FEDERAL POLITICS Apology brings closure for Inuit
Trudeau apologizes for government’s past mistreatment of Inuit with TB
IQALUIT, Nunavut — James Eetoolook is a 72-year-old tuberculosis survivor among a family of survivors.
He and seven of his relatives were stricken with TB, including his mother, sisters and brother, who was first diagnosed in the mid-1940s when one of the ships carrying doctors north to help Inuit reached his family’s tradingpost village. Eetoolook was sent to Edmonton for treatment at age 16, and was bed-ridden in hospital for months.
Many more Inuit, from the 1940s to the 1960s, were sent south for treatment. Some never returned home and were buried in southern Canada. Their families were never told of their deaths, nor their final resting places.
On Friday, Eetoolook and Inuit across the North affected by the federal government’s actions heard an official apology from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who shed tears as he called their treatment colonial and misguided.
Trudeau also announced the opening of a database Inuit families should soon be able to use to find the graves of loved ones who died after they were transported south for treatment. The database is part of a wider initiative called Nanilavut, which means “let’s find them” in Inuktitut.
Eetoolook said the apology and database will bring closure to many Inuit.
“It will help the families that had loved ones that died,” he predicted. “Some of the (burial grounds) will be hard to find.”
Tuberculosis is a bacterial infection that typically affects the lungs and can be life-threatening. It can emerge into active illness years after a person catches it. Even with modern medical care, a full recovery can take months.
Trudeau acknowledged many people with TB died after being removed from their families and communities and taken on gruelling journeys south on ships, trains and aircraft. The prime minister also apologized to those who still do not know what happened to their loved ones.
“To the communities that are facing the consequences of this policy and others, we are sorry,” he said. “We are sorry that because of our mistakes, many Inuit don’t trust the health-care system so they can’t get help when they need it. We are sorry for the colonial mindset that drove the federal government’s actions.”
The apology had been in the works for the better part of two years after Trudeau signed an Inuit-Crown partnership agreement in 2017.