Ottawa needs policy on aboriginal relocations

The heart-rending story of the forced relocation of the High Arctic exiles from Inukjuak to Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord in the 1950s is well-known throughout the Arctic, and well-known even among many southern Canadians. It’s been the subject of documentary films, numerous newspaper and magazine articles, and a variety of reports produced by governments and independent researchers.

Thanks to their own prodigious efforts, and a special set of televised hearings organized by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the High Arctic exiles and their immediate families eventually received $10 million in compensation — but no apology — from the government of Canada.

This settlement, however, does not put to rest the issue of Inuit relocations. The High Arctic relocation is one of many, so it’s not surprising that other relocated groups are now coming forward to tell their stories.

In Volume 1, Chapter 11 of its 1997 report, the RCAP discusses a long list of aboriginal relocations that have occurred in Canada since the 1920s.

The first Inuit relocation occurred in 1936, when the Hudson’s Bay Company, with the encouragement of the federal government, relocated 53 people from Cape Dorset, Pangnirtung and Pond Inlet to Devon Island. Though the Pangnirtung people eventually went home, the rest of the 1936 relocatees didn’t find a permanent home until 1947, when after much hardship they helped found the community of Spence Bay — now called Taloyoak. Government sanctioned relocations of Inuit occurred again and again throughout the 1950s and 1960s from one end of the Arctic to the other.

In the Keewatin, inland Inuit were subjected to a series of sometimes disastrous relocations.

In Baffin, the people of Padloping Island were relocated to Broughton Island in 1968. The surviving families held a reunion this summer and have filed a claim with the federal government. As late as 1978, the people of Killiniq — or Port Burwell — were dispersed throughout northern Quebec after the government of the Northwest Territories closed their community against the wishes of the community.

In Labrador, the Newfoundland government moved the people of Hebron and Nutak to three communities to the south in 1959. The displaced Hebronimiut have held two reunions, and are now talking about seeking redress for the wrongs they believe were committed against them by their provincial government. Their claims are also closely tied to the Labrador Inuit Association’s land claim negotiations, and are complicated by a proposal within their agreement-in-principle to create a national park in northern Labrador.

These groups should not have to go through the long, arduous process that the High Arctic exiles had to endure before anyone in power would believe them.

In its report, the RCAP recommended that Ottawa amend the Canadian Human Rights Act to give the Canadian Human Rights Commission the authority to make inquiries and hold hearings into aboriginal relocations across Canada.

The human rights commission may not necessarily be the most appropriate body for handling unresolved complaints about aboriginal relocations. But Ottawa cannot continue to ignore the RCAP’s recommendations on this issue. The federal government must create a fair, just and open process for dealing with compensation claims for aboriginal relocations. JB