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The leader of Ivujivik's evangelical congregation, the Full Gospel Church, faces trial next January in connection with incidents dating back ten years
JANE GEORGE
Nunatsiaq News
PUVIRNITUQ Another religious leader in Nunavik has been charged with sexual offences involving a child.
Lucassie Kanarjuak, 51, was arraigned in Quebec Court Nov. 13 on three separate sex charges sexual interference, incitement to sexual touching and sexual assault.
Kanarjuak is a pastor with Ivujivik's Full Gospel Church, which was burned down last summer under mysterious circumstances. The offences, involving an 11-year-old boy, are alleged to have occurred in this community of 275 residents between April 1987 and March 1990.
Quebec circuit court judge Donald Bissonnette has set January 22 as the trial date.
Under the Criminal Code, Kanarjuak faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. But crown prosecutor Marie-Chantale Brassard said that because the pastor has no previous criminal record, it's likely that a guilty verdict would result in a reduced sentence, probably on the order of 18 months.
Last September, Iyestsiak Simigak, an Anglican deacon from Kangirsuk was jailed for eight months after pleading guilty to charges of sexual exploitation and one count of sexual interference.
In addition to his position as pastor of Ivujivik's Full Gospel congregation, Kanarjuak was known locally for many years as the proprietor of a small store called the Mushroom Shop, so-named for its ever-plentiful stock of canned mushrooms.
The complainant is still living in the community.
Revelations of the charges against the pastor have disturbed worshippers, who are encouraged to follow the evangelical church's strict moral and spiritual teachings.
A member of the Full Gospel Church in Quaqtaq was greatly saddened by news that sex charges were once again being leveled against a man in a position of trust and leadership.
Members of the Full Gospel Church do not drink alcohol, they discourage smoking tobacco they are not permitted to substitute marriage with common-law relationships.
Pastor Russell LeGassick, a spokesman with the Canadian Fellowship of Churches and Ministries, a non-denominational organization to which Full Gospel churches belong, said sexual abuse would not be tolerated by the Full Gospel Church.
"We follow the word of God, and outside the marriage bed, there is to be no sexual activity. Period," LeGassick said.
LeGassick also leads the New Beginnings Full Gospel Church in Lasalle, near Montreal, which often welcomes visiting worshippers from Nunavik.
He said that pastors are only people who can "fall into the snare of the devil." They can also repent and be forgiven, LeGassick said.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsThe Baffin's former regional director is the new chief executive officer of the health board.
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT The new chief executive officer for the Baffin health board has been given two instructions get the planning for a new regional hospital back on track and complete a review of southern specialist services before the end of the year.
Dennis Patterson, the chair of the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services Board, announced the temporary appointment of Ken MacRury to the CEO position in a press release Monday.
The announcement comes after weeks of speculation about the future of Pat Kermeen, who's held the position since last fall.
MacRury, a career bureaucrat with the GNWT, will fill the job while Kermeen is on sick leave, Patterson said, speculating that that leave will extend at least into late January.
When, or if, Kermeen will return to the post at that time is under review.
"We're still discussing Pat Kermeen's future with the board," Patterson said about the length of MacRury's appointment. "He's acting for the time being. It looks like she's going to be on sick leave for some time."
MacRury, who's taken a leave from his position as executive director of the Nunavut Research Institute, represented the territorial government on the health board when he was a GNWT regional director several years ago.
MacRury's job is essentially to tidy up issues which have been in flux during the past several months.
Patterson said his "very clear instructions" to MacRury include overseeing the planning for the new hospital and completing a review of the delivery of southern specialist services to Baffin residents.
He added MacRury has also been asked to develop a communication plan between the board, its emloyees and the public.
In his review of southern services, MacRury will visit medical operations in both Montreal and Ottawa. He's expected to make recommendations to the board on long-term arrangements for southern specialist services by the end of the calendar year.
Health Minister Kelvin Ng asked for a cost-benefit analysis and review after the board decided to move specialist services from Montreal to Ottawa earlier this year.
"It's not just a need to respond to the minister, the reality is we cannot afford to continue supporting two services for much longer," Patterson said.
When the board announced it would move specialist services, it also agreed to grandfather current relationships between Baffin residents and Montreal doctors. The result has been a duplication of southern services.
A majority still going to Montreal
"The health board has been sending new patients those without a previously existing relationship with a physician to Ottawa, but those who have been in the care of specialists from Montreal are being sent there," Patterson said.
"The patients' preferences are certainly resulting in significant numbers, in fact probably a majority of patients, being sent to Montreal. Obviously, it can't be sustained long term."
He added discussions have reopened with the Montreal-McGill program about its services.
"Everything is being looked at afresh and they seem quite willing to reopen discussions with us," Patterson said. "It seems that no bridges have been burnt."
MacRury will report to the board when it meets early next month in Iqaluit. He will also oversee a public meeting on Dec. 4 in Iqaluit to discuss the future of health issues in the region.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsIgloolik's independent television production company isn't giving up in its fight for public tendering of aboriginal televsion work.
ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT An Igloolik-based independent production company may be getting the brush-off, but its owners aren't ready to throw in the towel just yet.
Instead, Igloolik Isuma Productions Inc's owners are digging in their heels.
Last month the company asked the federal Canadian Heritage department to open up its sole-sourced funding system of aboriginal radio and television programming to public tender.
Canadian Heritage gives $10 million annually to 14 native communication organizations in Canada, including the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and Television Northern Canada.
Heritage Canada recently responded to Isuma's proposal, which includes moving the southern management of IBC and TVNC to its Nunavut base.
Isuma suggested in its proposal that tax dollars being spent on southern management could be better used to improve the quality of aboriginal programming.
"All of the organizations funded are governed by contribution agreements which regulate the use of the funds, impose strict financial reporting procedures and require independent audits to be conducted annually," states a letter to Isuma from Canadian Heritage signed by Debra Young, the assistant director of the citizens' participation directorate, and Sandra Graham,the assistant director of broadcasting services policy.
"By virtue of these contribution agreements the department is legally bound to the 14 broadcasting societies. A tendering process is not an option."
Isuma's secretary-treasurer said the response is ambiguous.
"We're not taking that letter as a rejection," Norman Cohn said. "On the other hand, it's certainly not an invitation to participate. We're taking that letter as a brush-off, if we agree to be brushed off."
And it doesn't. Zacharias Kunuk, a former IBC producer and president of Isuma, called on the department to publish government documents evaluating the productivity and financial accountability of these organizations.
"It's our money," Kunuk said. "We simply have a right to ask questions about it. We're talking millions of taxpayers dollars every year for 15 years going to what they call aboriginal broadcasting."
Cohn added taxpayers have the right to see how their money is being spent.
That's why Isuma is requesting to see an up-to-date audience survey and quality evaluation of TVNC and its affliated members. Isuma also wants to see the contribution agreements that Canadian Heritage says restricts it from opening up the sole-sourced contract to public tendering.
"We're basically calling for the release of information," Cohn said. "We're not presuming that we would win the tender, we're arguing that we should have the right to tender."
Cohn said that while independent production is booming across southern Canada, independent aboriginal producers are struggling in the North under the current system.
"Part of what we're arguing is that the way the system is set up it's almost impossible for any independent production company to exist," Cohn said.
"The set-up is totally stacked against the survival of an independent production company. There's nobody to sell your programs to. The television channel won't put you on."
Cohn said Canadian Heritage has yet to respond to its Isumas latest request.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsA Toronto-based firm called Kit Resources has a new plan to develop the Kitikmeot's Izok Lake site.
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Kit Resources Ltd. of Toronto has announced its intention to develop a zinc and copper mine at Izok Lake the same property in the west Kitikmeot that Metall Mining Corporation shelved and walked away from four years ago.
The company has signed a letter of intent to buy the Izok Lake site from the Inmet Mining Corporation for $40 million U.S.
Kit Resources, formerly known as Arauco Resources Ltd., already owns rights to several gold properties covering 138,000 acres of Inuit-owned land near George Lake south of Bathurst Inlet and the Back River.
Deep sea port at Bathurst Inlet
It's counting on the eventual construction of a deep-sea port in Bathurst Inlet to make the Izok lake base-metals operation feasible.
"By putting Izok Lake together with George Lake, hopefully under one infrastructure, we can maybe save some money all the way around and make the thing work," Kerry Knoll, a spokesman for Kit Resources said.
Situated 83 kilometres west of Echo bay's Lupin gold mine, Izok Lake is thought to contain one of the richest undeveloped base metal deposits in North America. The property is known to contain deposits of zinc, copper, lead and silver.
A highly publicized proposal by Metall now called Inmet to develop the Izok Lake property fell apart four years ago. Metall eventually shelved the project, citing low world base metal prices and the high cost of financing a road to a proposed deep water port on Coronation Gulf.
But the project's prospects look somewhat brighter now that the Canadian Hydrographic Service has completed charting Bathurst Inlet, demonstrating its potential as a site for a deep-sea port.
Sharing cost of port?
Previous studies have shown a privately funded port site near Coppermine on the Coronation Gulf would be too expensive.
"Now if that can be shared among three or four different mines, then suddenly things change," Knoll said.
A number of mining companies in the region, along with the GNWT, helped pay for the $900,000 study in Bathurst Inlet last summer. The results were made known two weeks ago.
The move by Kit Resources to buy Izok Lake is part of the company's regional strategy to acquire projects in the region that will complement its George Lake gold project.
The company also envisions developing a network of roads linking the proposed port with its own George Lake property and other mining projects to lower operation costs in the region.
"Ship transport is the cheapest transport in the world," Knoll said. "So if you can supply something by ship and then only have to take it a couple of hundred kilometres, you're going to save an enormous amount of money."
Ties with Nunasi Corporation
Kit Resources' chief executive officer, John Zigarlick, is well known in the Kitikmeot region as the past president of Echo Bay Mines. He is currently president of Nuna Logistics, a contracting firm specializing in mining infrastructure that's 51 per cent owned by the Nunasi Corporation.
Under the terms of the sale, Kit Resources has paid Inmet $100,000 and will pay another $900,000 within the next 90 days. The remaining US $39 million is due on or before May 31, 1998.
"We're now looking at financing it partly by bringing in another mining company as a partner," Knoll said.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsA group of mining companies wants to build a port near Bathurst Inlet to transport minerals from proposed mines at Izok Lake and George Lake.
DWANE WILKIN
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT A study conducted by the Canadian Hydrographic Service has revived interest in building a deep-sea port in the Kitikmeot region.
Kit Resources Ltd. formerly known as Arauco Resources and several other mining companies, along with the GNWT, raised $900,000 last summer to chart the waters at the southern end of Bathurst Inlet.
The results show that water levels and the contours of the inlet are indeed suitable for large sea-going vessels.
"We think a site there would lower the mining costs of any project in that area," said Kerry Knoll, a spokesman for Kit Resources Ltd.
The inlet is only 160 kilometres from an existing winter-road system that serves the Lupin gold mine.
And it's just 70 kilometres north of the George Lake gold mining project owned by Kit Resources, the company that has most recently been floating the idea for a port.
"We're talking about a port. We're not talking about a massive infrastructure," Knoll said.
"We're talking about a dock with some cranes, similar to what they would have at Polaris or Nanisivik a place where a ship can dock, where you can unload fuel, and where you can load concentrate onto a ship."
Kit Resources Ltd. recently announced its intention to take over the Izok Lake base-metals property from Inmet Mining Corporation formerly known as Metall Corporation.
The project was shelved four years ago because high transportation costs would have made any mine there financially unsustainable.
"There's no way that Izok Lake could be built without a port site somewhere," Knoll said.
A number of other mining companies operating in the region could also benefit from the lower cost of an ocean-based supply route, he said.
Currently, fuel and other supplies must be hauled up to 2,300 kilometres from Edmonton by rail, and across winter ice-roads.
The Kitikmeot Inuit Association, through its birthright development corporation, Kitikmeot Corp., has been asked to play a prominent role in building and operating any future port.
"We're looking to them to be very directly involved in that port site," Knoll said.
"There are a number of different ways it could come to fruition," Knoll said. "But there's a very strong possiblilty that it could become a privately funded consortium that could own this operation and lease it out to the users at the various mine sites."
Mining companies previously considered building a port near Coppermine in the Coronation Gulf, but studies showed it wouldn't work.
Back to Nunatsiaq NewsANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Officials working within the northern justice system favor a single unified court for Nunavut, but the signatories to the Nunavut political accord have yet to endorse the idea.
Justice officials recommended combining the Nunavut territorial and supreme courts after meeting for two days in Iqaluit last week.
That meeting, hosted by Nunavut's interim commissioner, was a recommendation from the Nunavut Implementation Commission's Footprints 2 report last October.
Within that report, NIC also presented the proposal to blend the two courts.
"The NIC detects a widespread belief on the part of those who work in the justice system on a day-to-day basis particularly the criminal justice component that the current system is not working well and that problems are growing at an alarming rate," the report states.
"As a general proposition, the NIC supports the unification of the courts in Nunavut, particularly if such unification can be accomplished in ways that enhance involvement and confidence at the community level and that address perceptions on the part of the public, and well-placed organizations such as Pauktuutit, as to what parts of the justice system warrant greatest attention and most pressing change."
Rebecca Williams, director of justice programs for the interim commissioner's office, said all the recommendations from the workshop will be sent to the federal government, GNWT and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc (NTI) by the end of this week.
NTI, in its response to Footprints 2, has already agreed in principle with the unification of the courts.
Justice officials also recommended there be three Supreme Court justices, that they live in Nunavut, and that they take cross-cultural training. More involvement with community groups was also discussed.
"Even though they're Supreme Court judges, they must involve the community justice groups on all aspects of hearings on all cases," Williams said.
"Another important issue was that judges must be appointed jointly by the Nunavut government and the government of Canada."
Currently, the GNWT appoints territorial judges while Supreme Court appointments are made by the federal government
Back to TopJIM BELL
Nunatsiaq News
IQALUIT Hay River MLA Jane Groenewegen says her constituents have asked her to conduct an investigation into widespread rumours of corruption within the upper ranks of the territorial government.
"They are concerned about the many rumours that have been going around about this government," Groenewegen said this week.
She said that at a public constituency meeting in Hay River Nov. 13, many Hay River residents expressed deep concerns about the ethical conduct of the GNWT.
Groenewegen said constituents referred to an investigation by the RCMP commerical crime squad, the uproar over the GNWT's Keewatin resupply proposal, and other matters relating to the activities of certain highly-placed GNWT officials.
"I said I would look into it," Groenewegen said, saying that after she's finished her work, she'll seek a legal opinion, and then decide on further action.
When asked if she is thinking about making a formal conflict of interest complaint under the terms of the conflict of interest section of the Executive Council Act, Groenewegen said that's a decision she'll make only after her own work is done and she's recieved a legal opinion.
But she said that never before has she heard so many complaints about corruption in the GNWT.
"Either the GNWT has a serious corruption problem or they have a serious communication problem," Groenewegen said.
She also said that she, along with other MLAs, are likely to ask questions about those issues at a one-day session scheduled for Dec. 2, and when the Assembly resumes at the end of January next year.
"I think it'll be interesting," Groenewegen said.
Back to TopA message to the premiers
Congratulations to the premiers for attempting to deal with Canada's unity problems by putting together the Calgary Declaration. The Declaration certainly has not mobilized Canadians to get behind the effort to recognize Quebec's "unique" character, but it is better than nothing.
The main problem with the Declaration, as far as aboriginal peoples are concerned, is that it is stuck in 1980's when provincial and federal leaders first got together with the aboriginal leadership to discuss our place in this country. If one were to examine the proceedings of those premiers and the prime minister at that time, they might as well have been on another planet when it came to understanding what we feel is our proper place in Canada.
Since that time, many people in government and in the general public have learned a good deal about our history and have a much better understanding of our desire to reconcile with the rest of Canadian society. We see the need to deal with the Quebec issue, but we also feel that we should not be relegated to a secondary agenda to be dealt with "later on." Unlike the separatists, we want to be part of the solution.
It is wrong for the premiers to attempt to exclude us from taking part in decisions about the future of Canada. This is our country and we must insist that the Constitution of Canada recognize our contribution to the character of this country and our right to be involved in guiding it into the future. This is our home and native land and no one has a bigger stake in its future.
As this little corner predicted many years ago, we might end up being the glue which holds the country together. I would suggest to the premiers, that instead of trying to brush us to the sidelines, they invite the aboriginal peoples to be front and centre in the effort to make Canada a good nation.
The attitudes of Peter Lougheed and Brian Peckford towards aboriginal peoples belong in the past. Let them stay there.
Back to TopNo one wants Keewatin pipeline
When Goo Arlooktok came to Arviat under public pressure to discuss with the community this proposed pipeline November 6, he made a commitment to us stating that a decision would be made 'no later than Monday' (10 November) accompanied by a public announcement reflecting the wishes of the people in regards to the pipeline project.
He also stated he would honor the decision which was to come out of the mayors meeting held in Whale Cove this past weekend. All of the mayors were in agreement except for Coral Harbour that this proposed project should not proceed.
Why has an announcement not been made to date?
It appears the only people with something to gain from this 'plan' are two of our ministers and our interim commissioner.
At best, this pipeline scheme does not address any of the vital issues, such as the environmental issue, the dry cargo issue or the community issues.
At worst, the alleged 'savings' derived from such a plan are not really at the heart of the issue, but rather it takes on the appearance of a final gasp of particular ministers to fulfill personal agendas, and to leave their lasting impression on the Nunavut government with no benefit for the ordinary people. It takes on the stench of control, power and money.
The honorable minister assured us he was listening to the people. I hope so.
I suspect as result of this letter, we still may not get a clear announcement and most probably since this community has been most vocal against the minister's wishes, we will no doubt continue to suffer reprisals both economically and socially.
Don St. John
Arviat
(Editor's note: Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo said last week that he will make an announcement regarding the GNWT's Keewatin resupply pipeline project on November 28.)
Back to TopNo support for treatment
As many residents of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories know, Canada's national addiction awareness week ended Nov. 22 last Saturday.
For nearly 10 years now, this week has been used to distribute information about addictions to alcohol, non-medical drugs and other substances, and what communities and individuals can do to recover from them.
People in many aboriginal and northern Canadian communities have participated enthusiastically in these campaigns and for good reason. Alcoholism and drug addiction is still destroying entire families and communities and threatens to destroy entire peoples, cultures and languages.
Unfortunately, the people of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories lag far behind many other aborginal jurisdictions in coming to terms with this issue.
The policies of the government of the Northwest Territories, for example, fail to recognize that alcohol and drug addictions are legitimate diseases, for which all residents are entitled to be treated in the same way as they would be treated for any other disease that threatens their health and well-being.
Instead, the GNWT has produced a bizarre system for funding treatment centres that would not be tolerated in any other field of health care.
Under that system, treatment centres are funded under a "per diem" system. That means that for every day a patient attends a treatment program, the treatment centre gets a fixed amount of money. More patients staying for more days equals more money. Fewer patients staying for fewer days equals less money.
The most ridiculous part of the GNWT's plan is the idea that the treatment centres and their badly underpaid employees should go out and "recruit" patients by themselves.
Does it make sense to have a health care system under which hospitals, nursing stations and clinics are expected to "recruit" patients? Of course not. Neither does this make any sense for treatment centres.
Centres for the treatment of alcohol and drug addiction should, therefore, be regarded as integral parts of the territorial health care system. Indeed, it makes no sense not to do so like hospitals, nursing stations and clinics, they treat people who suffer from disease.
That means that those employees who provide such treatment be paid as territorial government employees and be entitled to membership in the Union of Northern Workers. It also means that treatment centres recieved a stable, reliable core of money from one year to the next.
The right kind of role model
There are role models and then there are role models.
NIC Chief Commissioner John Amagoalik, who finally received some long deserved recognition last month when he received an honorary doctoral degree from St. Mary's University in Nova Scotia, is the right kind of "role model."
He deserves this recognition for many good reasons. But one of the best reasons, perhaps, are the personal qualities that Amagoalik has displayed in the difficult battles that he has fought and won on behalf of Inuit.
If there's anyone entitled to feel anger, bitterness and resentment about how white governments have treated Inuit, it's Amagoalik and others of his generation.
But in all his dealings with government, whether it be his efforts on behalf of the High Arctic exiles, his work on the creation of Nunavut, or his participation in national constitutional discussions, Amagoalik's message has always been centered on the need for reconciliation and mutual respect.
The great American theologian, Reinhold Niebuhr, had a name for that ability. He called it "the spiritual discipline against resentment." We call it character.
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