Quebec Inuit holding own referendum

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Northern Quebec Inuit will hold their own referendum on the question of sovereignty to determine the fate of their own territory if the province decides to separate from Canada.

The vote will be held before the Quebec referendum, said Zebedee Nungak, president of Makivik Corporation, the voice of the province's 7,500 Inuit.

Inuit delegates attending a Toronto meeting passed a resolution supporting the referendum and their right to determine to remain an integral part of the Inuit nation in Canada.

"We are convinced we are standing on very firm legal and constitutional grounds when we are stating we have a fundamental objection to sovereignty," he said during a news conference held Aug. 21.

Quebec Inuit should determine the future of their own territory if Quebec separates, said Rosemarie Kuptana, president of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, the national political body of the nation's Inuit.

The Inuit of Canada regard Quebec Inuit as part of the family of the Inuit and the boundaries that separate them are artificial, set up by non-Inuit society, said Kuptana in an interview with the Globe and Mail.

"We consider ourselves to be an Inuit nation in Canada and part of a larger Inuit nation in the circumpolar region, she said. "We are a single people."

Quebec Inuit are also being urged to vote against separation in the general Quebec referendum. The question for the Inuit referendum will be determined based on the wording of the Quebec sovereignty question.