Inukjuak man dies in 3rd fatal police altercation since November

The police shooting of a resident of Inukjuak last week marks the third officer-involved fatality for the Nunavik Police Service (NPS) since November, despite the 14 communities of Nunavik, Que., totalling a population of less than 15,000. According to a statement from the NPS, officers were called to a residence in Inukjuak around 8:20 p.m. on July 17 after receiving a complaint of forcible confinement. Inukjuak is a northern village in Nunavik, located on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay, approximately 1,500 kilometers north of Montreal.  The statement says police entered the home and were confronted with a person who was armed with a knife. There was a confrontation, the statement added, and “officers discharged their service weapons, striking the individual,” who was later pronounced dead at the community health centre. The NPS did not release the name, age or gender of the person killed. Comments on social media also did not identify the victim. Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI, the Office of Independent Investigations) has now been brought in to examine the circumstances of the shooting. Read more: Death of Joshua Papigatuk highlights police violence in Nunavik Nunavik police chief launches ‘disciplinary investigation’ into Christmas tree photo ‘Policing in Nunavik is broken’: Inuit group wants change after latest fatal shooting The statement says the officers involved turned their body-cameras over to BEI investigators, and were placed on administrative leave for the duration of the review. Six BEI agents arrived in Inukjuak to begin the investigation, the statement noted. Response on social media was swift. People blamed the NPS, which has previously been involved in other shootings and non-fatal incidents in which locals accused police of deploying excessive force. An aggravating factor is that the NPS is largely non-Indigenous, but serves a 90 per cent Inuit population. Andy Moorhouse, vice president of Economic Development for Makkivik, the legal representative for Inuit in Quebec, suggested officers work only “with their tasers.” Trigger anxious “They are armed to protect themselves but the police we have are just too trigger anxious,” Moorhouse wrote on Facebook. “We have lost too many of our fellow Inuit to Police [sic] response actions which are preventable.” He called on the Kativik regional government to take guns away from the NPS. Moorhouse declined to comment further when contacted by APTN News, and stressed his post was a personal opinion. Lucassie Kudlu of Kuujjuarapik, who identified himself as a former police officer who served in Nunavik and other Indigenous communities in the early 2000s, also criticized the police. “There are clear gaps in training, cultural understanding, and readiness [in the NPS],” Kudlu alleged in a Facebook post. “Quick lessons on de-escalation or Inuit culture are not enough. “Policing in Nunavik requires maturity, real-life experience, and a deep respect for the Inuit people and communities being served.” Kudlu did not response to messages from APTN seeking an interview. The number of Indigenous Peoples killed during interactions with police reached a high of 15 in late 2024, prompting the Assembly of First Nations to call for a national inquiry into systemic racism in policing. No such inquiry has yet been launched. Continue Reading