For some Nunavik residents, the federal government’s apology for killing a dog is a step toward reconciliation.

Getting the Canadian government to apologize for its role in the massacre of Nunavik sled dogs has been a 25-year mission of Pita Aatami, president of the Makivvik Corporation, which represents Inuit in Nunavik.

For him, it’s an apology delivered last night at a crowded community center in Canguixuhuaque, Quebec. was a step towards closure.

“It was painful not only for the person who lost the dogs, but for the entire family. They were no longer able to go out on land to hunt, fish, get ice and collect driftwood,” he said.

To this day, Aatami says he still hears more painful stories about dog killings during the 1950s and 1960s, when police and other government officials killed more than 1,000 people. Kimmit (sled dogs) in Nunavik, an Inuit region of northern Quebec.

One of the stories that haunts him is that of Lucia Kuki from Kuujjuarapik, who talked about trying to protect her dogs.

“She almost shot herself twice trying to protect the dog… the police weren’t paying attention to the human part… people were begging, ‘Please don’t kill our dogs, it’s our only way to survive here,’” he recalls.

Makivvik Corporation President Pita Aatami speaks in Kangiqsujuaq ahead of the federal government’s official apology for the killing of a dog in Nunavik. The organization has been demanding a federal apology and compensation for dog killings for more than 20 years. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)

Gary Anandasangari, the minister of Crown-Indigenous Affairs, acknowledged during an official apology that it should have been done sooner.

“As we waited, many of those whose lives were affected by the killing of the dog did not come with us to hear this apology,” he said.

“While an apology and confession will not bring back what you have lost, I hope it will give you some confidence that we can move forward together. I hope this gives you some closure.”

Along with the formal apology, the federal government will pay the Makivvik Corporation $45 million in compensation to Inuit in the region. Part of the money, Aatami said, will go toward reviving the dog sled culture, which includes training, nutrition and fencing. It is expected that part of the funds will go towards direct compensation to victims.

“The Inuit had to get dogs”

Before the official apology, Anandasangari met with Nunavik elders to hear their testimonies about killing the dog. Speaking to CBC after the ceremony, he said he had heard many stories about dog killings in Nunavik that he was previously unaware of.

These include the fact that some dogs died from carbon monoxide poisoning, as well as how the Inuit used dogs for more than just transportation, including identifying seals.

“The number of women who competed and led dog sleds themselves was also very significant,” he said.

Despite all these losses, the Inuit of Nunavik fought to preserve their traditions.

Junior May from Kuujjuaq has been involved in greyhound racing for decades. He credits his father and elders for imparting the traditional knowledge of dog sledding to him. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)

Since 2001, the region’s riders have competed in the annual Iwakkak Race, a multi-day event that covers hundreds of kilometers through various communities.

Junior May, a Kuujaaq resident and self-proclaimed dog lover, won the race in 2002.

“I learned from my father and some elders. kamutik Making (the sled)… I do all the bindings myself. So you learn a lot of things that the average non-dog sled Inuk doesn’t know,” he said.

Until the 1950s and 1960s, the only means of winter transportation was by dog ​​sled, with no snowmobiles or contact with the south, he said.

According to Junior May, sled dogs need fat to race well. Fish, seals, and beluga whales are good sources of food. It takes a lot of work to keep his dogs healthy, including these puppies. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)

“The Inuit needed dogs. And if they didn’t do this, it was known that they would almost starve, because until now they could only walk,” he said.

For years, the elders didn’t really talk about the pain of the massacre, May said. Knowing their pain is finally being recognized by the federal government makes him happy, especially for people like his grandparents who survived the dog killings.

Much remains to be done on the path to reconciliation

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.

He discovered that the events of the dog’s murder were connected to boarding schools. The schools have forced many families to upend their lives and live in communities near these schools, taking their dogs with them.

Historically, the Inuit didn’t tether their dogs, Aatami says, because they needed constant exercise to stay healthy enough to pull sleds.

Law enforcement will kill any dog ​​that is released. Croteau’s report states that some white people even intentionally untie dogs.

“The dog issue was handled as if it were a traffic violation or municipal ordinance violation,” he wrote.

The Quebec government formally apologized to Nunavik Inuit a year after this report.

RCMP representatives were present during the federal apology on Saturday.

Warren Brown, RCMP Assistant Commissioner of Contracts and Indigenous Affairs (left), and Ruben Khatchadourian, RCMP Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Policy, Communications and External Affairs (right), attended events marking the official apology. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)

While the RCMP handed over law enforcement in Nunavik to the provincial police service Sûreté du Québec in 1961, RCMP officials said it was important for them to come forward to apologize.

Ruben Khatchadourian, assistant deputy minister of strategic policy, communications and external affairs for the RCMP, said he can’t rewrite the past, but he hopes this apology can bring some hope and closure.

“If our presence here, our contributions helped along the way … then that’s why we wanted to be here,” he said.

Nathan Obed, president of Inuit Tapirit Kanatami, the national organization representing Inuit, said the apology is just one step toward reconciliation in the “complex web of colonization” that still affects Inuit today.

“I think there’s a need for much larger reconciliation funds, whether it’s Inuktut infrastructure, housing or ending tuberculosis, we know that much more money is needed for our equality as Inuit with the rest of the country,” he said.