Police watchdog probes suspect’s arrest, hospitalization in Kangiqsujuaq
Person treated for serious injuries after being held in custody for 3 days
Quebec’s police watchdog has launched an investigation after a person was taken to hospital with serious injuries after being detained in custody three days after being arrested in Kangiqsujuaq. (File photo)
Quebec’s police watchdog is investigating after a person was arrested in Kangiqsujuaq last month and held in custody for three days before being transported to hospital with a serious injury.
The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, which investigates cases where people are injured or killed during interactions with police, is looking into the circumstances of “an intervention and detention” involving the Nunavik Police Service, it said in a news release Wednesday.
On Jan. 30 just after 10 p.m., officers reportedly arrested a person who attempted to flee. In doing so, they brought the person to the ground, the release said, before taking the person into custody at about 10:15 p.m.
The person was held in custody until Feb. 2, when they were taken to hospital suffering a serious injury.
The bureau launched its investigation the same day, and the person is in stable condition, the release said.
“We are still unsure at this time if the injury was inflicted during the arrest or during the detention,” Jeremie Comtois, a bureau spokesperson, said in an email.
He said the age and gender of the person can’t be released for confidentiality reasons.
Nunavik Police Service referred a Nunatsiaq News request for more information about the arrest, the circumstances leading up to it, and any charges laid against the person to the bureau because it is leading the investigation.
Comtois confirmed a warrant had been issued for the person, which led to the arrest. He said the person appeared in court Monday but didn’t disclose what the charges were because those are the responsibility of Nunavik police.
The bureau is investigating several incidents of injury and shootings of civilians by the Nunavik Police Service.
Sixteen people have died in Nunavik in interactions with police since 2016 including four incidents in the past 14 months in which four people died.
Joshua Papigatuk died in November 2024 and his twin brother Garnet was badly injured after they were shot by police.
In May 2025, Mark R. Annanack died in Kangiqsualujjuaq after a confrontation with police. In July 2025, James Kavik in Inukjuak died after an incident involving police.
Then in December, a six-year-old girl identified by a family member as Alacie Iqaluk died and her father, Andrew Naluktuk, was injured in a police-involved shooting in Inukjuak.
this is just one of many police brutality outburst that go unnoticed at kangiqsujuaq. you have police officers drawing their hand guns on innocent people while they are driving their personal vehicles. you have elderly people being pepper sprayed, placed in handcuffs and being placed in a holding cell with no running water in the stainless steel sink or stainless steel toilet to help remove the chemicals of the pepper spray from their nose, eyes and mouth, you have these police officers aggresively and violently twisting people arms to arrest them and snapping their upper forearm bone while being arrested. you have police officers running people over with their vehicles and taking the assrested person to jail instead of bringing them to the hospital for their injuries. you have people exiting the northern store and having a police officer grabbing the customer in a bear hug and body slamming him to the ground and then kicking his arm to get the Inuk man to lay completely down on the ground. you have police officers falsely arresting you for no apparent reason while you are the one calling the police for their assistance for domestic violence. you have police officers driving intoxicated Inui home when they are stopped for impaired driving instead of locking them up in a jail cell. and the list of illegal arrests are undocumented. the police officers work in these remote communities to get the experience they need to work for a police force in the south.