Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree looks on as Inuk leader Aluki Kotierk speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Feb. 25.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
The federal government apologized Thursday to Inuit families for Ottawa’s decision to relocate their relatives under false pretenses to Canada’s High North to bolster the country’s sovereignty.
Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Gary Anandasangaree delivered the apology in Arctic Bay, an Inuit hamlet of about 1,000 people on Baffin Island. It is approximately 3,000 kilometres north of Ottawa.
“For taking you from your homes and families, for the hardships you endured, for the displacement and ruptures of kinships with the nuna [land], and for the promises that were broken, we offer our sincerest apology,” Mr. Anandasangaree said, according to a speech provided by the minister’s office. “We are sorry. Mamianaq.”
As part of an agreement signed on Jan. 22, the federal government provided $4.5-million to the Dundas Harbour Relocation Society to support the Inuit families who were affected by the relocations, according to Gregory Frame, a spokesperson for Mr. Anandasangaree.
In 1934, four Inuit families were relocated from their homes in Kinngait, formerly known as Cape Dorset, to Dundas Harbour, which is on Devon Island – more than 1,000 kilometres north of their home community. Though promised they could return, they were instead moved multiple times until 1948.
This was done to reinforce Canada’s sovereignty claim – the idea that the land was Canadian because Canadians were living there, though the Inuit families may not have considered themselves Canadians.
In proposing the relocation, the families were told they would be given better hunting grounds and that they could return in two years if they did not like it, according to Steven Cooper, a partner with Cooper Regel LLP who is representing the Dundas Harbour Relocation Society. But that was not the case.
“You have to be reasonably well informed in order to provide your consent. So, it wasn’t a matter of the government physically kidnapping people and moving them but rather giving them a series of lies that convinced them to do the government’s bidding,” he said.
When the Inuit arrived in Dundas Harbour, they found the flora and seasons were completely different, Mr. Cooper said. He says the relocation led to people dying because of the lack of available food and other factors.
The relocations continued, including the families being moved from Dundas Harbour to Arctic Bay in 1936, then to Fort Ross in 1937 and finally to Spence Bay in 1948. Spence Bay is now known as Taloyoak. The federal government never brought them home.
In an interview ahead of the apology, Mr. Anandasangaree said the story is about Canada asserting sovereignty over a place that was Inuit traditional territory, but without proper consent, consultation or support.
“Essentially, [it was] abandoning people in an unfamiliar terrain, which has caused many different challenges for them,” he said, including food insecurity and disconnection from the broader community.
This apology is “part of the journey of reconciliation – one where the federal government takes accountability for what happened, acknowledges the harm [and] apologizes to the survivors,” he added. “The smaller part of this is obviously the compensation piece, but primarily this is about giving closure to those who have been impacted.”
The push for the apology was started by survivor Isaac Shooyook in 2010 by speaking to then-member of Parliament Leona Aglukkaq, according to Mr. Frame.
He also says the Dundas Harbour Relocation Society submitted a statement of claim to the federal government in April, 2014, for compensation and an apology related to the relocations.
Mr. Anandasangaree says that partnership with Inuit is key to addressing current issues of Arctic sovereignty. For example, he said Defence Minister Bill Blair has met with Inuit leaders to discuss dual-use infrastructure that can be used by both the military and the local community.