By Nia Williams
(Reuters) – Canada’s government apologized on Saturday to the Inuit of northern Quebec for the mass killing of sled dogs in the 1950s and 1960s, which devastated communities by depriving them of the ability to hunt and travel.
Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree traveled to Kangiqsujuaq in the Nunavik region to make the apology and pledged C$45 million ($32.19 million) in compensation.
Another government apology comes in 2019 to the Inuit of the Qikiqtani region, which includes Baffin Island, for the effects of traumatic federal policies, including family separation and the killing of sled dogs, known as qimmiit.
“Today, the Government of Canada accepted responsibility for its role in a terrible historical injustice and expressed its deep regret and sincere apology for the harm inflicted by the qimmiit massacre in Nunavik,” Anandasangaree said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and other authorities killed thousands of sled dogs in Inuit settlements from the mid-1950s onward, said Pita Aatami, president of Makivvik, the organization representing Quebec’s Inuit. .
Sled dog teams were an integral part of Inuit culture and hunting traditions, and allowed rapid travel across the vast frozen landscapes of Canada’s far north. They were also instrumental in hunting seals and caribou.
The unjustified killing of the sled dogs led to food and economic insecurity for the Inuit of Nunavik and the loss of traditional ways of accessing the land, and caused deep and lasting emotional wounds, the government said in a statement.
“They were taken away from their independence, they could no longer go out on the land and there was no means to hunt,” Aatami told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that the apology and compensation should have been made a long time ago.
“It’s been an intergenerational trauma and it’s taken me 25 years of my life to get here,” he said.
The RCMP launched an internal investigation into the killing of sled dogs in 2006 and cleared itself of any wrongdoing, saying the killings were carried out in the interest of public safety.
But Aatami and other Inuit leaders say the dogs were shot to keep the mostly nomadic Inuit in settled communities, and compared the killings to other major impacts of colonization, including the relocation of families to other parts of Canada and the obligation to send children to residential schools. .
In 2011, the Quebec government apologized for the dog slaughter that took place in Nunavik by police and government in the 1950s and 1960s.
($1 = 1.3980 Canadian dollars)