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Igloolik man jailed 12 years for 30-year reign of abuse

A 62-year-old Igloolik elder who terrorized his victims for 30 years will serve one of the harshest sentences ever imposed on a sexual abuser in the NWT.

DWANE WILKIN

Nunatsiaq News

Editor's note: The following story contains details that may be disturbing for some readers.

IQALUIT - Intoxicated and quarrelsome after a night out drinking, Ham Qaunaq loaded his 30-30 lever-action rifle and squeezed off two rounds into the wall of his house.

A taxi driver who drove him home that evening had pulled Qaunaq's wife Lydia out of the house moments earlier, fearing that the lifelong hunter would shoot her.

Upstairs, one of the couple's teenage boys hid in terror as the shots rang out. It was the last bullet that Ham Qaunaq would fire for a very long time.

In the days that followed Qaunaq's arrest in April, 1996 by members of the RCMP detachment in Igloolik, other witnesses came forward with alarming new allegations.

As authorities widened the scope of their investigation, a tragic tale of habitual sexual and emotional abuse began to unfold.

Three decades of abuse

Last week in an Igloolik courtroom, Qaunaq, a 62-year-old grandfather, was sentenced to a total of 12 years in prison for committing incest, rape and assault over a period of three decades.

So ended a reign of terror that had poisoned the lives of five close family members, whose riveting testimony at times moved members of the court to tears.

Though originally charged with 31 separate violations, the court accepted Qaunaq's decision to plead guilty to ten of the charges - including a count of assault against his wife dating to the late 1950s - and dropped the remaining charges.

In handing down the sentence, Justice John Vertes noted that Qaunaq, though a distinguished hunter and a good provider, had failed both as a father and a husband.

His abusive and violent behavior created an atmosphere that instilled a sense of fear and shame in his victims throughout their formative years, Vertes said.

Were it not for the fact Qaunaq has already spent the last year-and-a-half in remand, his crimes would have warranted a jail term of 15 years, Vertes told the court.

Life-long firearms ban

Qaunaq is further banned for life from using or possessing a firearm, except for hunting and only with the permission of local police, who are otherwise to keep his guns in their custody.

"It is a significant sentence," crown prosecutor Diane Sylvain, a six-year veteran of the courts in Canada's North, commented afterwards.

"It is one of the highest that I know of."

The final sentence was close to what the prosecution had requested, a prison term of 12-to-15 years. Defence lawyer Susan Cooper had asked for a lighter penalty of eight to 10 years.

In a preliminary inquiry held at Iqaluit in October, Qaunaq's female victims described a pattern of frequent sexual abuse punctuated by death threats, booze and fits of violent temper.

One of Qaunaq's victims was just 11 years old when he began to have sexual intercourse with her, beginning in 1969. The abuse lasted for six years, until the victim married and moved away.

Another victim, who Qaunaq abused right up until 1992, was just 12 when he began to have intercourse with her in 1978. The same complainant also testified that her own mother accused her of lying when, on one occasion as a teenager, she attempted to alert her to Qaunaq's behavior.

Still another witness testified how, after spurning Qaunaq's sexual advances as an 11-year-old, she began sleeping with a knife under her pillow for protection.

By age 13, she had learned to sleep with her eyes open - something she was still doing right up until Qaunaq was taken into custody.

"Derelict and depraved actions"

Although alcohol evidently fueled Qaunaq's rage, booze could not excuse his derelict and depraved actions, Vertes said. No sooner had the hunter started his family in the 1950s did he show his propensity for impulsive violence.

In 1958, while the couple were still living on the land, Lydia Qaunaq testified that she was beaten by her husband with the blunt end of a meat cleaver and ordered to cook something on the fire.

Qaunaq pleaded guilty last week to assault causing bodily harm.

Three of Qaunaq's sexual abuse victims delivered impact statements to the court prior to sentencing.

Given that Qaunaq is a unilingual Inuktitut speaker, Justice Vertes recommended that he serve his time in a northern correctional facility.

He has been held in remand at the Baffin Regional Correctional Centre in Iqaluit since his arrest.

GNWT caves in on Keewatin resuppply proposal

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Whether fuel gets delivered to Keewatin communities by barge or by ocean-going tankers will be up to the first Nunavut government to decide.

NWT Public Works Minister Goo Arlooktoo announced last week that he has suspended plans to introduce a direct fuel resupply system until after April 1, 1999.

"After my recent meetings in the Keewatin I have concluded that residents don't have enough information to feel comfortable with the proposed resupply change," Arlooktoo said in a press release.

Arlooktoo said that postponing the planned changes to the fuel delivery system would allow GNWT time to complete charting the waters off the Keewatin coast and to compile a detailed report of its recommendations for the new Nunavut government.

Opponents of the GNWT's Keewatin resupply plans had been asking for a dealy for the same reasons.

Construction of shoreline fuel-receiving facilities has also been put on hold for the life of the current government.

The GNWT, meanwhile, will complete research by the end of next year on the potential environmental impact of tanker resupply and examine its effect on the cost, timing and frequency of sealifts in the region.

Arlooktoo said he is still committed to the direct resupply proposal contained in the final report of the Keewatin Marine Resupply Committee. The committee concluded that the most economic option for fuel delivery in the Keewatin is direct delivery by tankers.

Fuel is currently delivered by rail to a tank farm in Churchill, Manitoba, then barged to each community by Northern Transportation Company Ltd. (NTCL).

The GNWT's contract with NTCL for fuel resupply in the Keewatin expires at the end of 1998.

In order to ensure that there is sufficient time to purchase and arrange shipping of fuel for the 1999 delivery season, the GNWT believes a new bulk fuel contract must be tendered no later than February or March, 1998.

One of the implications of the marine resupply committee's report, therefore, is that Nunavut's interim commissioner will have to support a new multi-year contract for fuel delivery.

New boss of Baffin health board begins the clean-up

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Boosting staff morale and cleaning up remaining financial problems are two priorities on a checklist of seven big items on Ken MacRury's to-do list.

Ken MacRury, appointed interim chief executive officer of the Baffin Regional Health and Social Services board on November 24, told board members his priorities are to "resolve many of the problems that are obvious to the people who've cared to look at them."

"There are extensive issues at the hospital, at the administration end, that have got to be resolved," MacRury told the board when he met with them for the first time in Iqaluit Monday.

"We'll be setting up small working groups to tackle some of the major problems the board is dealing with," MacRury added.

MacRury takes over from Pat Kermeen, who's currently on sick leave. Board chair Dennis Patterson said she's expected to be on leave at least until late January.

Staff demoralized

The new CEO has already met with staff in an attempt to boost low staff morale, a problem MacRury says permeates the system.

"The staff is demoralized and many have left," he said. "At the board management level, there has not been an emphasis on human resources.

"There's been change in just about everything and very little stability," he told board members. "This has caused a high degree of anxiety in the staff. If we don't have to do it immediately, we're not going to do it."

But, he admitted, there are several pressing issues. At the end of the month, the hospital's three- year accreditation expires. Accreditation status certifies that the hospital meets at least the minimum health care service requirements.

MacRury said he's also completing a cost-benefit analysis of medical services provided in both Montreal and Ottawa.

Health Minister Kelvin Ng ordered the analysis after the board decided to move its southern specialist service from the McGill-Baffin program in Montreal to the Ottawa Heart Institute earlier this year.

Medevac service needs replacement

The future of medevac nursing services is another area MacRury said needs immediate attention and he criticized the previous administration for letting it drag on unresolved for nearly a year.

"The problem is recognized and it's been going on for 10 months to try and resolve it," he said. "It's been talk, talk, talk and no decisions."

Last February, the six-member medevac nursing team was disbanded. The nurses working on that team were trained in critical care and accompanied patients who needed to be medevaced from a community. How to replace that service in the long-term has been under review since then.

In the short-term, the board contracts two professional nurses for the service. That contract expires in mid-January.

"This has been extensively reviewed," MacRury said, adding his staff is currently preparing a request for proposals for the provision of this service.

Doctors, nurses badly needed

Recruiting physicians and nurses are two other problem areas, he pointed out. MacRury said at one point the number of physicians at the hospital dipped to as low as two from eight.

In the communities, the situation with nursing staff is similar. In Igloolik, for example, the nursing station only has two of the four nurses it needs.

Possible deficit?

Finally, MacRury will be meeting with the director of finance from the GNWT's department of health.

"We could have a finance problem," he warned board members, adding the territorial government covered off the board's $400,000 deficit last year.

People in Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit are mourning the death of Ian Todd, NWT Finance Minister John Todd's 29-year-old son.

LEEVEDE ATAGOYUK

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Ian Todd, 29, the son of NWT Finance Minister John Todd, died suddenly on Nov. 30 after a fire swept through a house where he was staying in Lancaster, Ontario.

Lancaster is just east of Cornwall, Ontario, near the Ontario-Quebec border.

Todd died of smoke inhalation, says Hugh McClements, an officer with the Ontario Provincial Police detachment in Lancaster. Four other occupants of the house escaped.

McClements says smoke detectors alarmed the other four occupants, but unfortunately, Ian Todd wasn't able to escape. Authorities had to use dental records to identify his body. The fire was caused, McClements said, when hot grease used to make french fries ignited in the kitchen of the house at about 6:30 on the morning of Nov. 30. The four people who escaped are: Robie Pupiatic of Chisasibi, Quebec; Gilles Belouis from Paris, France; Ranald Carrabin from Toulon, France; and Joshua Boles of Fergus, Ontario. Paul Williams, the Anglican pastor in Rankin Inlet, said a funeral service for Ian Todd was to have been held at the Maani Ulujuk gym in Rankin on Wednesday evening. Also on Wednesday, a memorial service was to have been held in Iqaluit. Fred Alt, First Air's base manager for Iqaluit, said Ian Todd was in Cornwall, Ontario to take pilot training courses. Alt says Todd had almost finished his course when the tragedy occurred. "Everytime for the last couple of years, he's been going down and working for us. He took leaves of absence to take flying lessons and advanced that way," Alt said. "This was a very, very sad incident. He was a very keen young man and had a dream. He loved flying, he wanted to be a pilot. He came this close," he said.

Ottawa, Inuit talk about health money transfer

Ottawa wants to talk to Inuit about transferring control of aboriginal health benefits to regional Inuit organizations.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - The federal department of health eventually wants to turn over responsibility of aboriginal health care to local groups as it revamps its aboriginal health benefits program.

Dr Jay Wortman, the director general of Health Canada's Medical Services Branch, met this week with Inuit leaders from Labrador, Nunavik, Nunavut and the Western Arctic to discuss a new mandate for Ottawa's Non-Insured Health Benefits (NIHB) program.

That program, the cornerstone of Indian and Inuit health spending, accounts for 52 per cent of the nearly $1 billion that Ottawa spends on aboriginal health care in Canada.

For the past several years, the federal government has been moving towards devolving responsibility for delivery of the program to Inuit groups.

Registered Indians and eligible Innu and Inuit, regardless of income or place of residence in Canada, qualify for NIHB benefits.

It's a national program that provides health benefits above and beyond those offered by territorial and provincial health insurance programs.

The program pays for prescription drugs, medical supplies and equipment, dental and eye care, mental health, and medical transportation

The program was introduced in 1979 and was heavily criticized by the Auditor General of Canada in 1993. Since then, Health Canada has been looking at ways of revamping the program.

The Assembly of First Nations - the national organization for Canada's treaty and status Indians - has been the driving force for years in getting Health Canada, in particular its Medical Services Branch (MSB) involved in discussions around proposed changes to the program.

Inuit have only recently been participating in discussions over the turnover of NIHB programs to aboriginal people.

"We're way behind in terms of being involved," Inuvialuit leader Nellie Cournoyea told delegates at an NIHB workshop in Iqaluit this week.

To date, Inuit have only been involved in a cursory way.

In June, 1995, after more than two years of nation-wide consultation with southern aboriginal groups, Ottawa opened up involvement in the process to Inuit and First Nations groups in the North. Only one information session was held - in Labrador.

"I think there's some misunderstanding about how involved we were," a Labrador Inuit Association representative told delegates. "We were involved solely by the invitation of AFN and we were not representing all the Inuit of Canada."

Consultation was completed last June, however the official report has yet to be distributed publicly. A few northern leaders were given draft copies in September.

Despite this delay, however, Inuit groups are being given five months - an extension of an earlier deadline - to respond to the report presented at the meeting this week. The report outlines a draft framework for a new mandate for the NIHB system.

"ITC (Inuit Tapirisat of Canada) doesn't have the financial or human resources to start consultations, so five months... it's too short," said the national Inuit organization's president, Okalik Eegeesiak.

"All the terms and conditions (in the report) are subject to discussions during the workshop," Wortman said. "That's what the framework document is all about."

Wortman said Ottawa wants to finish a framework agreement for health transfers by April 1, 1998, after which negotiations on specific transfers will start.

NIC chief's house gutted by fire last weekend

LEEVEDE ATAGOYUK
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - The Nunavut Implementation Commission's chief commissioner, John Amagoalik, suffered second degree burns on both hands last weekend in a fire that caused extensive damage to the inside of his house.

Iqaluit fire chief Neville Wheaton says his department received the called at 11:07 Friday evening. He said Amagoalik was the only one in the house at the time and he managed to get out of the front door.

"It appears an ashtray was dumped into the garbage can, or a cigarette butt was thrown in," Wheaton said of the apparent cause of the fire. "The contents in the garbage set it on fire, and then set fire to the mattress."

Amagoalik suffered burns to his hands. "I got second degree burns on both my thumbs. But that's about the extent of it. It's not too bad. I don't feel any pain."

He said he and his family moved to another place earlier this week.

Wheaton says they don't know what the extent of the damage is. He says the porch, the stairwell and the ceiling all sustained damage, and there was a fair amount of heat damage both upstairs and downstairs.

He says accidental fires like this are quite common. "A lot of the people assume, if the ashtray hasn't been used in a while, then they think the cigarette butts are cold and in a lot of instances, it takes a long time for butts to cool down in the ashtray."

Wheaton suggests using metal ashtrays or disposing of the butts in the toilet.

Iqaluit firefighters attended the blaze until shortly after one in the morning.

Donation drive to help family

Simon Awa, the NIC's executive director, said anyone who wants to donate items to help the Amagoalik family may bring them to the NIC office at building 987 in Iqaluit.

People who want information about how to help may phone him at either 979-4199 or 979-3669.

He also said accounts will be set up at the Northern store and the Royal Bank for those who wish to make cash donations.

MLAs pass quicky unity resolution

They came, they voted, they went. NWT MLAs met briefly in Yellowknife Dec. 2 to pass a resolution on national unity.

ANNETTE BOURGEOIS
Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - Northerners want stronger references made to aboriginal people during national Canadian unity debates.

That's a message heard from many NWT residents who responded to a national unity questionnaire distributed by the NWT legislative assembly last month. They felt there must be references to aboriginal peoples that reflect both the historic and current realities of their status in Canada.

Territorial MLAs met Tuesday in a special sitting of the legislative assembly to discuss national unity. During that sitting, MLAs passed a resolution outlining their position.

"It is important that our resolution reflect the concerns of northerners and, in particular, aboriginal peoples," said Premier Don Morin.

"Other jurisdictions in Canada are looking to the Northwest Territories for leadership on aboriginal participation and how that can best be included in an agreement to foster national unity."

MLAs have been asking their constituents for weeks to comment on the Calgary Declaration, a framework of seven points developed to focus discussions during the unity debate.

All of Canada's premiers - except Quebec's - endorsed the document Sept. 14 in Calgary.

Territories a "dynamic and vital" region

In their resolution, MLAs agree that all Canadian governments have the responsibility to preserve and promote a united federation. The resolution also states that the peoples, lands and institutions of Canada's northern territories comprise a "dynamic and vital" region of Canada.

The resolution further states that territorial governments must have meaningful participation in the unity debates.

MLAs also expect the NWT to continue to be involved in all national unity meetings and to be given a fair and equal opportunity to achieve the status as a full partner within the federation.

"This is a welcome change from the past when the territories were excluded from important national unity and constitutional reform initiatives by Ottawa and the provinces," states a report tabled by a special assembly committee on national unity Tuesday.

That report details the results of both the committee's and MLAs' attempts to have northerners comment on the declaration. It states most people generally support the seven points of the declaration. Some aboriginal leaders, though, felt the consultation process was rushed.

Only 40 questionnaires returned

The committee members admitted, too, that they

didn't conduct an extensive campaign and only 40 people returned questionnaires.

Committee members, in their report, offered three recommendations to the assembly. They recommend that the resolution passed in the assembly be debated by the members.

They also state that the resolution serve as direction for the government in future deliberations on national unity. Finally, they recommend that their mandate be extended to monitor the national debate and report back to the assembly.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and Canadian premiers are scheduled to meet December 11-12 to consider reforms to national social policies and programs.

It's expected that informal discussions surrounding the progress on consultations of the Calgary Declaration will also happen then.

That committee, however, will continue to follow the unity debate and report back to the assembly in the future.

My Little Corner of Canada

by JOHN AMAGOALIK It happens to others

Accidents, getting lost, and fires. These are things that happen to other people but not to me. Or so we think. But the truth is that these things can happen to anybody, anytime.

This reality was brought home to me recently when our house almost burned to the ground. If not for the quick work of Iqaluit's fire department, the house and all that was in it would have gone up in smoke. I was lucky to get away with burned fingers and some personal belongings.

When we hear about misfortunes that happen every day, sometimes we are smug in the thought that we are somehow immune to such bad luck. The fire in our house blew away that smugness from me like a feather in a blizzard.

I know that I am not immune or somehow exempted from accidents and tragedies. But, like most people, sometimes I get careless. We all do. Sometimes we don't take the necessary precautions or take unnecessary risks. When that happens, we pay the price.

Most accidents and fires would never happen if people would just think and do things according to common sense. Make sure there are no fire hazards around the house. Keep lighters and matches away from children. Have a plan to escape from a fire. These are things that our firefighters tell us all the time. We should take their advice very seriously.

As I said, I was lucky to get away with burned thumbs. Ian Todd was not so lucky. He died in a fire just hours after the fire in our house. Our deepest sympathies go to his parents and the rest of his family.

Letters to the Editor

IBC: We were nice to Isuma staff

We're sorry Mr. Cohn is shocked. We're appalled (again) at the incredible amount of inaccuracies in Mr. Cohn's letter to the editor. (Nunatsiaq News, November 21).

However we're too busy producing TV programs to spend time correcting any more of the misrepresentation.

A glance through IBC's files tells a rather different story about Isuma partners, including Mr. Cohn. IBC's recognition of and support for the work and aspirations of Zak and Paul was and is clearly documented.

Enough, already, Taima!
Pat Lyall, President
Inuit Broadcasting Corporation

Editorial

A wish list for Santa

Dear Santa:

The boys and girls who work for Nunatsiaq News have been as good as we can be this year, so we hope our little list of gift items isn't too much for you to handle.

Some of these gifts aren't really for us. They're for other people in Nunavut. But if you can make sure those people get those gifts, it will be as if we had received them ourselves.

Here's our list:

• Santa, we'd like you to give us a stable health care system - the kind we use to have in Nunavut before it got screwed up by incompetent administrators and predatory business interests.
• For the sake of all the children, Santa, we'd like you to make sure that nobody covers up and makes excuses for abusers any more.
• For the sake of all the people of Nunavut, Santa, we'd like you to give us leaders who are free of childish insecurities, and who don't turn around and stab their imagined enemies in the back as soon as they get elected.
• And while your figuring out how to deliver that present Santa, could you put the following item on your list for next Christmas? Next Christmas, we'd like you to give Nunavut a legislative assembly made up of people whose ethical standards match the expectations of those who elect them. We hope that's not too much to ask.
• For those people in Iqaluit who haven't forgotten how to use their legs to get from one place to another, could you make our streets safe to walk again?
• Santa, could you also make sure that Nunavut's college students get their cheques on time this year? Hunting is fun and healthy, but students need cash to feed themselves too.
• The people who live in what will be left of the NWT still don't have a name for their new territory. Could you please given them one, Santa?

If you still have room left in your qamutik, here are a few personal items:

• Jim asks that you make sure the Apple computer company doesn't go bankrupt. It would depress him to no end if he had to use Windows 98.
• Dwane and Leevede would like new motherboards for their computers, so they don't crash all the time and ruin their hard work.
• Basil wants you to create a store in Ottawa that sells tuktuminiq with lots of tunnuq.
• Annette would like a better digital camera, one that holds hundreds of pictures in its memory.
• Jane would like an open airline pass for travel to every community in Nunavik.
• Lastly Santa, can you make sure that John and Evie Amagoalik get a new house? JB

These materials are Copyright (C) 1997 Nortext Publishing Corporation (Iqaluit), and may be freely distributed throughout the Internet, or other electronic computer networks or bulletin boards, as long as this notice remains intact and the articles are reproduced in their entirety. These materials may not be reprinted for commercial publication in print or other media without the permission of the publisher.