Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Gary Anandasangaree has formally apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the federal government’s role in the mass killing of sled dogs in the region in the 1950s and 1960s.
Anandasangaree delivered the apology Saturday evening at the local community centre of Kangiqsujuaq in Nunavik, the Inuit region of northern Quebec. Community members and elders who lived through the dog slaughter were in attendance. Representatives of the RCMP were also there to show their support for the apology.
“On behalf of the government of Canada and all Canadians, I am sorry, I am sorry. Please forgive us” he told attendees during a 15-minute speech that was received with a standing ovation by many in attendance.
“This was a horrendous betrayal…it should not have taken decades for Canada to apologize to Nunavik Inuit,” he said
The federal government apologized to Inuit in Nunavut for the RCMP’s role in the killing of sled dogs there in 2019.
Several representatives of Makivvik Corporation, which represents Inuit in Nunavik, also spoke during the ceremony. The organization has long advocated for acknowledgement from the federal and provincial governments of the harm caused by the dog slaughter.
Pita Aatami, president of the Makivvik Corporation, recalls the stories he was told about the sled dog slaughter in Nunavik.
Makivvik Corporation launched an investigation into the impacts of the dog slaughter in 1999, with reports from around 200 people. Those interviewed described how the slaughter of more than 1,000 sled dogs in the region prevented them from traveling on the land and hunting for their livelihoods, eroding their way of life.
The Quebec government has already apologized for its role in the killings.
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 “without any consideration for their importance to Inuit families.”
The federal government’s role in it, Croteau found, was failing to intervene or condemn the actions.
“The federal agents and civil servants failed to intervene on behalf of the government of Canada in its capacity as fiduciary when agents and civil servants of the government of Quebec took their operations to an extreme,” Croteau wrote in his report, noting that, in some cases, dogs were killed because of a perceived threat to the public after non-Inuit people were bitten.
“Without investigation and without asking the owners about the importance of the dogs they wanted to kill, without inquiring whether the dogs they wanted to kill constituted a real, serious and current danger to the people.”
In 2011, then-Quebec Premier Jean Charest formally apologized to Inuit in Nunavik for the province’s role, and settled with Makivvik for $3 million toward promoting and protecting Inuit language and culture.
The federal government has also said it will offer financial compensation to Inuit in Nunavik for the dog slaughter.
Makavvik Corporation president Pita Aatami said the organization was expecting a donation of $45 million from the federal government. The money will be split between direct compensation to survivors and initiatives to revitalize the culture of dog team ownership in Nunavik.