The anniversary of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement for many is a day of celebration.
But this 12 months’s occasion, marking 49 years for the reason that signing of that treaty, was overshadowed by the deadly police taking pictures in Salluit final week.
Hundreds of individuals gathered throughout Nunavik on Monday to pay tribute to Joshua Papigatuk, who was killed during that confrontation.
Quebec’s police watchdog, Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes (BEI), remains to be investigating that taking pictures, and won’t launch any extra findings earlier than the tip of its investigation. It’s the fifteenth police-related dying in Nunavik since 2017.
The settlement was Canada’s first trendy Indigenous land claims treaty. It heralded a brand new period for Nunavimmiut to get extra self-governance, together with in policing.
Charlie Watt was one of many negotiators.
“Our vision back then was for the Inuit to take complete control over the police force, in other words running the police and become police themselves,” he mentioned.
Charlie Watt is a former senator who helped negotiate the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement. That was signed in 1975. (Submitted by the Makivik Corporation)
He believes the JBNQA is not being correctly applied in quite a few areas — not simply in policing.
“The government of Quebec is trying to dictate to us what we should be doing and how we should be handling our life,” he mentioned.
“Inuit need to have to have their own governance in order to be able to make changes and positive changes to their life … to be able to make laws.”
‘Significant adjustments’ to policing in Nunavik from settlement
According to Nunavik Police Service’s web site, the 1975 signing of the JBNQA introduced vital adjustments in Nunavik.
“An agreement was made between the Sûreté du Québec and the First Nations to implement an Aboriginal police program,” it mentioned.
Inuit who accomplished this system grew to become particular constables.
That police division then transitioned to the Kativik Regional Police Force in 1995, offering the police service full autonomy. It was rebranded to the Nunavik Police Service in 2021 — the identify the area’s police bears at this time.
Justice advocate Suzy Kauki, who’s based mostly in Kuujjuaq, remembers seeing much more Inuit officers on the streets as a younger lady.
According to information from the police service, three of 79 officers have been Inuit in 2018.
As of September 2024, solely two of 125 NPS officers have been Inuit.
Suzy Kauki, justice advocate, organized a protest in Kuujjuaq on Nov. 5, 2024, the day after Joshua Papigatuk was fatally shot by police in Salluit. (Félix Lebel/Radio-Canada)
She believes that is a results of “how hard it is to be a police officer in your own community and be confronted with all the trauma we have.”
“The decline of Inuit in that model is because of administrative systems failing to follow the ethnic agreement of our modern treaty,” Kauki mentioned.
Western policing mannequin, moderately than Inuit
Mylène Jaccoud is a professor of criminology at Université de Montréal, and was in control of Indigenous policing points within the Viens Commission inquiry. That was launched in 2016 by the previous provincial Liberal authorities after allegations of police misconduct in opposition to Indigenous ladies.
Jaccoud mentioned the NPS is not as autonomous as many had hoped for, even with oversight from the Kativik Regional Government, the regional authority over most of Nunavik.
Firstly, she mentioned cops come largely from outdoors of Nunavik, contemporary out of the nationwide policing faculty in Quebec.
“I think this is the one of the biggest problems that we have in the North, people coming up very young and trying to enforce the law,” she mentioned.
She additionally appreciates that new recruits can really feel remoted in these small communities, which is why she mentioned workers retention and sufficient cultural coaching is important.
Mylène Jaccoud was in control of Indigenous policing within the Viens Commission Inquiry. (Submitted by Mylène Jaccoud)
Ultimately, she mentioned the issue cannot be solved by merely throwing more cash on the challenge.
During the Viens Commission inquiry, she tried to suggest a brand new approach of policing — one that permits Indigenous communities to run their very own policing.
“It’s not about the ability to deal with the budget and financial resources … you just end up with the power of dealing with bad resources,” she mentioned.
“We should implement another model of policing … in the Aboriginal mentality and cultural mind of Aboriginal people.”
For Charlie Watt, that’s the true which means of self-determination.
“We have a constitutional right to exist,” he mentioned, pointing to Section 35 of the Constitution which reaffirms the prevailing Indigenous and treaty rights of Indigenous peoples in Canada.
“That needs to be respected.”
Minnie Grey believes packages like Saqijuq, which implies “a change in wind direction” in Inuktitut, can play a giant function within the dialogue about Inuit self-determination. (Submitted by Minnie Grey)
Pairing social staff with police in Puvirnituq
One present mannequin of policing Jaccoud mentioned is the Saqijuq program, which implies “a change in wind direction” in Inuktitut.
In specific, Jaccoud factors to their cell intervention groups in Puvirnituq, which she believes may help construct belief with police.
Saqijuq board member Minnie Grey mentioned there are two groups, pairing one police officer with a social employee. The groups reply to most requires police help, which are not harmful felony incidents in nature.
“It’s a really good way of interacting and getting to know people on a personal level, instead of being seen as an outsider that comes in and intervenes in criminal activities,” she mentioned.
Grey believes Saqijuq can match into the broader dialogue of self-determination for Inuit.
“It pushes us to take things into our own hands and do things the way we see fit … without having to depend on outside influences.”
