Report validates Arctic exiles

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A $60 million Royal Commission report on the relocation of 85 Inuit in the 1950s validates the testimony of the High Arctic exiles, said Rosemarie Kuptana, president of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada.

The report, which recommends the federal government compensate and apologize for the relocation of Inuit from northern Quebec to Ellesmere and Cornwallis Islands, is the most detailed and impartial review of the issue to date, Kuptana said.

The federal government of the day made the move look more attractive than it was, said the report. Ottawa promised an improved economy, with better hunting and fishing. But the reality of living in the remote islands, places farther north than any Inuit had ever traditionally settled, never lived up to the picture painted by the government.

Furthermore the Inuit were not told the move was initiated to wean the Inuit off welfare and return them to a more traditional way of life or that the Aboriginal families would be used to establish sovereignty over the North.

An apology from the federal government to the Inuit people for the relocation is recommended, the report said. An apology is very important in recognizing the Inuit's fundamental human rights, said Kuptana.

To recognize, acknowledge, and apologize for the wrong-doing would go a long way in mending relations between the Inuit and the government, she said.

The compensation is not the real issue. It's a matter of recognizing the pain and suffering that the people endured - are still enduring - that is the issue.

It's become a multi-generational issue which is now splitting the community, said Kuptana. The older generation want to move back to their old lands, but the children who were born in the North want to stay put.

It's up to ITC and other interested groups to push for the full and timely implementation of the commission's recommendations. But for some these recommendations come too late. One of the exiles who testified before the commission passed away the week the report was made public, Kuptana said. She'll never know how much she contributed to the process.