Violent assaults, alleged drug dealing have Cambridge Bay residents on edge
Two young men hospitalized in Edmonton; RCMP investigating
Residents of Cambridge Bay were shaken by a false report of an armed person in the community, which came the same day two youths were viciously assaulted in an incident linked to alleged drug-related violence. Police later confirmed the lockdown warning was unfounded. (File photo)
Two Cambridge Bay men were medevaced after a violent assault early July 8 that has residents and community leaders calling for urgent action on drug dealing in the community.
Nathan Angulalik, 28, was medevaced July 9 to Edmonton following an assault. His mother Nancy Angulalik says he was tied up, beaten and burned with boiling water by what she says are four alleged drug dealers. (Photo courtesy of Nancy Angulalik)
At approximately 2:30 a.m. on July 8, two men in their 20s were reportedly tied up, beaten with hammers, a shovel and a wrench, and burned with boiling water by what the mother of one of the victims said was a group of four drug dealers.
Nancy Angulalik shared details of the alleged assault in a Facebook post the following day. Angulalik said her son, Nathan Angulalik , was medically evacuated to Edmonton on Tuesday and remains in hospital.
A second man, Angus Kaosoni, in his mid-20s, was also medevaced to an Edmonton hospital, his grandfather David Kaosoni said. David Kaosoni, a mental health counsellor, said his family has been shaken by the attack and by a separate incident a week earlier in which his vehicle was vandalized and set on fire.
“I think what happened to my vehicle was in retaliation,” he said, referring to another family member’s past connection with local drug dealers.
Former mayor and volunteer firefighter Derek Elias responded to the July 4 vehicle fire.
“We all knew that hard drugs were in Cambridge Bay,” Elias said. “And we all knew that it was a matter of time before something more serious happened, and it did.”
Elias blamed a lack of airport security in Yellowknife for making it too easy for drugs to travel north unchecked.
“You can drive up to Yellowknife from anywhere in Canada, jump on a plane, and there’s no security checks. Something has to be done,” he said.
Elias said residents believe three people are hiding out in cabins. He wants the RCMP to “put them in handcuffs and get [them] kicked out of town forever.”
“And then hopefully our community can live in peace again,” he said.
Kaosoni said the community is waiting for stronger police support.
When they reported the fire, police told family members there were “no threats,” Kaosoni said.
“There’s a lot of good people in the community that are waiting to be given support.”
On the same day as the assaults, an afternoon Facebook post warned of an armed person in Cambridge Bay. That warning posted by a resident later turned out to be false, but it prompted businesses to close and people to shelter indoors.
Responses posted by community members expressed confusion and complaints there had been no official lockdown announcement from the RCMP or the hamlet.
Cambridge Bay RCMP later confirmed there was no threat and no lockdown in place, calling the social media report false.
Alleged drug activity is not new in Cambridge Bay. In January, police said they found 343 grams of crack cocaine at a residence on Ublogiahokyok Road. A 23-year-old male suspect was taken into custody and charged.
Nunavut Deputy Premier and Cambridge Bay MLA Pamela Gross said she shares residents’ concerns and has been in touch with territorial and federal officials about public safety.
“Violent incidents like this should have no place in Cambridge Bay or in any of our communities across Nunavut,” Gross said in a July 10 email to Nunatsiaq News. “I am very concerned about what has taken place and the impact it has had on residents.”
Gross said she has invited RCMP acting Supt. Kent Pike to visit Cambridge Bay and is working to organize a public meeting with local officials.
Elias said those actions are overdue.
“In my opinion, it’s a little bit too late, but it’s a start,” he said. “It shouldn’t take a serious incident like this to get everybody together.”
In a July 9 email to Nunatsiaq News, RCMP spokesperson Sgt. George Henrie said the situation in Cambridge Bay remains under investigation but declined to provide further information.
Yup just say “no” to drugs including weed which is a gate way drug!
LOL!
Hahahaha. A “gate way to hard drugs”. Been smoking weed/shatter/budder/hasheesh, since 1978. Never had hard drugs, even when I had a chance. But, I prefer my marijuana and it’s resins/concentrates.
Dont believe me? Ask any of these hard drug users what the first drug they ever tried was.
Right! Ask any alcoholic and they will tell you, they started with milk… or, wait was that water? You get my drift.
Where drug demand exists, drug dealers exist, period. While we do have a very simple entrance to monitor, historically there’s always been ways to bring drugs everywhere around the globe. Making it harder, that would be great but Yellowknife would have to alter their entire airport, which we know wont happen so the screening would have to take place in Cambridge Bay. YK is a single security line that is already well over capacity during tourism season in YK.
With that said, any and all enforcement/ mitigation / preventative measures at this point would be a good step forward to helping fix the immediate issue and I think largely welcomed by all.
Long term, how do we get people to not turn to drugs in the first place? That’s the important question and clearly one Canada in general is having a hard time with as most cities have heightened drug use due to cheap, highly addictive opioid drugs flooding the market.
Cam Bay, a hub for the Kitikmeot has no recreational facilities outside the high school. Pamela, our former Mayor was actually the Mayor at the time the “new arena” was commissioned and built, something that was the greatest single failure in the community since I can recall, a building that remains a shell to this day, inoperable, with no plan to finish it.
So how do we keep kids from eventually going from vandalism and small crimes, which the town currently cant keep a handle on, to eventual drug use which invites further dealers and much worse crime? Presumably with activities, rec activities, ones that expend energy and offer a positive safe environment. Hard to do though when you have zero space and no money to actually run activities. I am not knocking current leaders here, but nothing will exactly change if you have bored neglected kids. Some will just move to drug use and there will always be criminals willing to risk incarceration to fill that demand no matter how hard it is to get drugs here. Just the harder it is, the more expensive the drugs become. A balancing of pricing to confiscation rates.
You have to wonder how so many Baffin towns receive funding for daycares, rec facilities, etc. and the Kitikmeot has none of those. Perhaps its because Cam Bay has no voice at the Provincial level.
Well, it is the drug dealers that groom new users and create demand that way.
That’s the point of having options and recreation and things in general for youth to do. Those kids would then be getting “groomed” if you prefer that word by people to look up to / positive influences, rather than the negative ones you speak of.
We have very little in the way of options for kids and as a result negative influences have greater influence than they would otherwise.
Participation in such positive things has shown a reduction in the likelihood of illicit substance consumption. Now we would also have some issues with enrollment since not all parents can be even bothered to take an interest in their child’s life, as evident by the rampant 12am-6am vandalism sprees. But that is another hurdle we will have to figure out and hopefully can be figured out over time.
I am wondering when our leaders will wake up and realize. They are following a system that is set up to see indigenous fail. We are Inuit, we are innovative, some of the smartest people i know are inuk, I’m sure if we put our heads together we can figure out a change for a government that is set up for us to prosper. Come on PJ. I voted for you because I believed that you were young, a strong, and an independent thinker, but since the talks of devolution i see you making no change for our people to prosper only see you making deals to proposer the south and kill our lands.
3 out of the 4 were apprehended trying to leave the community this afternoon!!!!!
And , i thought , it was bad in kuujjuaq !!!
Drug dealers need to be locked up for long enough to deter people from doing it. Today’s sentencing is not a deterrent. But not necessarily the death sentence as in Singapore, where they don’t have a drug problem. The moment you lock up one dealer, another half dozen come forward because the rewards justify the risk. Anyone dealing fentanyl needs an attempted murder charge. Too bad sentencing options don’t provide for the convicted to do something useful like, in the South, planting trees, and month after mosquito-bitten month.
He wants the RCMP to “put them in handcuffs and get [them] kicked out of town forever.”
—- I understand this point of view but I’m sure Yellowknife and Iqaluit just love being the dumping ground for the communities degenerates.
This is very sad.
I hope this problem can find a swift solution and those responsible face justice.