The Canadian government has apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the sled dog massacre.

Crown-Indigenous Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangari has formally apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the federal government’s role in the mass killing of sled dogs in the region in the 1950s and 1960s.

Anandasangari apologized Saturday night at the Kangiqsuhuaq community center in Nunavik, the Inuit region of northern Quebec. The event was attended by community members and elders who survived the killing of the dog. RCMP representatives were also present to express their support for the apology.

“On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I am deeply sorry. Please forgive us,” he told those present during a 15-minute speech that was met with a standing ovation from many in attendance.

“This was a terrible betrayal… It should not have taken Canada decades to apologize to the Nunavik Inuit,” he said.

Many in attendance rose in support after Anandasangari issued an apology on behalf of the federal government. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)

The federal government has apologized to Inuit in Nunavut for the RCMP’s role in the 2019 sled dog killings there.

Several representatives from Makivvik Corporation, which represents Inuit in Nunavik, also spoke at the ceremony. The organization has long advocated for federal and provincial government recognition of the harm caused by dog ​​killing.

WATCH | Trauma caused by sled dog killing still lingers:

The Makivvik Corporation began investigating the consequences of dog killing in 1999, which was reported by about 200 people. Interviewees described how the killing of more than 1,000 sled dogs in the region has left them unable to travel the land and hunt for their livelihoods, undermining their way of life.

The Quebec government has already apologized for its role in the killings.

A 2010 report by Jean-Jacques Croteau, a former Quebec Superior Court judge, found that Quebec provincial police killed more than 1,000 dogs “without any regard for their importance to Inuit families.”

The federal government’s role in this, Croteau discovered, was to fail to intervene or condemn these actions.

An unidentified Inuk man stands next to a loaded komatik with sled dogs in the background in Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik. (Library and Archives Canada)

“Federal agents and civil servants failed to intervene on behalf of the Government of Canada in a fiduciary capacity when agents and civil servants of the Government of Quebec took their operations to extremes,” Croteau wrote in his report, noting that in some cases dogs were killed because of… for an alleged threat to the community after being bitten by non-Inuit people.

“Without investigating and without asking the owners about the importance of the dogs they wanted to kill, without asking whether the dogs they wanted to kill posed a real, serious and current danger to people.”

In 2011, then-Quebec Premier Jean Charest formally apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the province’s role and agreed with Makivvik to pay $3 million to promote and protect Inuit language and culture.

The federal government also said it would offer financial compensation to Inuit in Nunavik for killing the dog.

Makavvik Corporation President Pita Aatami said the organization is expecting a $45 million donation from the federal government. The money will be split between direct compensation to survivors and initiatives to revive the dog sled culture in Nunavik.