34-year-old man killed in police shooting in Inukjuak: family

APTN News has learned a 34-year-old man was killed last week during an altercation with members of the Nunavik Police Service (NPS). Jamie Kavik, identified in an online obituary as a sometime resident of the Montreal suburb of Pointe Claire, died after police were called to a home in Inukjuak on July 17. NPS said in a news release that officers responded to a report of forcible confinement in the northern village in Nunavik, approximately 1,500 kilometers north of Montreal. The fatality is now under investigation by Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI) – a provincial police watchdog agency. Police did not release the name of the victim. Kavik is the third person to die during an interaction with NPS officers since November 2024. His cousin Anna Williams confirmed to APTN on Tuesday that Kavik was the father of a young son. A Facebook photo of a Nunavik Police Service officer on the scene following a fatal shooting in Inukjuak on July 17. Photo courtesy Annie Williams. Another family member, Mary Elijassiapik, said she overheard Kavik and his girlfriend having a disagreement before police arrived. “… They were arguing, yelling [at] each other,” said Elijassiapik, who is Kavik’s aunt and one of Inukjuak’s public health officers. “We didn’t go see them. But the cops went there. The shooting was around after eight. And he was killed.” Though Inukjuak is a community of roughly 1,800, Elijassiapik said she didn’t hear the news that Kavik had been killed for more than an hour. The death has her questioning how much time NPS officers spent speaking with Kavik prior to resorting to lethal force. “Before what they’re doing they have to talk to that person,” she said in a telephone interview. “People can understand and think and they can sometimes agree. I know people can do that. “I don’t know if they try to talk to him before they shoot him. I didn’t know that.” Nunavik Police Service officers in the area of a fatal shooting on July 17 in Inukjuak. Photo courtesy Annie Williams. Inukjuak Mayor Bobby Epoo said he shares the community’s grief and shock. “I question the purpose of training law enforcement officers in less-lethal options such as pepper spray and tasers, if these tools are not consistently deployed in situations where they might be appropriate alternatives to deadly force,” Epoo wrote in an email to APTN. Epoo is a former police officer and says he is uneasy with the amount of firepower available to police, who may carry handguns with 17-round magazines. “It appears that law enforcement agencies may be operating with different standards than those applied to the general public,” he said. Epoo said he has asked the BEI to provide him with regular updates on the investigation. “… I urge the authorities to maintain consistent communication with the community throughout this process” in order to foster public trust in the justice system, he added. Joshua Papigatuk, right, died during an altercation with Nunavik police officers in Salluit, and his twin brother Garnet Papigatuk, left, was medivaced due to severe injuries. Photo courtesy of François Léger-Savard via Local Journalism Initiative. Meanwhile, an online petition connected to a website called JusticeForInuit.com calls for NPS officers to be disarmed of “lethal service firearms,” and the creation of a public inquiry into police and judicial services in Nunavik between 2005 and 2025. Furthermore, the petition demands a “Reconciliation Quebec team be created with immediate investments upwards of $250 million in services to citizens.” The authors of the petition are Salluit’s Garnet Papigatuk, who lost his twin brother Joshua in an NPS shooting last November where he was also shot and later airlifted to Montreal, and Kangiqsualujjuaq’s David Annanack, who lost his son Mark Annanack in an officer-involved shooting on May 6. They are both demanding a meeting with Quebec Premier François Legault. On Monday, the Kativik Regional Government (KRG) issued a news release expressing condolences to Kavik’s family (though they did not identify him by name). The release described the three deaths in eight months as “three too many.” It said the KRG would oversee “an audit of NPS policing practices and policies” and work on plans to upgrade NPS management. Read More: ‘Policing in Nunavik is broken’: Inuit group wants change after latest fatal shooting “These repeated fatal shootings deny Nunavimmiut the opportunity to heal and to feel fully safe in their communities,” said KRG vice chairperson Mary Arngaq. “We need urgently to find ways for our communities to work with police and residents to identify, prevent and deescalate life-threatening situations.” The region is represented federally by Liberal MP Mandy Gull-Masty, who is also the minister of Indigenous Services Canada. Her office promised a statement Tuesday and this story will be updated when it is received. A request for comment from Legault did not receive a response by the time of publication. Continue Reading