Salluit aims for peaceful hockey tournament

This week, hockey players and fans are flocking to Salluit for the annual Ungava Bay hockey tournament.

But drugs and alcohol won’t be part of the fun because community leaders are making sure booze and grass stay out of town for the duration of the tournament.

Their efforts are backed by legal alcohol suppliers in the South, as well as by the Kativik Regional Police Force.

“We support the municipality for taking the initiative to do this — and they’ve assigned people to oversee that. It’s very good for us,” said KRPF chief Brian Jones.

At the same time, a drug-sniffing dog and his trainer are in Salluit as an additional deterrent to would-be drug users or sellers.

“They’ll be doing police operations, but they’ll also do prevention in the schools,” Jones said.

Last week in Nunavik the dog nabbed more than 2.5 kilos of marijuana.

“This dog here has been very productive for us. This dog alone has helped us seize 25 kilos or more over the past year” Jones said.