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Nunavut Trust survives Monday's market crash

Inuit land claim money invested by the Nunavut Trust is safe, despite Monday's dramatic stock market crash.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IGLOOLIK ­ Stock exchange tremors that touched off a selling spree on financial markets from Asia to North America put the investment strategy of Nunavut's Inuit birthright corporation to its first real test this week.

While markets south of the treeline fluctuated from Hong Kong to Toronto, several delegates to Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.'s annual general meeting in Igloolik this week sought reassurance that Inuit investments would be adequately protected.

One delegate, Paul Amagoalik of Resolute Bay, wondered aloud if tumbling stock prices would wipe out those gains, or worse, cost beneficiaries money.

Good returns on investments

But Nunavut Trust chairman Peter Kritaqliluk pointed to the trust fund's better-than-expected performance in the first six months of 1997 as proof the fund could withstand a short-term downturn.

"Sometimes it goes down, sometimes it goes up. What I can say is our investment return is pretty good this year," Kritaqliluk said.

"When we first started we were told we could run into this type of situation. Today is a perfect example of what we were taught about. This is one area we were asked to expect in the future."

Nunavut Trust has purchased more than $285 million in securities since 1993, when it began to manage cash assets paid to Inuit beneficiaries by the federal government under the terms of the Nunavut land claim agreement.

As of June 30, 1997, Nunavut Trust had turned that $285 million into a portfolio worth $347.7 million. Returns in the first half of 1997, in fact, surpassed trustees' own expectations, "so beneficiaries' money is doing okay," Kritaqliluk added.

The health of Nunavut Trust is critically important to NTI, since NTI must adjust its own growth strategy according to the Trust's ability to finance the corporation's operations.

Performance outstripping market

The fund's performance had in fact, been outstripping the market average for the last two years, according to Andrew Campbell, administrative officer and CEO of Nunavut Trust. His report to the delegates showed the fund's overall performance has been averaging returns of 17.8 per cent, with the strongest gains in Canadian stocks.

Although Campbell downplayed the long-term significance of the week's volatile trading, he said the week's events were a milestone for the fund's six-member board of trustees: it's the first time they have been confronted with major market downswing.

"We're going to be in for a very rocky period," Campbell warned. "But I think that most investors who see their investments as long-term, as we do, view it as a necessary correction."

Earlier this year, the trustees directed fund managers to invest in assets at a ratio of roughly 55 per cent stocks and 45 per cent bonds, but gave them the flexibility to make adjustments as necessary to deal with market fluctuations.

Moving from stocks to bonds

Most investment counsellors under contract with Nunavut Trust have been moving funds from equities to more stable bonds over the last ten weeks as a hedge, Campbell said.

Only one counsellor jumped the gun, and couldn't resist selling off riskier stocks last spring, when many market watchers first predicted the market correction would happen.

"As a result, they didn't lose money, but they didn't make as much money as they could have," Campbell said.

The board of trustees is now undertaking a review of investment manager guidelines and will be asked to consider hiring at least two new "specialty" fund managers.

Campbell explained the week's stock market decline as the result of a currency crisis that began in Taiwan last week and spread to Hong Kong, where the fear of higher interest rates triggered panic selling among some investors.

"I don't anticipate it will be anywhere as bad as it was in October '87," Campbell said, referring to the last time the stock market crashed.

Although NTI must continue to borrow money from the Trust to operate, it's expected that net income from investments will be enough to cover all of NTI's expenses by the year 2001.

MLAs disappointed by cabinet review

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ­ Two days of grilling cabinet ministers on their performances during the past two years didn't accomplish what many MLAs had set out to do.

"We really needed a week," said Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien.

The formal review got off to a tense start last Wednesday as Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco questioned Premier Don Morin about his minister's evasiveness when answering questions in the legislative assembly.

"Will the premier direct his ministers and himself to try and answer questions in the House in a serious and constructive way without the excess verbiage?" Picco asked.

Morin's response ­ that Picco's question was "not worth answering" ­ sparked an angry rejoinder from Picco.

"My question to the premier was, will he take those questions seriously and not in a flippant manner?" he asked.

"I am not asking him in a flippant manner. I am asking him in a serious manner. His response to me, Mr. Chairman, as you just heard, was, 'I do not think that was a serious question, I will not answer it.' It was a serious question and I am asking it seriously. I am not going to repeat it."

Chairman John Ningark interrupted, asking for order and telling the members to relax. It was the beginning of two full days of gruelling questions.

Process off-track?

In the end, O'Brien said MLAs didn't accomplish what they'd needed to in the review.

"Because of the number of problems we're facing and the major issues at this time, it turned out to be ­ and this is not disrespectful of the process ­ but it turned out to be a marathon question-and-answer period."

He said some MLAs "got off the track" when they used the forum to get answers they'd been unable to get from cabinet ministers during normal daily question periods.

"It was like they were eager to get information they found difficult in getting before," O'Brien said.

He added the ministers at the bottom of the list, such as Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Manitok Thompson, were questioned less because members found themselves unable to keep up with the rigorous pace they'd set for themselves, especially as the sessions creeped into the wee hours of the morning.

Picco agreed the process was flawed.

"We were planning it for two or three weeks, but logistically it didn't go the way we thought it would," he said.

MLAs not focused?

And MLAs may not have been as focused as in the past.

"There was no movement to take any minister out of cabinet," Picco said. "I didn't see anything to take them out for. That wasn't there. In previous times they were after a minister and they took him out in that type of format."

Picco said continous meetings before and during the cabinet review wore down members' stamina.

"A lot of the members didn't have as much time to prepare for it as much as we should have or would have liked to."

He suggested meetings not be held prior to, or during, future cabinet reviews.

A 17-hour day

Both ordinary members and cabinet ministers had agreed on the process ­ that the review would begin on Wednesday and run for two days. But instead of normal hours, the sessions extended into the early hours of the morning with Thursday's sitting alone running for 17 hours.

"It's pretty hard to sit there for 17 hours straight and keep your questions focused," Picco said.

In fact, the review was taking so long that, part way through, the number of questions each member was allowed to ask cabinet ministers was reduced from eight to four to speed up the process.

Ootes: review worthwhile

During Friday's session, Yellowknife Central MLA Jake Ootes said the review was a success, despite what other MLAs may have thought. Ootes is chair of the assembly's ordinary members' caucus.

"For some, if not many, the mid-term review process was a worthwhile undertaking," said Ootes, referring to comments made by Thebacha MLA Michael Miltenberger that he'd hoped the process was a once in a lifetime experience.

"Yes, it is straining and very stressful at times," Ootes said. "I understand that. I do not think we should pat ourselves on the back just because we sat here for seventeen hours. That is our job to bring forward. We had all agreed it would be done over two days. We could not change it."

Picco said after Friday's session ended in the late afternoon, many members left Yellowknife for their home communities.

"There wasn't really much chance to sit down and review how it went and do a debriefing," he said.

Ordinary MLAs will get the opportunity to do that, however, next month when they return to Yellowknife.

The cabinet review: what was said

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ­ Cabinet ministers are too secretive and must be more forthcoming to the legislative assembly and the public at large.

That was the message MLAs sent to cabinet ministers during a two-day review of their performance last week.

"Charges asking and demanding ministerial resignations, answered with a deafening silence, is not acceptable," Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco told Premier Don Morin early in the review process last Wednesday. "Public money, spent for the public good, has to be transparent and accountable.

"The premier has to work on making this government more open and transparent. The innuendo of ongoing RCMP investigations, of sole-sourced contracts awarded to friends, of jobs being filled through nepotistic means, has to end."

Groenewegen offered the same advice to Health Minister Kelvin Ng.

"There are times that either other members or myself ask the minister questions and I do not feel that we get the most direct answer," she told Ng.

Health board messes ignored

During his time on the hot seat, Ng was grilled on his decision to eliminate the compassionate travel allowance for everyone but those accompanying minors, but few MLAs bothered to question the minister on the recent controversy about decisions made by both the Keewatin and Baffin regional health boards.

MLAs instead wanted to know the status of issues such as the midwifery program and the status of bringing home patients from southern institutions, which they raised during the past two years.

In relation to Finance Minister John Todd's performance, Nunakput MLA Vince Steen voiced his dissatisfaction about budget cuts that were made to balance the books.

"I question whether this government really has the backbone to face up to issues that really need to be addressed," Steen said.

"There is no doubt we had the backbone to cut small guys, and cut jobs. That was no problem at all. We cut programs and services, but not big guys. And we still have not done it. I am not really all that optimistic that I am going to see any new changes to this particular government in the next two years."

But when Todd took the hot seat, the questions dealt with his report tabled in the legslative assembly outlining transition costs leading to the division of the territories. MLAs wanted assurances that the federal government would live up to its agreement to provide the necessary funding.

"The federal government committed to reasonable incremental costs," Todd answered. "Our task has been, and mine has been, to identify what those incremental costs are going to be.

"I have got to assume, and I know there is always a danger of assuming, that our arguments are strong enough ­ that the federal commitment is strong enough ­ that we will be able to move forward to reach the level of financing and the level of comfort we all need that will bring the incremental costs to the new formulas and ensure services continue at the level we have been used to."

Arlooktoo grilled on Keewatin pipelines

MLAs were more enthusiastic when questioning Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo about a request for proposals for the construction of pipelines in four Keewatin communities.

Members complained the minister has, for the most part, excluded the public from the process.

"The minister admitted there has been consultation," said Kivallivik MLA Kevin O'Brien. "It is obvious it is not satisfactory because we would not have the Keewatin Chamber of Commerce, along with the mayors of Arviat, Baker Lake, and other communities saying well, wait now guys, just hang on a second here. We would like to study this more."

Arlooktoo fended off a barrage of questions for nearly two hours.

In his remarks, Premier Morin admitted not everyone has agreed with the decisions his cabinet has made.

"Overall, I know that some of you may not agree with some of the decisions we have made or with the way we have done things, but there are no right and wrong answers. We can only do what we believe is the right thing at the right time and I believe the thing is that we respect each other and continue to trust in each other just as our constituents trusted in us."

Iqaluit is Canada's common-law capital

Statistics Canada's 1996 census shows that common-law couples and single parent families now outnumber married couples in Iqaluit.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ­ Iqaluit is the country's capital of common-law unions, in a territory where wedding bells toll less frequently than in any other jurisdiction of Canada.

That's the portrait that emerges from figures contained in Statistics Canada's 1996 census, which includes detailed information about how many Canadians live in common-law unions.

With one of the country's highest birthrates, the future capital of Nunavut faces a population explosion largely fueled by children born out of wedlock.

More than half of Iqaluit families are unmarried

Unmarried couples and single-parent households now make up 57 per cent of all families in Iqaluit ­ more than twice the national average.

One in five families in Nunavut's capital is led by a single parent, and fully 36 per cent of all couples are common-law relationships.

"Wow," Roger Sevigny, the acting director of the Town of Iqaluit's social services department, said. "If you would have asked me to guess, I would never have said anywhere close to that."

StatsCan defines common-law partners as two persons of opposite sex who are not legally married, but who live together as husband and wife.

The 1996 census shows common-law and single-parent families together make up 26 per cent of all families in Canada, with married-couple families in the large majority.

In the Northwest Territories, however, legally married couples form a slim majority of families, at only 55 per cent.

Fewer people getting married

And in Iqaluit, the number of married couples has actually fallen since the last census, as common-law unions soared from 215 in 1991 to 365 in 1996.

But because the municipality makes no distinction between married and common-law couples when it comes to income-support, child support and welfare payments, Sevigny said the shift in family structures will not likely affect the town's ability to deliver social services ­ at least not in the short run.

More disquieting for Nunavut planners is the high proportion of young residents. StatsCan census figures show that 1,300 children under the age of 15 reside in Iqaluit ­ that's 30 per cent of the total population.

This large number of young residents puts pressure on every aspect of community life, from employment to education to recreation to health. Not the least among planners' worries will be finding space for them to live.

"We've got a housing shortage as it stands now," Sevingy said. "Can you imagine what it's going to be like when those kids reach the age where they're starting off as couples and having kids of their own?"

Population boom feeding unemployment

Population pressures will further aggravate already dismal employment prospects, Sevigny added.

"Unless we get some sort of economic base here soon that allows us to provide work outside of the government, what are all these people going to do?"

The growth of common-law relationships in the Northwest Territories was rivalled only by the Province of New Brunswick. StatsCan figures show 27 per cent of all families in the territory are now common-law unions, compared with a nationwide average of 12 per cent.

Northerners also lead the country in single-parenting, with one in six households revolving around a single parent. Single moms accounted for nearly 80 per cent of the Northwest Territories' 2,560 single-parent families in 1996.

While more couples opt not to tie the knot, Sevigny speculated there may be a link between the growth of common-law couples and single-parent families.

"Some of these relationships are not as stable as one might think, so we have a lot of individuals ending up in single-parent family situations, simply because there isn't anything legal to bind them," Sevigny said.

"The average age of first-pregnancies is probably lower than the rest of Canada, and I think a lot of our single parents come from that as well."

In Iqaluit, census figures reveal a slight drop in the overall number of single-parent households, down from 215 in 1991 to 200 in 1996. The proportion of these families headed by single mothers remains relatively unchanged, at 72 per cent.

By comparison, the number of single-parent families in Yellowknife jumped to 605 from 455 over the same period of time.

Pearson acquitted of 1983 sex charge

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ­ Iqaluit businessman Bryan Pearson was acquitted Wednesday of a sexual assault charge.

"It's been the most devastating six months of my life," Pearson said after the judgement.

In an Iqaluit courtroom Wednesday morning, territorial court Judge Yves Lagace of Montreal, aquitted Pearson on a single charge of sexual assault.

Under the Criminal Code of Canada, names of sexual assault complainants may not be be published or broadcast.

The complainant, now a 31-year-old man, said the assault took place during dinner at Pearson's home in June of1983, when he was 15 years old. He said they were alone in the house at the time.

Breaking down into tears, he testified that Pearson invited him to his home, then made unwanted advances towards him.

"I've had a difficult life," he testified. "Something always troubled me from the past... mainly this incident."

Pearson, now 63, told the court that the incident never took place. He also testified that he'd been on an extensive European tour with his sister in June, 1983, and didn't arrive back in Iqaluit until late that month.

The complainant said the incident took place sometime between the second and third week of June, 1983.

The plaintiff and Pearson were the only witnesses to appear during the two-hour trial. Lagace took no recess before announcing his verdict.

Lagace said he had no reason to disbelieve the testimony of the complainant.

"As far as your testimony, I have to say the same thing," he told Pearson.

Because he also said he believed Pearson's testimony, the judge introduced reasonable doubt, the grounds on which he acquitted Pearson.

Jose Kusugak: put Nunavut's interests first

NTI's president urged delegates at this week's NTI general meeting in Igloolik to put regional differences aside as they consider a new system for funding Nunavut's three regional Inuit associations.

DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News

IGLOOLIK ­ Nunavut Tunngavik President Jose Kusugak set the stage for the introduction of a new NTI funding formula by appealing to delegates at this year's annual general meeting to place Nunavut's interests ahead of their regional differences.

It would take a late-night meeting with the board's funding review committee on Tuesday, however, to reach a compromise agreement about how to divide NTI money among regional Inuit associations.

Delegates from the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, the Kivalliq Inuit Assocition and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association were given until Friday to consider the proposal before voting on it formally in the gymnasium of Ataguttaaluk School in Igloolik.

"In reality I thought that the discussions showed we're understanding each other," Kusugak said Wednesday, following a detailed report on the Nunavut land claim organization's financial statements.

Larger share for Baffin

The big question on everyone's mind was whether NTI's executive committee would get support from the regions for a plan that could ultimately see the Baffin region carve out a larger share of NTI funding at the expense of the Kitikmeot and the Keewatin.

Delegates' seating arrangement had been carefully planned so that no two members from the same region sat next to each other.

"We are here to represent all of Nunavut," Kusugak reminded delegates. "I hope you will not be thinking just of your own regions."

NTI's financial review committee had recommended that financial commitments to regional Inuit associations be separated into two categories of payment: core funding, to be increased in next year's budget by four per cent for each association; and a second level of funding to be tied to the population in each region.

The new budget would allow NTI to borrow $10.1 million from Nunavut Trust in the 1998-99 fiscal year.

Kivalliq loses $50,000

Kivalliq Inuit Association delegates protested that the new funding formula would reduce funding to the Keewatin region by $50,000 a year.

"We feel that this is the best we can come up with," Natsiq Kango, secretary-treasurer said.

Kango also reviewed detailed financial statements with the delegates.

Though overall spending by the birthright corporation declined last year by about one per cent to $23.4 million ­ from $23.1 million in 1995-96 ­ spending by certain departments did rise.

Notably, professional and legal fees more than doubled, jumping from $650,000 in 1995/96 to $1.5 million last year. Travel expenses were up, too, rising by $238,000 to just under $2 million by year's end.

Payroll expenses also increased. Salaries and employee benefits totalled $4.5 million in the 13-month period ending March 31, 1997, compared with $3.8 million in the previous year.

These increases were offset partly by decreases in distributions to regional Inuit associations, which recieved $9.5 million from NTI in 1997, compared with $11 million in 1996. Spending on printing, advertising, and electioneering was also down.

Contributions to the Nunavut Hunters' Support program remained constant at $3 million.

NTI's deficit climbed to $46.5 million in 1996/97, up from $38.5 million last year. It is expected to continue to climb until the year 2001/02, when the investments of the Nunavut Trust are supposed to start generating enough income from interest to finance the birthright corporation's operations. After that date, NTI must begin repaying its loans from Nunavut Trust.

"It will appear that we owe some money for a long while, but I'm sure it will return to us, to the trustees (of Nunavut Trust)," Natsiq Kango, secretary-treasurer said.

New budget for 1998-99

On Friday delegates were asked to approve a budget for the 1998/99 fiscal year, which broke down roughly as follows:

* $10.1 million for the operations of NTI;

* $ 3.3 million for the Qikiqtani Inuit Association;

* $ 2.6 million for the Kitikmeot Inuit Association;

* $ 2.3 million for the Kivalliq Inuit Association;

* $1.8 million for economic development activites.

Transportation issues

In his own presentation to the delegates, Kusugak reported that he has directed staff to develop a special strategy to guide NTI's approach to transportation issues in Nunavut.

In recent months the Nunavut Inuit birthright corporation has been courted by First Air as a potential investor. The Coast Guard and the territorial government, too, have been asking for input from NTI, he said.

James Eetoolook, NTI's first vice-president, reported that the lands department has already begun meetings with co-management boards in Nunavut to establish a Marine Council.

The council will be able to advise the birthright corporation on matters pertaining to the the sea within a year's time, he said.

Patterson to be interim chair of Baffin health board

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT ­ Health Minister Kelvin Ng announced the appointment of Dennis Patterson as interim chair of the Baffin health board by the end of this week.

The position was left vacant last month when Ann Hanson stepped down amid a barrage of controversy about recent board decisions, including the rejection of an offer from Qikiqtaaluk Corporation for private financing of a new regional hospital.

"It's not an Iqaluit seat," said Iqaluit MLA Ed Picco. "It's a Baffin seat and, I think, most of the MLAs brought forward different names."

All agreed on Patterson, who was premier of the Northwest Territories and who served as Iqaluit's MLA from 1979-1995. he has also been minister of health and held numerous other portfolios.

"What they wanted to do was find someone to go in there who had some history and Dennis has that," Picco said.

Business groups, QIA consulted

The Baffin and Iqaluit Chambers of Commerce also suggested names to the minister, including Patterson's.

Qikiqtani Inuit Association President Lazarus Arreak said Ng contacted him last week to ask whether or not he'd support Patterson's appointment.

He said his association was "fully consulted," though QIA has no official say in who is appointed. Arreak added that he's been assured by the acting chair of the health board that its members have also been consulted.

"He (Ng) mentioned this would be a term under a year," Arreak said. "Our position is that even though we don't have direct responsibilty for appointment to that position, we would like a stronger say from an earlier period on the next appointment."

Arreak said his priority is to move along the process of constructing a new Baffin regional hospital.

"There's no negative reaction from the board of QIA if it's temporary," Arreak added. "If it's temporary, go with it for now because there are so many hurdles to cross."

Residency doesn't matter

Arreak said he'd heard concerns about Patterson as a choice for interim chair, but he says they were from people with "personal agendas."

"There were concerns about Patterson not living in Baffin, but in our books that's just nit-picking. It's not even worth talking about.

"Obviously, if he's someone who has experience running the whole territory, he'll have a better chance at running the Baffin regional hospital board."

"As it stands now, there is no opposition to having Mr Patterson's name put forward as the chair for the Baffin health board," Ng told members of the legislative assembly last week.

The appointment is expected to be for a term of about a year.

My Little Corner of Canada

by JOHN AMAGOALIK

A pause to remember

The autumn of each year is a busy time for everyone. School has started. People are back at work after the summer holidays. The World Series is played. The Grey Cup is up for grabs. The hockey and basketball seasons is starting. There is Hallowe'en and Thanksgiving. Christmas is just around the corner. In the midst of all this is November 11, Remembrance Day.

It is fitting that Remembrance Day is in the middle of all this hustle and bustle. If it were not for the sacrifices of millions of young men and women during two world wars, we probably would not be practicing these rites of autumn. Our world would probably be quite different.

There are still many people alive today who lived through those wars and remember them from personal experience. There are those of us who were born soon after the last world war and are influenced deeply by the after effects it had on the world's population. But to today's generation of young people, the world wars are a bit more distant. Even the starkest moments in history are eventually jaded by the march of time.

But the connection between the kind of society we have today to the sacrifices of millions in the wars must be remembered. We celebrate all these things in the autumn because people laid down their lives for them. If the bad guy had won, would there be a Canada? If it existed, what would it be like? Would it still be possible to create Nunavut? Not likely.

The world is smarter than it was 60 years ago. It was easier for the Hitlers and Stalins to do their dirty work back then. The world is becoming less tolerate of tyrants and world leaders are more resolved to keeping them in check. But the Saddam Husseins and the Pol Pots are still around. Today's generation must keep a sharp eye out for these modern day tyrants.

Give many thanks during Thanksgiving. Enjoy the little witches and goblins during Halloween. Cheer your hockey team. Have a happy Christmas. Pause for a moment and think of all those poppies that grow row on row in Flanders Field.

Letters to the Editor

Anglican church should apologize

First of all, Anglican Minister Benjamin Arreak should take a cross-cultural course on Inuit culture in relation to sex education from his fellow Inuit. I think he would learn that in our Inuit culture, it is a sin to molest or abuse young girls.

There are four organizations who promote that they have never done anything wrong towards Inuit. They are: the Roman Catholic Church, the government of Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the Hudson's Bay Company.

The Anglican Church has been added to this list of people and organizations. They all claim to represent God and the law and as a result never admit or acknowledge their crimes against us Inuit. I have many stories to tell...

Not long ago, on February 27, 1996, Bishop Reynald Rouleau stood before the people of Iglulik, national television cameras and radio reporters and spoke the words: "On behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, I wish to apologize to the victims of mental, physical and sexual abuse, committed by the members of the R.C. Church at the Turquetil Hall/Joseph Bernier Federal Day School during the 1950's to late 1960's..."

Reverend Benjamin Arreak, an Anglican minister, is quoted as having defended the sexual molester, child abuse, because this is what Inuit used to do "in making young girls into womanhood."

Well, there is something terribly wrong in my opinion. First, Reverend Arreak has opened a can of worms. Perhaps the time has come for Anglicans and non-Anglicans alike to begin talking about these holy roller's sins committed towards Inuit in the name of promoting God.

Secondly, over the course of years that I spent at home in Naujaat-Repulse Bay and talking to many elders, I have never heard that it is within Inuit culture to sexually molest young girls and call it "an old Inuit tradition of treating young girls, to make them proud of their womanhood."

Ministers or not, people who say and believe these things are not only scary but plain sick. Sexual abuse of children was not acceptable 5,000 years ago, it is not acceptable now, and it will never be within our Inuit culture!

I think, instead of saying "It is not what I intended to say," October 17, 1997, Nunatsiaq News, Reverend Arreak should follow the example of Bishop Rouleau and apologize to the victim. This would go a long way towards healing.

The Inuit society is fed up and will no longer put up with those kinds of statements which come from people who we trust and who were placed in their positions to serve us and protect us and lead us spiritually.

Make no mistake, we will now speak out in defense of our young girls and boys! They are our future.

Peter Ernerk
Yellowknife

Nunatsiaq News is irresponsible

I should like to correct some considerable misconceptions and wrongful statements in your recent editorial "The abuse of forgiveness" (October 24). I hope you will be good enough to publish this letter.

Firstly I wonder about your paper's policy on translation. I wrote to you previously about the Diocese of The Arctic's policy with regard to sexual abuse by members of the diocese, both ordained and non-ordained.

The English version of this letter was published on October 17, but neither in that edition or last week's edition (October 24) was it ever translated into Inuktitut, unlike all the other letters on the subject. Was there some reason why your Inuktitut speaking readers were excluded from reading what I had written?

In your editorial you state, "Iyetsiak Simigak does not deserve to have excuses made for his conduct by his colleagues in the church..." And again "By his own admission Canon Benjamin Arreak who admitted to being a "representative of the Bishop" while he was in Kuujjuaq to make excuses on Simigak's behalf, was not misquoted in the October 3 issue of Nunatsiak News."

If you had taken the trouble to check your facts or even read the Canon's letter, published on October 17, you would have known that the hearing did not take place in Kuujjuaq at all, but in Kangirsuk. If you cannot be accurate in your facts is it not also possible that your correspondent could be mistaken in quoting from Canon Arreak. He was not sent to Kangirsuk to "make excuses" for Mr. Simigak, but to lend support to him and his family at the time of his sentencing.

In his letter Canon Arreak writes, "...I was asked to go to Kangirsuk to represent the Bishop, because of the difficult time like this, and so Iyetsiak will know that the Bishop still cares about him and his family and the parish of Kangirsuk."

It would appear that for some reason you are unwilling to accept the truth of this concern, which I did without in any way condoning Mr. Simigak's actions, as was made clear in my own previous letter. That was all I was able to do at that time. The victims in the cases were juveniles and we are not able to obtain their names.

Later in our editorial you state: "The Anglican church has never explained why Simigak was allowed to preach long after he was charged, and has provided little reassurance that other churches in other places are safe for children. They tolerated a situation in which innocent children received communion from a man whose hands had been molesting them against their will."

According to your original story Mr. Simigak was charged on December 1, 1993. Under the bold headline "Hid charges from the church." you also state that he did not inform his superiors for fear of demotion ("lowered to lesser tasks").

In fact the first that I knew of this case was in mid-September of this year, two weeks before Mr. Simigak's sentencing hearing. This was when Suffragan Bishop Paul Idlout received a call from the defense lawyer in the Province of Quebec.

At that time Mr. Simigak was immediately suspended and the steps to provide support as outlined above were put in place. Although a longtime lay worker in the diocese of the Arctic Mr. Simigak was only ordained as a deacon in the church in the fall of 1995.

Before that time he would never have distributed Communion at all, but as a deacon he was authorized to distribute the bread and wine previously consecrated by a priest. Even as deacon he would not have distributed it to the children, in the Anglican Church only those confirmed by the bishop, usually in late teenage years, are permitted to receive communion.

Again you seem to be unwilling to accept what was written in your own paper about Mr. Simigak's admission that he did not inform me or anyone else in authority. You then indulge in hyperbolic speculation which would have proved to be completely untrue had you only checked a few facts about Mr. Simigak's career and the practices of the Anglican Church.

Finally you write, "In doing this the church has also sent a disturbing message to victims of sexual abuse everywhere: And that is that the church will do what it can to protect those who have hurt them and will welcome those abusers back to the fold as quietly and as quickly as possible."

I can again only assume that you did not read my previous letter or that you refuse to accept its truth. I stated in that letter "...the diocese of the Arctic has a stated policy of "zero toleration: in all matters of wrongful sexual action on the part of the clergy or those engaged in lay ministry in the church. Such behavior cannot be condoned."

I also wrote: "As Bishop I have already informed the clergy and lay-readers of the diocese that Eeyeetsiak Simigak is suspended for at least two years from his duties as clergy in Kangirsuk and the diocese. Such abuse as he is convicted of is not to be tolerated in any culture."

Does showing concern for Mr. Simigak, his family and community as outlined above, a policy of "zero toleration" and a refusal to condone such behaviour really amount to "doing what it can do to protect (the offender)" as you have written?

Does informing all the clergy and lay-readers in the diocese and stating this openly in your paper constitute "welcoming back quietly"? Does imposing a sentence of at least two years, three times as long as the criminal courts imposed, suggest "welcoming back quickly"?

Another of your correspondents, Mr. McCann, whose letter appears alongside your editorial writes "This incident underlines once again the need for churches to clarify their position with credible statements and tough anti-abuse measures."

The question of my credibility must surely rest with those who read and accept or reject what I write. However I wonder what can be clearer than "zero toleration", refusal to condone and, in the case we are considering, a penalty three times larger than imposed by the court.

I feel, Mr. Bell, that what you wrote was irresponsible, ill-informed and showed that you had either not read what Canon Arreak, your own reporter and I had written or that you cannot accept the truth of what we state.

Rt. Rev. J.C.R. Williams
Bishop of The Arctic
Yellowknife

Editorial

Should Nunavut abolish health boards?

In appointing Yellowknife resident Dennis Patterson as interim chair of the Baffin Regional Health Board, the government of the Northwest Territories has inadvertently provided us with yet another good reason to support a good idea that most people in government have until now refused to consider.

That idea is this: That the Nunavut government should abolish its three regional health board as soon as possible after April 1, 1999.

There are those in the Baffin region who will criticize Patterson's appointment on the grounds that he's not a Baffin resident, and hasn't been for years. On the other hand, there are those who support Patterson's appointment on the grounds that his many years of experience in government ­ 16 of which were spent as Iqaluit's MLA ­ will serve him well.

Both points of view, however, are irrelevant insofar as the real issue is concerned.

Health Minister Kelvin Ng is not appointing Patterson to represent the people of the Baffin region. He's appointing him to represent the health department and the GNWT. That's how it is and that's how it's always been. It's the health minister who makes the appointments ­ therefore it's the health minister to whom health board chairs are accountable.

In that respect, Patterson's status is no different than that of any other person who has served as chair of an NWT health board. Ordinary members of health boards, whether they like it or not, are in the same position, because they, too, are politically accountable only to the person who appoints them ­ the NWT minister of health.

If you want a piece of concrete evidence to prove that such is the case, you need look no farther than at the Keewatin Regional Health Board. It's unelected chair, Elizabeth Palfrey, has been asked to resign by many of the region's elected leaders. The board itself has made decisions that have been denounced by most of the region's elected bodies.

But none of that matters. Since members of the Keewatin board are accountable only to the minister of health, the minister of health may protect them for as long as it serves his interests.

Since Palfrey's longtime business associate and political comrade in arms, Finance Minister John Todd, occupys a large space at the same cabinet table where Ng sits every day, Ng's interest in protecting the KRHB against public opinion in the Keewatin will always be a large one.

And if the Kivalliq Inuit Association's lawyers are right, Ng's defence of his Keewatin health board appointees may even extend as far as violating the Territorial Hospital Insurance Services Act, and the Canada Health Act.

The most valuable lesson to be learned, perhaps, from the embarrassing problems displayed by the Keewatin and Baffin boards is that they were set up for failure in the first place.

If that's the case, why does Nunavut need them?

As Yellowknife Centre MLA Jake Ootes pointed out in the legislative assembly recently, most Canadian jurisdictions ­ such as New Brunswick ­ are abandoning the idea of regionalized health care delivery. That's because they've found that regional health care delivery bodies tend to create different standards of service in different regions ­ a threat to the principles of universality and uniformity that most Canadians still demand from our health care system.

The last thing the Nunavut territory will need is different standards and systems in each of our three regions. Coppermine's health care needs are no different than Arviat's or Pond Inlet's.

All the people of Nunavut, therefore, should receive the same kind of health care, delivered directly by a central authority that's accountable to all the people of Nunavut. That means direct delivery of health care by the Nunavut territorial government's department of health.

Under such a simplified system, elected MLAs and municipal politicians would then be expected to express the concerns of ordinary people ­ a job that many are now doing anyway.

Lastly, the existence of regional health boards is inconsistent with current territorial government policy. Aren't we supposed to be moving towards "strength at two levels?" That's the slogan the GNWT used for years to explain a policy under which regional structures would disappear and all power would reside with community governments and the territorial government.

When the Nunavut Implementation Commission recommended that Nunavut's health boards be abolished, the idea was quickly rejected.

It's time, however, for our political leaders to take a second look at it. JB

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