has been very well documented. It’s irrelevant to this topic unless you want to argue that Israel shouldn’t be held to the same standards as all countries claiming to be democratic, and you think we should regard Israel as an equal with hamas. I personally have no problem but I’m assuming you don’t want to argue Israel is comparable to a group our government identifies as terrorist. It’s also Israel that’s currently attacking and starving a civilian population at this very moment so your whataboutism is an attempt at deflection, a dishonest tactic which frankly should embarss you. If you don’t care how many Palestinian kids and other civilians are being deliberately starved and murdered, you should either say that, or if you have any sense, you should probably just keep it to yourself. Your hateful comments are inappropriate, manipulative, false and are not relevant to this story. If you’re not able to grasp that Israel could be the nation of any race, religion and it wouldn’t change how Palestinians feel. Because Palestinians don’t care that Israelis are Jews (majority), they care that Israelis maintain a brutal, cruel occupation and complete control over their lives, that they’ve deliberately created a complex system with the goal of making their everyday lives so unbearable that they will leave and they attack and kill with brutal force no matter what Palestinians do, including non violent protest. THAT’S why Palestinians don’t like Israelis, and I dare you to say you’d feel any different in their shoes. Israel is an occupier, a bully and it is the aggressor who has been stealing land for decades with impunity thanks to people like you who mislead, misrepresent, work so hard to deflect legitimate critism and defend the abhorrent treatment of Palestinians by Israel. I’m heartened to see so many people who see what you want to hide and you do a wonderful job exposing how much hate is at the root of all these attempts at silencing anything that accurately represents Israel – as seen in many comments and everywhere online.
What part of Israel has much to answer for and may have committed war crimes did you not understand?
This is just embarrassing. Imagine supporting a terrorist group that’s calling for genocide against Jewish people. Disgusting.
The Inuit Elite have once again commented on matters beyond their expertise. Your decision to resign from the Nutrition North program fails the very people you were meant to serve on the board.
Linking your departure to the complex issues in Gaza, instead of addressing the challenging tasks at hand, seems more like a gesture of virtue signaling than a constructive move.
It’s important to recognize that Canada’s global influence, particularly in conflicts like Gaza, is limited. However, your role did have significant impact on the operation of a program crucial for providing Northerners with nutritious food.
By resigning, you shifted the focus away from this vital mission.
Is it Considered Cultural Appropriation for an Inuk Individual to Wear a Hijab?
My wearing a keffiyah (a Palestinian scarf) is an act of solidarity, not of cultural appropriation.
Is it cultural appropriation for there to be christian prayer before Inuit led meetings?
“The settler colonial violence that we see in Palestine is intrinsically linked to the settler colonial violence carried out here in Canada against Indigenous peoples,” she wrote, citing Israeli forces’ blockage of humanitarian aid like food, water and medical supplies from entering Gaza.”
Completely delusional statement, some of these activists have deep psychological issues they project onto their politics.
oh, ps… good bye!
… I salute your integrity, Beth.
As a result of protests across the country and individual actions such as yours, Trudeau today distanced himself somewhat from Biden when Canada voted in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza at the United Nations. The vote was 153 countries in favour, 10 against and 23 abstentions.
You are delusional if you think her actions had any effect on Trudeau, equally delusional if you think anything Trudeau does has any effect on the world.
People need to remember the holocaust and the widespread and long standing antisemitism in this world, the limited support from Israelis for their current government, the undemocratic and ruthless government of Palestine, the inhumane Hamas attacks on Israelis as contexts for this war, in addition to the horror of the current war for Palestinians. The historical, social and political contexts are NOT at all the same as the colonial contexts of the Americas, not at all. Both Israelis and Palestians have claims to lands in the region where they live. Europeans did not have valid claims; they invaded, like the Romans invaded much of Europe, i.e. in a way and for reasons that are now considered invalid and that are the reasons for work that is underway in Canada toward reconciliation. Overly simplistic parallels are not helpful and they suggest some naive individuals are being manipulated.
Well said, Beth. We’re all complicit. God bless the children of Palestine.
When we everyone is complicit, no one is complicit…
Much to unpack in this story. That she used her departure to publicize the tyranny that Gazans are experiencing is welcomed. Not withstanding the Hamas-generated horrors that gave birth to the current IDF assault, proportionality in this conflict died weeks ago. We are firmly in massacre territory.
However, another thing that also isn’t proportional is her comparison of the modern Canadian state, and its relationship with its Indigenous people, with what Israel is currently doing to Gazans. The case of Nunavut is particularly instructive in this regard. This year, Nunavut received just over $2 billion from the Canadian Government. $2 billion for a population of 40,000 which works out be about $50,000 per resident. If this is genocide, it is the strangest and most generous form of genocide ever committed on a people. That is unless the proposed means of genociding Nunavut’s population is by dropping bags of money on them from helicopters hovering high above.
Canada has its faults, but lets keep it real here. Suggesting that the Canada of 2023 operates systematically with genocidal intent is idiotic and simply wrong.
Q? So is she supporting Terrorism?
There’s a great word to describe your comment without giving it more time than it deserves: Obtuseness. Whether it’s deliberately or not, undetermined and unimportant.
What about the people in the north? Should we all quit our jobs because the government is not solving the housing crises fast enough? And we will make a story that it’s in solidarity to the houseless people. What a bizarre story and an even stranger martyr for a cause that has no impact on remote Inuit communities. Instead of white knight syndrome it’s social justice warriors emerging from the depths of NPO’s!
If you read the article, that’s not what she’s doing. And anyone supporting Israel is actively supporting the genocide of Palestinians.
This comment would have more meaning if the writer understood the meaning of the word ‘genocide’. Choosing to misuse it in such a way undermines the entire premise of the comment. The Princess Bride had everything to say on that topic.
The upper tier of the political world will never notice or care that you resigned. You are so distant from that world that your gesture is embarrassingly misguided. There is way more value in staying and making a difference. Self professed activists these days are more rooted in personal attention. Awareness for the cause usually takes a back seat to “look at me and this profound gesture I made”. And when you are surrounded by the same misguided people praising grandstanding actions people get convinced that it’s for the greater good. Laughable.
In reality:
“In an interview Monday, Kotierk said that while the current bombardment on Gaza was what ultimately compelled her to resign, she’d actually been considering the move since the spring.”
“I started to feel that board activities were not exactly what I had thought they would be when I first joined,” she said, adding she felt the work the board was doing wasn’t as effective as she had hoped.”
In other words, the bombardment in Gaza is nit really what compelled her to resign, she wanted to resign, but wanted to go out in a blaze of righteousness, rather than just resign because things were hard. Like ambulance chasers of course Nunatsiaq News is there to breathe as much oxygen into the sputtering flame as it possibly can.
This whole thing is shameless self promotion at the expense of Nunavut Inuit because now she isn’t advocating to address food security here in Nunavut. Maybe she doesn’t care anymore now that she’s South but people here are still struggling every day.
Her resigning does not help Palestinians. Profiting from people being in a warzone like this is gross.
I quess that the feds have no choice now but to obey her demands now? I don’t understand her motives
The motive was to resign the board in a way that would amplify her righteousness to the world. Of course this was preferable to leaving quietly because she was frustrated and tired of the work.
Thanks to this lady, I now have a firm understanding of these current and historic events.
I had no idea that all the whites that are now in Canada were actually from Canada and are only moving back here due to a genocide conducted on them elsewhere.
I had no idea that all the whites in Canada are working on a collective religious imperative to cleanse Canada of all other nationalities in order to bring on the coming of their messiah.
I had no idea the Inuit attacked the whites, killing many, and as a result, the whites have punitively reduced food aid.
Now I totally understand how things here in Nunavut are the same as Palestine.
No, it is more akin to saying that Indigenous Canadians have no right to return to lands that they were dispossessed from because they left.
Same situation – the original Indigenous inhabitants, the Jews, were dispossessed. If you don’t support the return of the Indigenous people to their homes in Israel, they you can’t logically support any return of Indigenous peoples to their lands in the Americas.
Confusing to me how this woman can’t see this. I put it down to an ingrained racially bias against those that she sees as ‘White’.
Jews have always lived in Palestine – they were called Palestinian Jews. And European Jews did return, and were welcomed, and then in 1948 non-Jews were expelled from their homes, displaced, killed, and eventually blockaded. That is the birth of the nation of Israel.
What’s amazing is Beth had the thought to call up the media for her departure from a voluntary board.
And like Pavlov’s dogs they answer the bell…
An overlooked travesty in this story is that the federal government gave NTI $28.8 million. At least that clears up the question of why nothing gets done in the way of making food affordable in Nunavut. Nothing gets done because NTI is involved.
I applaud Beth here… taking advantage of being in Canada and being allowed to have her own thoughts as a woman. Try that (traditionally) in an Islamic state. Or other things like being educated or driving a car…
Bogus grandstanding at its finest
Does she know Inuit are settler colonists too? That they displaced and killed the original inhabitants of what we now call Nunavut?
Inuit will say that they weren’t warriors and didn’t actively kill them off. But pushing them out of their homeland and out-competing them for resources is no different than what the “white settlers” did.
I think Childish Gambino said it best. “Don’t be mad that I’m doing me better than you be doing you.”
People need to remember the holocaust and the widespread and long standing antisemitism in this world, the limited support from Israelis for their current government, the undemocratic and ruthless government of Palestine, the inhumane Hamas attacks on Israelis as contexts for this war, in addition to the horror for Palestinians of the current war. The historical, social and political contexts are NOT at all the same as the colonial contexts of the Americas, not at all. Both Israelis and Palestians have claims to lands in the region where they live. Europeans did not have valid claims; they invaded, like the Romans invaded much of Europe, i.e. in a way and for reasons that are now considered invalid and that are the reasons for work that is underway in Canada toward reconciliation. Overly simplistic parallels are not helpful and show the unfortunate naivete of some of our society.
Ow there’s a board for nutrition north program? Who sits on this board and where have they been all this time when the Northwest company have been cheating and making food more expensive then pretending to make it cheaper by adding the NNP subsidy?
Northwest company and ACL have been making a killing off this program and this board has failed to make any changes to make it better for the people.
Where can we find more information on this board, who is the chair? Who sits on this board and where can we write to them or even attend their board meetings?
Just do a google search. Here is what you will find:
https://www.nutritionnorthcanada.gc.ca/eng/1415895398726/1415895877126
https://www.nutritionnorthcanada.gc.ca/eng/1415649204233/1415649240039#sec1
With so much food insecurity in the north especially in Nunavut this board should be more visible and let the public know about their meetings and consult with the public.
Do they have annual general meetings?
Why don’t we hear more from this board? How are they appointment to this board?
With one of the poorest people in Canada with food insecurity the Northwest company have been making record profits and benefiting from this Nutrition North Program.
The Feds spend millions each year for this program that goes in the pockets of Northwest company and ACL..
and no one talks about this board that’s supposed to over see this program. I find that very strange and concerning.
It’d be interesting to see her future career choices. The second she works for any Govt department or agency will be backtracking from this terrible choice. And what happens if the PCs are in power and have the same views as Libs? Will you just never work for Govt ever again? Pick your battles wisely.
She won got the exposure she wanted, you keyboard warriors delivered her mandate, and nothing about replacing her on the nutrition north board, Suckers
I can only surmise that the work was becoming too much (i.e. was asked to perform and could not) and she had to have an excuse to resign. Too bad for Inuks and the north. I suspect the impact on leaving will not be felt too much.
Agreed.
Good for her! She has my support.
Zionist pockets are deep, with lots of people and countries in them.
Stop the Genocide!
Inuit and Ontario transplants, y’all should really go visit some of the less traveled provinces in this country. You’ll be in for a surprise when you see that in some provinces, especially in smaller communities that ARE connected to the rest of Canada by road and rail, that the prices are NOT that much different than the extremely remote communities in the north.
Let’s ignore the fact that hamas is raping children and using civilians as human shields. Let’s ignore the fact that thousands of Israelies would be getting slaughtered daily by Hamas rockets if it weren’t for IDF’s iron dome defense system. Hard to take someone seriously who isn’t Muslim but wears a hijab. Using NNC as a bargaining chip is a low blow, especially for an educated lawyer like herself.
Those are lies! Misinformation! Propaganda! Israel is an apartheid state, full of settlers and colonizers. It’s leader is Polish, following actual Nazi doctrines. Hypocrites.
Palestinians are the descendants of ancient Canaanites. Also stealing people’s home, blockading them and massacring them is the colonialism aspect. The existence of Jews in Palestine is not colonialism, but the actions of the Israeli government are.
I’m still working on my glass house in The Palisades
I am so proud of Beth! Thank you for speaking against Israel and this genocide against muslims and palestinians. Thank you for not being a hypocrite and using your voice to defend the hundreds of kids and civilians dying everyday , killed by israelis. No one is speaking up. Shame on the canadian government and Nunavut for ignoring this genocide.
Meanwhile, the prices are still very high in Nunavut, even more so with the inflation. At least Beth has the decency to leave her position when it wasn’t working out; the Inuit of Nunavut have missed many opportunities under her older sister’s reign at NTI.
DNA tests to prove ancestry? You’ll find both groups are Indigenous to the land. The research is already done.
It shouldn’t matter though. There’s plenty of archeological evidence to back shared ancestry and suggesting DNA tests as a resolution is way too close to promoting blood quantum methodologies that we all know is inappropriate.
DNA tests are also not preecise. Palestinians who take it will be told they are Egyptian, Lebanese and other groups. That doesn’t make them less Palestinian.
When Jewish Israelis show they have Levanitine DNA will you accept it or find another excuse to eldeny their Indigineity?
I don’t understand how she thinks this will make a difference.
Like who over seas or even here in Canada really cares about her resignation.
Maybe i am wrong but it seems that she wanted to resign and finally found a reason that made her look like she was standing up for something.
It’s fairly transparent to many, though not all (including the author apparently), that this action is an ego vehicle projecting positive self-presentation, even moral superiority among Beth’s peers, meant to enhance social status among them.
It’s also a convenient coup de grâce, ending her relationship to a board sadly unable to provide any of these same ego needs.
Gaza is merely the backdrop to all this, no serious person believes this will affect the world in any meaningful way. Yet, as many have said above, being on this board is (or could be) a serious way to truly help Nunavummiut. Knowing that, what does this resignation really tell us about Beth’s priorities?
This is pretty much it, she achieved in her resignation the heroism she craved but that eluded her in her tenure with the board.