Police issues dominate opening day at meeting of Nunavik leaders
Makivvik president says he plans to meet new Quebec premier to discuss Nunavik regional concerns
Government and organizational leaders from across Nunavik are meeting in Montreal this week to discuss regional issues such as policing and health care. (Photo by Cedric Gallant, special to Nunatsiaq News)
Makivvik president Pita Aatami says he plans to meet soon with new Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette to discuss Nunavik’s regional issues.
Aatami made the announcement at the start of this week’s Nunavik all-organizations meeting, which opened Tuesday in Montreal.
The date that he will meet with Fréchette, who won the leadership of the governing Coalition Avenir Québec, or CAQ, on April 12, was not announced. Fréchette replaced former premier and former CAQ leader François Legault.
The annual three-day all-organizations meeting, which is led by Makivvik at the Courtyard Marriott Montreal Airport, brings together about 50 government and organizational leaders from across Nunavik to get updates and discuss regional issues.
Police-related issues dominated discussion on the opening day Tuesday.
Nunavik Police Service Chief Jean-François (Jeff) Bernier told the audience his main concerns are safety in the region, community distrust of police, and the severity of crime.
Since starting as chief in November, he said, he has seen a higher degree of violence compared to the south, as well as serious crimes and crimes committed in front of children.
“Confrontation of police — non-compliance or non-collaboration — is the highest when I compare it to police services in the south,” Bernier said.
He said he plans to establish a formal communication channel with the director general’s office at Kativik Regional Government to keep it better informed on police activities. He also wants to improve relations between police and the community.
“People are not inclined to give police information, because they have no confidence in the ability of police to make things better,” Bernier said.
“We cannot ignore the fact that we have a public safety crisis on our hands.”
An incident in December in Inukjuak, in which a six-year-old girl died and an adult male was injured, marked the fourth time Nunavik Police Service officers have shot at civilians since November 2024, including four deaths.
The all-organizations meeting is scheduled to wrap up Thursday.
Even MORE $$ budgeted in Nunavik organizations annual plans as “Northern ” expenses, but really spent/wasted in the South!
I wonder how many millions this event cost the North?
Im not optimistic that this issue is fixable and Im an optimistic person in life. This problem is deep within the psyche of people, the residents. Its gone too far to fix. The only thing that can be done is to put up more defensive measures to the good people who are victims, especially the kids. The police say, responding to a intoxicated person with abgun, is not unreasonable to use the ultimate force to resolve it. Tell me a better way to deal with it. Most if not all police shootings involved such persons or people. This is not about the police, this is about the inability and unhealthy use of alcohol to a population that have a large number of violent drinkers and go nuts with a few drinks even. The only way to do any is to cut off the supply, but thats not gping to happen, in a political correct world, so you have it, not fixable only more defensive measures for front line workers and police.