The year just past in Nunavik

A look back at what made the news in northern Quebec

Senator Charlie Watt fought to get tax relief for Nunavik residents in the Senate, but earlier in the year, he lost in a bid to unseat Pita Aatami, the controversial president of Makivik Corp., in an election held in March. Watt attacked the massive bonus payments that Aatami and others received from First Air in 2008, but a plurality of Nunavik voters chose Aatami again. (FILE PHOTO)

Former NHL hockey star Joé Juneau continued his work on behalf of Nunavik youth in 2009. (FILE PHOTO)

Elisapie Isaac released her first solo CD last year. 

Isaacie Padlayat of Salluit, a board member for the Avataq Cultural Institute, views a soapstone elephant with Zebedee Nungak, director of Avataq’s Inuktitut language department and board member Jeannie Nungak of Kangirsuk. These and many other precious artifacts are stored at a secure, climate-controlled facility in Montreal. (PHOTO COURTESY OF AVATAQ)

January

• Matiusie Tulugak of Puvirnituq, 52, a devoted Canadian Ranger and much-loved entertainer, loses a battle against colon cancer Jan. 28 at the Inuulitsivik Hospital in Puvirnituq.

February

• The body of Charlie Mark Saviadjuk, 35, is returned to Salluit from Montreal. Saviadjuk went missing in October of 2008 when he didn’t show up for a scheduled Air Inuit flight from Montreal.

• Cruise North, the Makivik Corp. cruise line, offers a recession-busting “two-for-one” offer for all new bookings until February 15.

• Nunavik gets a new Nunavik Fund for Arts and Literature, thanks to a three-year deal worth $260,000. The Avataq Cultural Institute will manage the new pot of money.

• Nunavik’s hockey coach Joé Juneau, an 11-year National Hockey League veteran, will be one of two assistant “Chefs de Mission” for the Canadian Olympic Team at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

• The race is on to lead the Makivik, with four candidates filing election papers for the Nunavik-wide vote on March 27: Pita Aatami, Lucy Carrier, Johnny Oovaut and Charlie Watt.
March

• The Kativik Regional Police Force has a new crime-fighting force: a group of youth aged 14 to 22, who will carry out bicycle patrols in Nunavik communities and promote gun safety by handing out locks to gun-owners.

• The KRPF’s new mascot, Nanook, makes its first appearance and will encourage support for the police and healthy living by regular appearances at schools, sports tournaments and events.

• Xstrata’s Raglan nickel mine in Nunavik shelves plans for expansion, due to a global slump in metal prices. As a result, its planned $50-millon Tamatumani training program for Inuit workers is trimmed to a maximum of 70 trainees in 2009.

• Leaders from Nunavik, Ottawa and Quebec City vow once again to build more housing, improve services and cut the cost of living for Nunavimmiut. Their March 6 meeting in Montreal sees Quebec premier Jean Charest, federal native affairs minister Chuck Strahl, Makivik president Pita Aatami and Maggie Emudluk, chairperson of the Kativik Regional Government, close deals for a longer airstrip in Puvirnituq and a social housing complex in Kangiqsualujjuaq.

• More than 300 members of the Canadian Armed Forces in Quebec join 60 Canadian Rangers for Arctic survival exercises in a tent camp set up by Kuujjuaq’s Stewart Lake.

• The start of Ivakkak - Nunavik’s dogsled race - is delayed on its way from Inukuak to Ivujivik by bad weather for the first time in its history.

• At Inukjuak’s Innalik School gymnasium, Makivik’s annual general meeting starts right on time. Delegates from 16 communities, talk about everything from eider ducks to suicide, from establishing more provincial parks to hunting more muskoxen. 

• Pita Aatami is re-elected as Makivik’s president March 27.

• Makivik receives $4.9 million to upgrade the facilities of its Nunavik Research Centre.

April

• Firearms incidents kick off the month. A man with a high-powered firearm holds Akulivik in a state of fear from March 30 April 3. Investigators from Quebec’s provincial police force come to Kuujjuaq to evaluate an incident in which a KRPF constable shoots and wounds a 23-year-old man. The shooting occurs around 11 am on April 3 at a residence in Kuujjuaq after the KRPF responds to a call for assistance.

• Dog teams competing in the Ivakkak race arrive in Ivujivik after 12-day, 500-kilometre journey from Inukjuak. Puvirnituq’s Novalinga Novalinga and his partner, Aibilie Moses, are the new champions.

May

• Hunters in Nunavik learn they can hunt 50 more belugas in 2009.  “Hunters are a little bit happier than they were last year,” says Paulusie Novalinga, president of Nunavik’s Anguvigaq hunters and trappers association.

• A 20-year Kuujjuaq resident faces charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the 1987 shooting death of his uncle. Patrice Bernard, 41, appears at the courthouse in Granby, Quebec, on May 22.

• It’s official: Nunavik now has a second provincial park, Kuururjuaq, located near the community of Kangiqsualujjuaq.

• KRG councillors spend hours trying to decide which six Nunavik communities will get badly-needed new social housing units in 2010. The year’s allotment of 82 units, each with two two-bedroom units, will be split among the six communities with the greatest need and those which have seen no new social housing construction over the past two years. In 2010 Puvirnituq gets 24 new units, Kangiqsujuaq and Inukjuak 16 new units Salluit 10 new units, Akulivik eight, and Aupaluk four.

June

• Xstrata Nickel presents a cheque for $6.8 million to Makivik, representing its share of the profits generated by the Raglan nickel mine in 2008. That’s about one-fifth of the $32.4 million handed over in 2008 to Makivik before the global demand for nickel nosedived, substantially reducing Xstrata’s revenues.

• A KRPF constable shoots a 24-year-old Salluit man June 7 after the man allegedly opened fire on police who responded to a 5 a.m. call about a dispute involving a man with a firearm.
• A young man dies June 11, following a confrontation with a distraught man, the father of a young woman who recently committed suicide.

• There are no confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu in Nunavik, the region’s public health officials say. But they are certain swine flu will come to Nunavik- if it’s not already around the region.

July

• Quebec ministers responsible for health and social affairs and native affairs say they will visit Nunavik by mid-July to deal personally with the region’s youth protection crisis. Pierre Corbeil, provincial native affairs minister, says he and health minister Lise Thériault plan to meet with health and social services staff and visit facilities in Kuujjuaq and Puvirnituq. The visit, finally made in August, follows growing attention among southern officials and media to pleas from overworked youth protection workers in the Ungava Bay region, who say they’re at the end of their rope.

• There was no systematic elimination of sled dogs during the 1950s and 1960s in Nunavik, concludes a new report on the alleged slaughter of sled dogs in northern Quebec. “Nothing in the file leads me to believe that it occurred,” says retired judge Jean-Jacques Croteau in his 22-page interim report on the allegations concerning the slaughter of sled dogs, which was prepared for Makivik and Quebec.

• Nunavik has its first lab-confirmed case of swine flu.

• People in Salluit participate in a public meeting where they discuss their community’s future development. Much of the land available for development near Salluit may undergo landslides or become unstable if warming continues at the present rate over the next 20 years.

• Tommy Colin Palliser (Moorhouse), a 33-year-old man from Inukjuak, faces serious charges in connection with an incident that occurs June 29 in a Montreal suburb. The incident apparently involves car surfing, a dangerous stunt that involves riding outside of a moving vehicle. Kevin Ducharme, 38, a relative of Palliser’s wife and others in Nunavik, dies as a result of injuries suffered in the incident.

• The final management plan for the 2009 beluga hunt in Nunavik is public, following its recent approval by the minister of Fisheries and Oceans. In 2010, the Nunavik Marine Region Wildlife Board, the new offshore management board for Nunavik, takes over responsibility for setting quotas.

August

• Nunavik hunters bring in a 56-foot (17-metre) bowhead whale - the region’s second bowhead whale catch in two years. A team of about 20 hunters from across Nunavik set out in a number of canoes and speedboats from Kangiqsujuaq on August 19. Three days later, they harpoon a bowhead whale.

• Quebec hopes to manage the continuing crisis in youth protection services in Nunavik by spending more money on staff housing and importing social workers from southern Quebec. Quebec will spend $25 million on new staff housing and $1 million a year on a pilot project for social workers. Quebec also plans to bring a rotating team of 10 social workers to Nunavik to deal with the backlog of serious youth protection cases that require immediate action and evaluation.

• Jien Canada Mining Ltd., a joint venture between the Chinese mining giant Jilin Jien Nickel Industry Co., Ltd. and Goldbrook Ventures, a Canadian mining company, offers $148.5 million in an all-cash takeover bid for Canadian Royalties, which wants to develop a nickel mine project in Nunavik.

September

• A total of 17 swine flu cases have been confirmed in Nunavik by laboratory tests.  Nunavimmiut are fortunate to have mild cases, say public health officials.

• Nunavik needs more social housing, but a commitment to build more social housing, first announced in March for June 25, and then postponed until Sept. 10, is now cancelled completely.

• The price of gasoline drops by eight cents. As of Sept. 1,  gas costs $1.34 a litre in the 13 communities receiving gas directly from the co-operative federation, after a 21 cent per litre subsidy. This subsidy, administered by the KRG, comes from a three-year $12.1 million deal with Quebec to reduce transportation costs paid by Nunavimmiut.

• Canadian Royalties Inc.‘s board of directors say its shareholders and investors reject an offer by Jien Canada Mining Ltd. to buy them out, which expires Sept. 15.

• Bootleggers and drug dealers are behind the increasing social problems linked to alcohol and drugs in Nunavik, Maggie Emudluk, KRG chairperson, tells the regional councillors in Kuujjuaq. To curb bootlegging, Johnny Oovaut, the mayor of Quaqtaq, and a member of the KRG executive, urges Nunavik’s municipal leaders to amend their by-laws to allow residents to buy more alcohol.

• The KRPF plans to hire 10 more police officers, so at least three will be assigned to every Nunavik community. When staffing is complete, there will be 65 officers and 11 civilians working for the KRPF.

• Nunavimmiut are up to three times more likely to live in poverty than people in southern Quebec, says new research from Gerard Duhaime, a Université Laval sociologist. As a way of improving conditions, Nunavik-wide public forums should develop and adopt an anti-poverty strategy for the region, Duhaime says during a Sept. 17 presentation to the KRG meeting in Kuujjuaq.

• Rabid dogs bite two young children in Kangirsuk, who then receive a series of vaccinations so they won’t develop a fatal case of rabies.

• Makivik and Lynx Mobility, a subsidiary of a Canadian telecommunications company, OmniGlobe, plan to start bringing cell phone technology to Nunavik.

• Senator Charlie Watt makes the case for taxation relief in Nunavik last week, when his private member’s bill S-227, an act to amend the income tax act, comes up for consideration in the Senate finance committee.

• Salluit singer Elisapie Isaac launches her first solo CD, “There Will Be Stars,” in Montreal.

• The Kativik School Board recommends pregnant workers in its Nunavik schools take early leave to prevent themselves from contracting swine flu. Pregnant students are also being asked to stay home.

• An Inukjuak woman, Anna Niviaxie, dies after she is hit by a vehicle on Sept. 26. Sepora POV, 26, is charged with impaired driving “causing the death of Anna Niviaxie”  and operating a motor vehicle in a manner dangerous to the public.

October

• One of the few Nunavik Inuit to publish poetry dies. Born near Puvirnituq, Emily Novalinga, 55, suffers a heart attack in her sleep on Oct. 10 at the home of her daughter in the Montreal suburb of Dorval.

• The vaccination campaign to fight the human papillomavirus virus that causes cervical cancer enters its second year in Nunavik. The HPV vaccine, available to 1,500 girls aged nine to 17 years, prevents HPV, a virus transmitted by sexual contact.

• Two separate firearms incidents, which see young men firing rifles into the streets during the early hours of the morning, rock Kuujjuaq. In connection with a shooting incident Oct. 9, three young men are accused of shooting .22-calibre and 30-30-calibre rifles in Kuujjuaq,  then an Oct. 14 other youth take potshots at the head office of Makivik, the childcare centre and equipment located nearby.

November

• Nunavik’s swine flu vaccination program swings into high gear. Health officials in Nunavik say they are close to achieving their goal of vaccinating more than three quarters of the region’s residents against the H1N1 virus.

• When the Olympic torch arrives in Kuujjuaq early in the morning of Nov. 10, Canadian Rangers form an honour guard leading from the 737 Air North jet down to the airport terminal, kicking off a day of celebration in the community.

• Jien Nickel says its bid to buy Canadian Royalties Inc. has been approved by two-thirds of the mining company’s shareholders and debenture holders.

• Makivik isn’t happy about a decision by Gail Shea, the federal fisheries minister, who announced Nunavut fishers will get almost all of a 1,500- tonne increase in the turbot quota in area 0B, off southeast Baffin Island. Makivik says it “deplores this decision,” because it shows an intent of “not wishing to assist for real in the economic development of Nunavik.”

• About 75 per cent of the Nunavik’s residents have been vaccinated against swine flu since early November.

• People throughout Nunavik march in support of stopping violence against women on Wednesday, Nov. 25, also the United Nation’s international day for the elimination of violence against women.

• By next June Nunavik may have its own provincial riding, called Nunavik. Quebec’s democratic reform minister Claude Béchard presents Bill 78 in the Quebec National Assembly, which would redraw Quebec’s electoral map and increase the number of ridings from 125 to at least 126.

• The KRG council backs a new police-promoted alcohol and drug strategy. This would see Nunavik’s regional organizations, the provincial police, and the provincial government working together with the KRPF to mobilize the population on measures to control the influx of alcohol and drugs into Nunavik and prevent and heal the damage they cause.

December

• The 1,500-plus residential clients of Nunavik’s Tamaani internet service provider receive an unexpected Christmas present: no charge for internet services during December.

• Puvirnituq’s runway should be ready for Air Inuit’s Boeing 737 by mid-December. Air Inuit plans to start its regular jet service to Puvirnituq by early 2010.

• The future government of Nunavik now has its own acronym, NRG. Negotiations with officials in Ottawa and Quebec City on the region’s final self-government agreement are in the final stretch and Nunavimmiut may see a self-government deal for Nunavimmiut by next March.

• A 59-year-old Nunavik woman, Atittuq Kiatainaq of Kangiqsujuaq, dies on the land outside her village after her four-wheeler breaks down.