08-18-2010, 08:35 PM
Today, my federal government issued a long-overdue apology for the forced relocation of a number of Inuit families into the High Arctic in the 1950's. It was done for the sake of ensuring our sovereignty in the north for what probably seemed like good reasons at the time. 
Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Duncan issued a formal apology on Wednesday for the government's controversial High Arctic relocation program, in which a total of 19 Inuit families from northern Quebec were moved about 1,200 kilometres to the far northern settlements of Grise Fiord and Resolute, in what is now Nunavut.
There were many more than just the 19 families mentioned. These people were lied to, forced to move and given no support in an area where they had no knowledge of local conditions or wildlife. They were abandoned. When harsh conditions resulted in one woman becoming dangerously insane some were forced to conduct an execution for which they were later prosecuted by the Canadian justice system. The result was the death penalty, by virtue of sending the two men to an overcrowded prison in Yellowknife (more thousands of kilometres away) where they died of tuberculosis.*
So it is about time to see their suffering acknowledged. Better late than never.
*that particular story is outlined, with appropriate outrage, as The Dark Odyssey of Soosie in The Snow Walker, by Farley Mowat
Indian and Northern Affairs Minister John Duncan issued a formal apology on Wednesday for the government's controversial High Arctic relocation program, in which a total of 19 Inuit families from northern Quebec were moved about 1,200 kilometres to the far northern settlements of Grise Fiord and Resolute, in what is now Nunavut.
There were many more than just the 19 families mentioned. These people were lied to, forced to move and given no support in an area where they had no knowledge of local conditions or wildlife. They were abandoned. When harsh conditions resulted in one woman becoming dangerously insane some were forced to conduct an execution for which they were later prosecuted by the Canadian justice system. The result was the death penalty, by virtue of sending the two men to an overcrowded prison in Yellowknife (more thousands of kilometres away) where they died of tuberculosis.*
So it is about time to see their suffering acknowledged. Better late than never.
*that particular story is outlined, with appropriate outrage, as The Dark Odyssey of Soosie in The Snow Walker, by Farley Mowat
And you may call it righteousness
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake
When civility survives,
But I've had dinner with the Devil and
I know nice from right.
From Dinner with the Devil, by Big Rude Jake