by TODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--Look out Canada--Zebedee Nungak is coming soon to a Rotary Club near you.
Makivik's president is setting out next month on a speaking tour throughout southern Canada to tell people about the place the Inuit of northern Quebec want to occupy in Quebec and in Canada. He'll have a lot to talk about.
Nungak says Inuit are tired of watching the endless debate over Quebec's future in Canada and are now exploring a future both inside and outside Quebec.
"We are not sitting around waiting for Quebec to get its marbles together again," Nungak said this week from Kangirsuk.
"The overtime period, to use Mr. Parizeau's hockey analogy, is never-ending. They are going to keep declaring overtime until they win."
Self-government talks
Nunavik's regional Inuit leaders met Jan. 16-17 in Kuujjuaq and gave Nungak the mandate to explore all options for the future of the Nunavik region¬including starting bilateral self-government talks with Ottawa, and exploring the possibility of joining the Nunavut territory.
Nungak said Ottawa was prepared in December to begin self-government talks. After getting the backing of regional leaders, Nungak wrote Irwin a letter urging him to get those talks going. He hasn't heard back from Irwin yet.
Earlier this year, Nunavik leaders were close to reaching a self-government deal with Quebec, but further talks have been frozen until April and may never be defrosted.
Ottawa's resolve stiffens
Nungak says he was encouraged this week by Ottawa's harder line in the debate about Quebec's aboriginal peoples and the sanctity of Quebec's boundaries.
"The federal government has found its testicles in this matter and is uttering stuff it would never utter otherwise about the possibility that if Quebec wants to separate they damn well better know they are partitionable," Nungak said.
"Now that the lines are being drawn in the snow... there is a nerve in the separatist fabric that is being touched raw by this discussion..." Nungak says after the October referendum, people advised him to urge Prime Minister Jean Chretien to write a letter to Quebec separatists saying that if Quebec goes--the Cree and Inuit lands stay in Canada.
He didn't heed that free advice.
"Each of us needed our own respective breather and some time and space to shake the hangover of the referendum," he said.
But he says now that it's becoming a big issue in southern Canada, he wants to wade into the debate.
The counter-argument
Nungak says Inuit feel they have every right to re-examine their future in Canada because the agreement they signed in 1975 was with a federalist Liberal government that represented a province that was part of Canada.
But he says separatists argue that since the Inuit of Nunavik signed the James Bay Northern Quebec Agreement in 1975 they are therefore bound by its provisions.
"The separatists can not leave that well enough alone and claim that because we signed that agreement in 1975 we are forever, and eternally, under the jackboots of the province of Quebec."
The Nunavut angle
Nungak says people in Nunavik are also expressing interest in exploring closer ties and even a formal relationship with the new territory of Nunavut.
"Depending on whether we are going to be forever engaged in struggling with the effects of separatism in Quebec, I wouldn't put it beyond us to start clambering for becoming part of Nunavut," he said.
He says he's proud that the people of Nunavut split their territory by a peaceful democratic process and not a violent, gut-wrenching debate.
"These people who are doing it are our cousins and aunts and uncles for goodness sake," Nungak said, adding that they look with longing across the Hudson Strait as Nunavut progresses towards its own territory.
Nungak says there haven't been any formal talks with Nunavut's leaders about joining the territories, but that it has the support of ordinary Inuit in the communities.
"It is an idea that people want developed to see what would be involved in pursuing such an option. It is an idea that we intend to examine."
Nunavut's leaders are aware
John Amagoalik, the chair of the Nunavut Implementation Commission, said that when Inuit leaders gathered in Ottawa on the night of Quebec referendum, they did talk about Nunavik joining up with Nunavut.
"That certainly was one of the options brought up. I can't say how high a priority it would be, it is an option¬but it is some way down the list," Amagoalik said.
"It would be very, very complicated," he added.
He said there are strong family ties between many Baffin and Keewatin communities and communities in Nunavik.
Amagoalik added that it would be years before any action were taken because the Nunavut government doesn't even come into existence until April 1, 1999.
"It's a scenario we don't expect to be dealing with next year."
Nungak on the move
Where can we see Nungak in action?
"Jay Leno, David Letterman," Nungak says, punctuated by a roaring laugh.
Stephen Hendrie, an information officer for the Makivik Corporation, says Nungak will be speaking to a Rotary Club luncheon in Toronto on Feb. 23, and is also trying to arrange interviews on national media programs like CBC's Morningside and Canada AM.
Hendrie says Nungak will also be going to London, England in April and expects to visit Brussels, where he will seek an audience for his views.
Back to Nunatsiaq News
JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--A veteran northern educator and artist pleaded not guilty to 22 counts of indecent assault and sexual assault just before his Supreme Court jury trial got underway in Iqaluit this week.
Dressed in a blue-grey herringbone tweed sports jacket and light cotton pants, Maurice Cloughley, 62, stood quietly beside defense lawyer Valdis Foldats as the court clerk read each charge to him Tuesday morning.
In a soft, barely audible voice, the tall, slim, white-haired man entered a not guilty plea to each of them.
They all relate to incidents alleged to have occurred during a 28-year period in six Northwest Territories communities. The complainants, all of whom are Inuit or Dene, were children during the time-periods set out in the indictment.
Crown prosecutor Pierre Rousseau said he expects to call more than 60 witnesses. That means the trial could last at least four or five weeks.
NWT Supreme Court Justice Ted Richard asked the sheriff to give each member of the seven-man, five-woman jury a notebook and pencil to makes notes.
Richard told them the trial deals with a long list of charges and that, if they wish, they may make notes to keep track of the many details likely to be presented as evidence.
He advised the jury, however, to make sure they pay careful attention to witnesses and not get caught up in note-taking at the expense of careful observation.
Richard also advised them not to listen to news broadcasts and not to read newspaper articles about the trial.
Publicity delay denied
On Wednesday morning, Richard had denied an application by Rousseau to prevent the publication or broadcast of any evidence given in the trial until after the Crown had called the last of its witnesses.
That would have created a four to six week delay before news organizations could have legally reported on most of the proceedings. Rousseau said the publicity delay is necessary to ensure that witnesses in the trial can't read or hear what other witnesses are saying in court.
That's normally done through an "exclusion order," under which witnesses must stay outside of the court room until they're asked to testify.
Ann Crawford, a lawyer acting for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, showed up in court Tuesday afternoon to oppose the ban, saying it violates the guarantee of freedom of expression contained in the Charter of Rights.
On Wednesday morning, Richard denied Rousseau's application for a delay in allowing news reports about the trial.
Names of witnesses may not be reported
But Richard granted an application to prevent the publication or broadcast of the names of almost all of the Crown's witnesses.
After his initial instructions to the jury, Richard adjourned the trial until 9:00 a.m. Thursday morning to give Rousseau time to recover from a bout of flu.
That's when Rousseau was to have made his opening statements and was expected to call the first Crown witnesses.
The charges against Cloughley have already been the subject of several preliminary inquiries and other pre-trial court proceedings held over the past two years.
The 22 charges, read in court Tuesday morning, are as follows:
* Count 1: an indecent assault alleged to have occurred between Sept. 9, 1959 and April 6, 1962 in Fort Franklin;
* Count 2: an indecent assault alleged to have occurred between Sept. 1, 1966 and July 30, 1967 in Arctic Bay;
* Counts 3 and 4: two indecent assaults, each involving a different complainant, alleged to have occurred between Sept. 1, 1967 and July 30, 1969 in Grise Fiord;
* Counts 5-7: three indecent assaults, each involving a different complainant, alleged to have occurred between August 12, 1974 and June 13, 1976 in Clyde River;
* Counts 8-16: Nine counts of indecent assault, each involving a different complainant, alleged to have occurred in Resolute Bay between July 1, 1976 and August 1, 1979.
* Counts 17-22: Six counts of sexual assault, each involving a different person, alleging "repeated sexual assaults" committed between July 1 1986 and August 1, 1987 against each of the six complainants.
Back to Nunatsiaq News
by JIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--It took a lot of letter-writing, lobbying and accusing, but in the end, they won.
The Inuit-owned Northern Transportation Company Limited found out late last week that they've won a contract, worth nearly $90 million, to supply and deliver petroleum products to 14 eastern Arctic communities.
"Obviously, we're ecstatic that we are the winners in this thing," said Fred Hunt, the general manager of the Nunasi Corporation. "We won the thing because we had the best bid. That's why we won it. We had the best price."
The Nunasi Corporation, owned by all Inuit land claim beneficiaries in Nunavut, has a 50 per cent interest in NTCL. The Inuvialuit Development Corporation owns the other 50 per cent.
Raised questions
Just three months ago, Hunt, Nunasi's Inuvialuit partners, and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. weren't so ecstatic.
That's when they found out that Andrew Gamble, the GNWT's deputy minister of transportation was a director of Canarctic, a federal Crown corporation involved in a competing bid.
Along with Tapiriit of Rankin Inlet and the state-owned KNI of Greenland, Canarctic formed a company called Ingniq Oil, which was incorporated September 1, just six weeks before the deadline closed for receipt of proposals.
After Nunasi, the IDC and NTI complained that Gamble appeared to be in a conflict of interest, the GNWT hired lawyer Brian Wallace to review the situation.
Wallace concluded that no single individual was in a conflict of interest, but that the GNWT was. Only one page of Wallace's report was released to the public.
He also recommended that an independent consultant be added to the team of government officials evaluating the six proposals that the GNWT had received for the contract.
A fair review
Hunt says that's one reason he believes his company finally got fair treatment in the process for deciding on the contract.
"That was where the victory was for sure, getting that evaluation team restructured," Hunt said.
The committee evaluating the proposals was made up of one expert from outside the GNWT, and officials from the departments of Public Works and Economic Development.
"There was nobody from [the department of] Transport on that evaluation team..." Hunt said. "In looking back on it, there was definitely a risk that it would appear to be not a level playing field if we had let it stay the way it was," he said.
Bob Doherty, the GNWT's deputy minister of public works, said the bids were evaluated against several criteria, which included experience, ability to do the work, price, and other criteria. But like a lot of harried government officials, Doherty is glad the issue has been resolved.
"We're just happy to see the process moving along and getting this finalized," Doherty said.
Besides NTCL and Ingniq Oil, four other companies also submitted proposals.
They are: Imperial Oil Ltd., Les Petroles Norcan Ltd., PetroCanada Products Ltd., and Shell Canada Products Ltd.
Scrutiny equals integrity
For Hunt, a major factor in the decision to award the contract was the political support that NTCL received.
"The controversy stemmed around the integrity of the process that was going on. The solidarity of the groups involved with NTCL, the regional Inuit associations of Nunavut showed and displayed, and relentlessly, I think, in my opinion, guaranteed the integrity of that process was maintained.
"That enabled the evaluation to take place in a proper manner. The evaluation demonstrated that we had the best price, and therefore we were awarded the contract," Hunt said.
"That's why I think it was important that the controversy came about and the way in which we handled it, it worked for us. We were able to get our bid on the table in front of the right people to get it evaluated."
Hunt says he thinks the territorial government and their officials have learned that the integrity of their contracting awarding process has to be seen to be totally above board.
"They realize just how aware we are of what looks right and what looks wrong, and our resolve in making sure everything is the way it should be. There's a real lesson learned there."
He added that he doesn't expect to have to go through such a prolonged battle when his company bids on future GNWT contracts. "I think we are all going to get along an awful lot better from here on in."
(With files from Todd Phillips in Iqaluit)
Back to Nunatsiaq News
by JASON van RASSEL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--In an effort to get the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada's finances in order, the organization is passing around the collection plate, even asking President Rosemarie Kuptana to ante up.
Facing an estimated $300,000 deficit, ITC executives sat down late last year to figure out how to eliminate the shortfall. One of the ideas was to collect any money owed to ITC by other corporations or people.
"We talked about if there's any money that could be owed by different organizations, if there is any from individuals and so on," ITC secretary-treasurer Jose Kusugak said from Rankin Inlet Tuesday.
As it turned out, one of the outstanding accounts belonged to Kuptana.
"There was one specifically of Rosemarie's but I can't tell you how much because we didn't discuss how much it was," Kusugak said. Sources told <I>Nunatsiaq News<P> that Kuptana's had run up a tab on ITC's credit card for more than $24,000, but ITC vice-president Mary Sillett denied that had happened.
"That's not even true," Sillett said from Ottawa Wednesday.
Expenses were paid back
But Kuptana did say that ITC has been handling her personal expenses since the constitutional discussions of 1992 and 1993, which she participated in. The ITC board agreed to pay her bills, with the understanding that she would pay the organization back, Kuptana explained.
Kuptana said she has since paid back all the money she owes ITC. Her next task, Kuptana said, is getting rid of ITC's deficit.
"The ITC board instructed myself and Mary Sillett to eliminate the deficit, to deal with it because it hasn't been dealt with," Kuptana said.
"We have a huge deficit, you know, and the ITC board was quite upset and they have a right to be: it's in the nature of $300,000 and we were presented with misinformation about the financial state of the organization and so they said 'How did we get to this state?'"
Lean and mean
The federal government is cutting back its funding to aboriginal groups and at the same wants more consultation from them, Sillett said, adding that ITC has to look at changing the way it operates¬cutting spending and looking for money from other sources.
"In addition to looking for alternative sources of funding, I think we're going to have to change our spending practices and that means really being lean and mean," she said.
In addition to ITC's finances, another issue the organization's board of directors had to deal with earlier this month was the sudden departure of executive director David Gladders and communications director Kirt Ejesiak.
As executive director, Gladders would have been working on ITC's budget and any cost-cutting measures. But when contacted this week, Gladders said he couldn't comment on ITC's finances¬or why he left the organization.
"I can't [comment] because I've got a wrongful dismissal suit against ITC at the present time," he said from Ottawa Monday.
Ejesiak, who left ITC's employ earlier this month, wouldn't comment either.
"I feel that I have been wronged and I'm conferring with a lawyer and that's basically it," he said Wednesday.
Kuptana and Sillett both said the departures of Ejesiak and Gladders from ITC have nothing to do with either ITC's financial problems or with the issue of Kuptana's personal expenses.
With files from Jim Bell in Iqaluit
Back to Nunatsiaq News
by TODD PHILLIPS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--Baffin's health board has found a way of saving loads of money and still keep government employees smiling.
Instead of paying airfares, hotel tabs, and other expenses to send 27 patients and their escorts to Ottawa or Montreal for orthodontic treatment--they're going to fly one orthodontist up to Iqaluit to treat them.
Cutting those travel costs could save the GNWT more than $500,000 per year, estimates Dr. Gerry Uswak, the regional dental officer for the Baffin.
"It's tens of thousands of dollars per person, which is a ridiculous number," Uswak said. "It was a huge, huge cost."
Uswak said most of the orthodontic work being done now is cosmetic, not emergency treatment.
"In tight financial times, it's very hard to justify spending millions of dollars for medical travel for cosmetic reasons."
Employee benefit
Orthodontic care is a benefit provided to some GNWT employees. Because there are no orthodontists in Iqaluit, Baffin patients--usually children of GNWT employees--are sent south.
Patients getting orthodontic care are treated about every six weeks. The main job for the orthodontist is to fit the patients with the hardware to straighten teeth, or correct dental problems like overbites. Once installed, their visits are brief sessions to have their braces tweaked or tightened or have their retainers fine-tuned.
Uswak says the 27 Baffin orthodontic patients each make about nine trips a year--each with an escort. That adds up to about 486 airfares per year, at an estimated average cost of about $900 per flight; that's $437,400 in airfares alone, Uswak says.
Factor in hotel expenses, ground transportation, other expenses and you get a whopping yearly bill for a handful of people.
"There will be enormous savings," says Dr. Charles Pastori, one of the owners of the Iqaluit Dental Clinic where the visiting orthodontist will set up shop for brief visits about every six weeks.
Services within two months
As far back as 1991, Pastori expanded his clinic to make room for the visiting orthodontist but he says his informal contract with the health board went nowhere.
Pastori said the health board and the GNWT agreed they were spending "ludicrous" amounts of money providing the services and resolved to change it.
"Everybody agreed with everybody else¬which I thought was fairly amazing at the time¬and nothing happened," Pastori said. But he says he thinks the political will is greater now to curb the GNWT's excess spending.
Uswak says there are still some details to work out, but he predicted that orthodontic services will be provided from Iqaluit within the next couple of months.
Some patients may complain
Uswak says some patients may complain that they can no longer visit their old orthodontist, but he says the person flying up will be a Canadian-trained, certified orthodontist.
"We are not just going for the cheapest bid. We are trying to get the most qualified person," he said, adding that people can continue to travel south but will have to pay their own travel costs.
"The new orthodontist gets to know little Jennifer's teeth as well as the original orthodontist," he added.
Uswak says by reducing the costs of orthodontist services could help save the benefit from being cut altogether.
"Deficits are wonderful things for having politicians, and government bureaucrats see through the red tape and try to make effective cuts," he added.
Read the fine print
Pastori said Town of Iqaluit employees may now finally be able to benefit from the orthodontic benefits in their contract. Their contract gives them coverage for orthodontic services, but doesn't cover their travel costs.
Now that the travel involves only a short trip to Pastori's clinic, that shouldn't be a problem.
Inuit children under the age of 18 can also get free orthodontic services--but only if they have major problems that affect their ability to eat or have functional problems with their teeth. Each case has to be reviewed by a committee before the federal government will pick up the tab for their treatment.
Pastori says some patients told him they enjoyed the trips south so they could go shopping and visiting. But he says some parents also complained the shopping tabs made the trips expensive for them as well.
Back to Nunatsiaq News
by JASON van RASSEL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT--Rottweiler owners in Iqaluit want to know what makes their dogs a marked breed.
Two weeks ago, Iqaluit town council passed amendments to its animal control bylaw that set out strict guidelines for people who own Rottweilers, Dobermann pinschers and pit-bull terriers.
But angry dog owners, many of whom own Rottweilers, say there's no evidence that people need to be protected from those three breeds--and that they won't muzzle their dogs.
Several dog owners wrote to Nunatsiaq News to complain about the bylaw.
"They're not giving me any proof that these dogs are a problem," said Beth Walker, the owner of a three-year-old Rottweiler named Baron.
Under the new restrictions, Rottweilers, Dobermanns and pit bulls are called "Category 1" dogs. A Category 1 dog must be muzzled and on a leash when off the owner's property. When the dogs are on the owner's property, the dogs have to be in a pen at least eight feet high--or tied up and muzzled.
People scared of big dogs
But the tough new guidelines are based more on peoples' perception of the dogs than on reality, Walker said.
"People are scared of these dogs because people see it on TV and they're supposed to be mean dogs," she added. "Just because people are scared of them, do we have to muzzle them and tie them?"
Like Walker, Mary Lou Lidstone says she's a responsible Rottweiler owner who's trained her dog, keeps it in its pen and never lets it run loose. Although Lidstone agrees with town council that Iqaluit has a problem with loose dogs, she doesn't think so-called Category 1 dogs are the cause.
"I don't see Rottweilers ripping my garbage to shreds. I don't see loose Rottweilers running up to my dog when I'm walking him," she said.
Huskies doing the biting?
Indeed, while he couldn't provide an exact number, bylaw officer Peter King said the majority of dog bites reported to the town involved huskies--which are not considered Category 1 dogs.
"The majority, I can say, is huskies," he said Monday.
However, people have come to town council complaining about Category 1 dogs, and the changes to the bylaw are partially in response to that, Councillor Tom Demcheson said.
Last November, resident Sue Cooper presented council with a petition signed by more than 100 people complaining about a pit bull terrier which had bitten several people in their neighborhood.
If the new bylaw proves too strict, it can always be changed, Demcheson said. In the meantime, people are safer with a strict bylaw rather than none at all.
"Let's follow the statistics for a year and see what category of dogs are doing the biting," he said. "We can always change the bylaw, but this gives us a better chance to protect the public."
But both Walker and Lidstone said the town doesn't need a stricter bylaw--it only needs to enforce the old ones.
Muzzling "inhumane"
And both say they won't muzzle their dogs, because it would leave them defenceless against other dogs.
"Not with all the loose huskies running around town--they'd rip him apart," Lidstone said.
Aileen Donovan, an Iqaluit resident who feeds and shelters strays and has experience training dogs, agrees with Lidstone.
"It's inhumane to tie up an animal that's muzzled and can't defend itself," she said, adding that muzzling often makes docile dogs more aggressive.
"I think the people who have the Category 1 dogs should just refuse," she said. Donovan owns two German shepherds, but doesn't own a Category 1 dog herself.
Lidstone said she has talked to other owners of Category 1 dogs and they are considering hiring a lawyer to challenge the bylaw in court.
Back to Nunatsiaq Newsby Alootook Ipellie
"I too, have many dreams that keep coming to me each day and night whenever I pause for a moment to escape the realities of life and jump to the future which only seems to run away from me--as if it were afraid and my dreams go with it, unwilling as ever to accept me."
"I can hear their silent cry echoing into my ears, telling me not to give up on what I have seeking to achieve my purpose in life. And at the end of that echo, I can hear a quiet whisper saying, 'There is always hope.'"
"If I fail to realize my dreams, I will accept failure much the same way if I had succeeded in getting what I want."
"Success in life is simple to say, except it is like pulling a ton of rock trying to get to it."
I can't remember the exact year I wrote the above, but I think it was in the mid-1970s not long after I began working as a translator for Inuit Today magazine, which was published at the time by the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.
I was such an idealistic dreamer then, a dreamer who was suffering from growing pains as a young man. But at the time, the words gave me a sense of hope in my otherwise uncertain life and the unknown future that was still in front of me.
I wrote in one passage that I was willing to accept failure if it came my way. Over the course of time, I have since experienced personal failures, and the inevitable adolescent mistakes. I have learned different things from these setbacks and they have helped me survive in the society I grew up in.
Is it any wonder then, even at my age, that it is now easier to understand why the dreamer inside me still comes out so easily each day and night?
Most of us have ambitions which we hope will come true during our respective lives. This is the reason why there are people living in this world who are either politically, economically or spiritually powerful.
But they still need, and rely on, their personal dreams to motivate them on a daily basis just like most of us ordinary folks. I suppose immortality is only a mortal dreamer's idealistic ambition while living on the planet earth, or, to get a little closer to home, while some of us live in a beautiful land called Nunavut.
Go ahead, call us idealists as we get closer to the day when we take the reigns of power of a new government of our promised land. There is no doubt our Inuit idealism will play a significant part in the way we approach and practice governing Nunavut.
But this doesn't mean we will forget about dealing with problems in practical terms, because we cannot hope to solve our future cultural, economic and social problems without being realistic about them.
I use the words "Inuit idealism" in modern, political terms. It is entrenched in the Nunavut agreement so our people will be entering a new political arena with a very different pragmatic philosophy than the one they are presently used to hearing and dealing with. It will all be part of living with a unique, Inuit political evolution in the Great White Arctic.
After all, even though our moral values are closely related to our human cousins from all over the world, we Inuit have an entirely different language and cultural heritage and traditions which can never be taken away from us.
For this reason, we cannot but feel optimistic about marrying Inuit idealism and modern political practices in Nunavut. As the old Chinese proverb says, "May you live in interesting times." And so, we will...
In 1972, after dropping out of taking a course in lithography at the famous West Baffin Eskimo Cooperative in Cape Dorset, I went back to Ottawa without any immediate prospects of finding a job or being admitted back in school.
One day, I got a letter from Don MacNeill, who for many years was based in Iqaluit working in education. He was the one who had recommended to me the lithography course in Dorset. I want to share part of the letter with you in reflection of those uncertain times I was living through as a naive young man:
"Once again, Alootook... one never regrets doing things for another. The thing that is regrettable is when a person doesn't do anything for himself. There have been many people who have done many things for you both in Ottawa and here. But at some point, you have todosomething for yourself.
"You have to work at it. A person can point out the roads in front of you, but if you refuse to walk down them, no one else can do it for you. This is a fact of life... whether in art, literature, work, marriage or school... I can say it to you... Gord Reddick can say it to you... but you and you alone have to accept it and do it yourself. That's the meaning of talent, of artistic life, of all of living."
To me, it was an invaluable advice that has stayed with me from the moment I first read it. It helped to open up my eyes to the realities I had been blind to in my still-young personal life.
Indeed, I can still hear a silent cry echoing into my ears, and in the end of that echo, a quiet whisper is saying, "There is always hope."
I would not be surprised if it isn't Don MacNeill whispering...
Back to Topby John Amagoalik
Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Walking up the down escalator.
All of the above could be used to describe the Canada/Quebec situation.
Some say that Quebec must be treated with kid gloves. Some say that it's time to drop the gloves. Some say that we must discuss the terms of secession in order to bring the separatists back down to earth. Some say that talking about the terms of secession will push the province even further towards separation. Some say that recognition of Quebec as a distinct society is the minimum.
Others say that the principle of equality of the provinces cannot be abandoned and that no province can have special status.
Then there is the sensitive question of vetoes. Who gets it and who doesn't? What amending formula will be fair? How will it work?
Perhaps it's time to wipe the slate clean and start all over again.
Perhaps the Inuit of Canada should be asked to facilitate a process to fix this nation. Laugh, if you like, but can anybody suggest anyone else?
We are neither English nor French. We do not represent the provinces. We occupy the middle ground between Indians and Euro-Canadians. And we were nowhere near the Plains of Abraham. We also have plenty of patience.
This corner quotes
"Canada is divisible because Canada is not a real country." --Lucien Bouchard
"If you should commit suicide, who do you hurt the most? How do you think your mother will feel, your father, sister, brothers and your best friend? They will not heal for a very long, long time. Do you really want to do that to them?" --Priscilla Tungilik, speaking at the NTI annual general meeting.
"My God, democracy; who invented it? It's so tiring." --Yasser Arafat, experiencing his first election campaign.
Back to TopUntil 1912, the Inuit, Cree and Innu-Naskapi lands of what is now northern Quebec were part of the same geographical unit as the three regions of Nunavut--the Northwest Territories.
In that year, without the consent of the aboriginal people who had always lived there, the Parliament of Canada enacted a law called the Quebec Boundaries Extensions Act.
With a few strokes of a pen, some shuffling of papers, and a show of yeas and nays, a group of Canadian legislators in Ottawa had driven a wedge through the homeland of the Inuit that has remained unstuck for 84 years.
As Makivik Corporation President Zebedee Nungak put it in an interview with Nunatsiaq News this week: "We are an Arctic territory trapped in a non-Arctic jurisdiction."
Detach Nunavik from a map of the province of Quebec, and Quebec doesn't look like so much like a big country anymore. Detach Nunavik's mineral hydro-electric resources from the province of Quebec, and Quebec doesn't make money like a big country anymore either.
No one is more aware of that than Lucien Bouchard and his separatist Parti Québecois.
But the people who live there, like the James Bay Cree to the south of them, have resolved that they will not leave Canada if the government of Quebec decides to leave Canada.
And if Quebec does leave Canada one day, as three-quarters of Quebec's population, including many federalists, now believe, what happens to the people of Nunavik?
The natural, logical outcome of their political aspirations is to join a Nunavut territory. But that's not going to happen overnight, or anytime soon. And if the people of Quebec elect to stay in Canada, it may never happen.
On the other hand, political leaders in Nunavut and Nunavik would be foolish not to explore and study the idea. The separatist movement in Quebec shows no sign of weakening and may well succeed one day.
And it's clear that Nunavik leaders have decided to start talking out loud about what they will do when that day comes
"Depending on whether we are going to be forever engaged in struggling with the effects of separatism in Quebec, I wouldn't put it beyond us to start clambering for becoming part of Nunavut," Nungak said this week.
There is no doubt that the idea of a union between Nunavik and Nunavut already has widespread grassroots support among people in the communities. From Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay to Coral Harbour, Cape Dorset and Iqaluit, there are families in Nunavut with cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters parents and grandparents in Nunavik.
These ties are marked every year by the well-known eastern Arctic summer festivals, which bring together people from Nunavut and Nunavik.
But at other levels, the idea is extremely complicated and fraught with difficulty. And it means challenging a principle that for Quebec separatists is inviolate--Quebec's borders.
Public opinion outside Quebec is in favor of the idea that an independent Quebec cannot necessarily take all the land that is now within Quebec's boundaries. And many people in English-speaking Canada are sympathetic to those aboriginal peoples living in Quebec who say they'll seek to keep their lands in Canada if Quebec separates.
That's likely one reason why Nungak is about to embark on a southern-Canadian speaking tour. The 7,500 people of Nunavik need all the help they can get--in their self-government talks, and support from all Canadians for their desire to stay in Canada, and possibly join Nunavut one day.
We live in a harsh cold world, literally and metaphorically. But once in a while, there's nothing wrong with allowing yourself to dream about something wild and improbable.
Right now, the idea of re-uniting Nunavut and Nunavik might look like just such a wild and improbable dream. But it wasn't so long ago that the idea of Nunavut itself looked that way, and now it's only three years away. JB
Back to TopI have thought about this for a long time.
To us who are real Inuit, we see it as completely wrong if someone who has no husband gets a child and then the person who got her pregnant just abandons her.
Take for example today. It looks as though there are more jobs available to women than for men, like working in an office.
So a person who has no husband can have a good job. But if she has a child and finds out she can't get a baby-sitter--she often just quits her job.
If Nunavut Tunngavik is not looking at this, that is not how politicians in the north should act.
It is going to be of no help if men abandon woman with children. Thank you for letting me be able to write.
Name withheld by request
Rankin Inlet, NT
(Editor's note: the author of this letter is a 62-year-old elder from Rankin Inlet who wrote to us in Inuktitut. She said she wanted to have her say, but requested her name not be printed.)
Back to TopI refer to your story entitled, "Plea for Nunavut's youth moves NTI delegates," which appeared in your Dec. 15, 1995 edition.
I want to commend and congratulate Priscilla Tungilik for her speech to Nunavut Tunngavik's annual general meeting in Talurjuaq (Taloyoak) in December 1995.
You are very brave!
All Nunavut residents must applaud both Ms. Tungilik and Noah Nashauraituq for taking this leadership.
I want to underline two statements which touched me deeply: where Ms. Tungilik said, "Don't just give up on us" and "Life is a gift. Treat it with respect--yours and others alike."
First of all, I want to say to Ms. Tungilik and many other youth in Nunavut that I am very much encouraged by your statements. I am a father of two young children and one teenager. I want to help them to have a purpose and strength in Nunavut, because Nunavut is their future.
As a concerned parent, I want to encourage our youth to receive a good education . I would also like to help you (our youth) by equipping you with all the necessary tools so that you can govern Nunavut in 1999 and beyond. I've said many times that no goal is too high to aim for.
I hope the next meeting of the Nunavut leaders in 1996 will discuss the future of our youth as we did in Gjoa Haven in Jan. 1995. Our youth should be represented at the meeting.
Peter Ernerk
Rankin Inlet, NT
These materials are Copyright (c) 1996 Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit), and may be freely distributed throughout the Internet, or other electronic computer networks or bulletin boards, as long as this notice remains intact and the articles are reproduced in their entirety. These materials may not be reprinted for commercial publication in print or other media without the permission of the publisher.
Last updated February 2, 1996
E-mail comments to: