The federal government is providing $45 million in compensation to Inuit in Nunavik as part of Canada’s apology for its role in the killing of sled dogs between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s.
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree is travelling to Kangiqsujuaq is scheduled to apologize for Canada’s role in the killings Saturday afternoon in Northern Quebec.
A 2010 report from Jean-Jacques Croteau, a retired Superior Court of Quebec judge, found Quebec provincial police officers killed more than 1,000 dogs in Nunavik “without any consideration for their importance to Inuit families.”
Croteau found the federal government failed to intervene or condemn the actions and said the implementation of mandatory schooling and residential school was fundamental in the lead-up to the dog killings.
“I’m hoping for some of them that it will bring closure,” said Pita Aatami, the president of Makivvik which represents Inuit in Nunavik.
“When I hear some of the interviews of the elders that had their dog slaughtered, the pain that they went through it was so much. Their livelihood was taken away from them.
“They had no more means of going out on the land, to go hunt, to fish, or go get ice, or go to the tree line. All the things they did with their dogs, that was taken away.”
Aatami told The Canadian Press the federal government will be providing $45 million in compensation a part of the apology.
He said the money will go toward revitalizing the culture of dog team ownership in the region, and “all the things people need to raise dog teams.” That includes training, food and fencing.
“Historically, Inuit didn’t tie their dogs. That was one way of keeping them healthy. And it’s only when the non-natives came, that they started having to tie their dogs. And that’s when the dogs became more vicious, lazier. Not as good as before, kind of a thing.”
