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My apologia regarding IQ

I just wanted to clarify a point that I don't think came through very well in my last letter regarding the use of the term Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit.

I should say, first off, that I believe in most of what the Nunavut Employees Union is fighting for, and I support their struggle.

But I have grave concerns about using IQ in the way it is so loosely used by all parties. When legal terms are defined, when mathematical terms are defined, the consequences of these definitions are real and affect the whole system in ways that are unpredictable.

To use an example, let's examine IQ Days logically and realistically. Let us consider a representative work force, and see how IQ days would affect the system.

On a beautiful day, I, as an Inuk employee, would have the power to decide if I wanted the day off. Multiply my personal and individual decision by 65 per cent of the GN workforce, and we'd shut down the government on a beautiful day. Who would be looking after the essential services? Think of the lost productivity of a system intended to serve our communities.

The way in which Mitch Taylor has personally and professionally used the term in the past (all in public record), and how he's presented his views on management of a highly politicized resource is even worst because of its subtlety.

The Guided Harvest Rate is a hypothetical che says IQ-derived v number. I don't see how a mathematical algorithm would capture cultural values (as espoused by our Inuit notions of IQ) when the very foundations of mathematics are supposedly value-free.

The polar bear memorandum of understanding is a legally-binding government document that is politically and morally unjust in the eyes of the Inuit for many reasons. The consequences of a government defining IQ in this way is also international in scope for hunter-gatherer societies.

Inuit, in my view, should be super-critical of the usage of IQ no matter where it occurs. Most of the work that I do in the field of IQ is to seek out what the term means philosophically, practically and culturally. I believe that intellectual (even scientific) rigour should be our guiding principle in the discourse of integrating culture and community values into the governance of our lives.

The way the above two examples have done it, in my personal view, has been in reverse, whereby Inuit culture is made to fit arbitrarily an organization or specialist thinking.

Jay Arnakak
Iqaluit

March 26, 2004

Nunavut must improve education system

We are three students attending the second year of the unique and beneficial program called Nunavut Sivuniksavut.

Leaving Nunavut and coming down to Ottawa has made us realize that education is one of the most important tools any Nunavummiutaq should have. Being a minority in the southern society has helped us recognize how unique, beautiful and friendly the people of Nunavut are.

Seeing the territory from the outside has made us compare the level of education in Nunavut to southern standards and we feel that Nunavut has to step up to improve to the same level as the rest of the country.

Without education, any individual has little opportunity to succeed nowadays in the 21st century. We are living in a world where technology and information requires post-secondary education. Nunavut is opening up to the world, and we will need skilled and knowledgeable people to run the territory.

We feel that the first Government of Nunavut has done little regarding the education system. It is as if the GN has left the students in a shack with very few topics that are relevant to Inuit culture. Making Nunavut students learn the southern curriculum takes us further away from our culture and makes a huge gap between elders and youth. As we all know, elders hold a treasure of knowledge about life and struggles that could really benefit the youth.

We, as students, are encouraging Nunavummiut to take on more educational opportunities anywhere. We are fortunate enough to get funded for education as Nunavummiut to study whatever interests us.

We should not take this great opportunity for granted as we've realize that southern students struggle a great deal for financial assistance, such as having to work two jobs while juggling school and homework on top of that. Do you realize how fortunate we are?

We would like the next government to take education issues very seriously, unlike the last one which seemed to just put aside the Education Act, which is extremely crucial for our future. We recommend that consultations be held in every community to hear local issues and concerns about education. They are the ones that are going to be affected most.

We conclude with a quote we have created:
"Learning about your past, you build pride.
Being proud of your past, you gain faith.
Without faith, there is no hope.
And without hope, there is nothing."

Paul Akeeagok
Tommy Akulukjuk
David Joanasie
Nunavut Sivuniksavut, 2nd year
Ottawa

Critical letter is "prejudiced?"

Let us follow, for a moment, the trajectory of Janson Bigg's thought as it is expressed in his recent letter to the editor of Nunatsiaq News, published March 5.

Biggs begins by distorting Carmen Levi's statement about the qualifications that will now be considered by the GN when hiring new employees. Levi was mapping out a new policy whereby Inuit fundamental values, — e.g., the importance of the land, family, hunting, fishing, etc. — will be factored into the hiring decision.

At no time did Carmen say that "living on the land" and "raising a family" would be the only criteria for deciding who should be hired by government. All of the usual, standard considerations — education, experience, skill, etc. — still apply.

Not content with twisting Levi's words into something she did not say, Biggs proceeds to take a swipe at "questionable senior management trainee and internship initiatives," and then goes on to launch an attack on "a law school program made up of students who don't have the academic qualifications to get accepted even into a third-rate undergraduate program in southern Canada."

Biggs fails to state why, in his opinion, senior management trainee and internship initiatives are questionable. The inescapable implication of his letter is that these initiatives are questionable because they result in the hiring of Inuit.

The reason for Bigg's contempt for the law school initiative is also vague. How does he know the students in the law program wouldn't get accepted in a southern college? What does he mean by a third-rate undergraduate program? Biggs doesn't give any examples. By failing to do so, he does across not only as a bigot, but also as a snob.

In his letter, Biggs argues that the GN bureaucracy has been "dumbed down." However, Biggs fails to back up his argument with any evidence. In what ways has the bureacracy been dumbed down? What departments have been affected? What programs have suffered? Without any evidentiary basis, Bigg's argument reduces to a whine that Inuit are getting more and more of the top jobs.

In governments in the South, the qallunaat bosses have their speeches, letters and documents drafted by assistants and lower-level employees. There's nothing unusual about that. Biggs doesn't appear to like it though when, in the GN, the masters are Inuit and the servants are qallunaat. The unavoidable conclusion to be drawn from Bigg's letter is that he is prejudiced against Inuit.

Like every prejudice, Biggs' prejudice disfigures him, not the people he's sneering at. Inuit will continue to build a government that is of Inuit, for Inuit, and by Inuit.

The Nunavut land claims agreement mandates a government that employees Inuit to a "representative level." The NLCA defines representative level as meaning "a level of Inuit employment within government reflecting the ratio of Inuit to the total population in the Nunavut Settlement Area."

Biggs says that it is not the GN's responsibility to meet the terms and conditions of the NLCA. He is wrong. The NLCA has the force of a constitutional provision. In the face of the NLCA, the Biggs of this world are powerless, and it is a good thing that they are.

Terry Audla
Executive Director
Qikiqtani Inuit Association

March 19, 2004

Suggestions for next year's Language Week

Drat, I missed Language Week again this year.

I know that Language Week is over, but I want to make a suggestion for all interested parties to keep in mind for next year's Language Week.

One of the strong points of Inuit culture is unikkaarniq and unikkaartuarniq — oral traditions and storytelling. It's how important and vital information was and is passed. It shapes character and instills morals and values while children are growing up. And it entertains.

But we are losing the art of storytelling. Do you ever notice that Inuit talking on Sinnaksaut on CBC Radio broadcast at 10:30 p.m. every weekday is mostly done by older people and elders? Or that guests on TV are of the proficient storytelling type?

My Dad still has that tradition. He can narrate an event so clearly and with so much detail that you can imagine it as if you were watching it on TV or as if you were right there.

One night, while trying to tell a bedtime story to my panik with the same story my Dad used to tell, all I could do was, "There was a little girl named Tikiq, who had a puppy and a fast sled ... and ..."

I was pitifully at a loss for words. With my paltry attempt, I could not even begin to scratch the surface of the series in which the story was told.

But I'm probably not the only one. I suggest that there be some kind of facilitation to encourage storytelling. I'm not saying that one exclusive agency should follow my suggestion.

There can be many ways to encourage storytelling - through local community radio, through the CBC, through TV and so on. But those under 40 (or whatever the age where it's deemed losing the art of storytelling) should be most considered as the target group. Wouldn't it be neat for a 20-year-old to win a storytelling contest and we find he or she is as good as the elders?

Sandra Omik
Kutaktuq
sandraomik@hotmail.com

March 19, 2004

Inexperienced southerners are dangerous

Go back to southern Canada, Mr Biggs. ("Nunavut's trainee-led government is facing collapse," March 5) I can challenge your assumptions because I have an education I earned and I also have some land skills.

This is exactly what Inuit did not want. Those of us who have fought for Inuit rights would counter with this: Can you eat your degrees when you are starving? If you think that by offering your stereotypical slant that you will cause changes, you are delusional. Inuit have a unique perspective and knowledge base that is holistic, not categorical.

I would not want to go to a doctor who has never undertaken certain surgical procedures, even if they are the most qualified, because if you have never practiced what you are taught, that is as bad as not having the education. Education as defined by southern Canadians is not the be-all and end-all of the definition. Just because you have paper skills, it does not mean you know how to administer a program either.

I would trust a hunter who knows how to handle a team of vicious dogs to manage a petty bureaucracy or a program that is slanted towards our southern practices anyday.

I have seen many doctors and people with a multitude of degrees who could not even butcher an animal properly. In your mindset, you have exposed your own biases towards only southern values.

That is just as bad as what you are insinuating. I pity your narrow focus and you should try being out on the land with some elders who do not have any degrees, but who are more professorial then any professors in any university.

If anything, it is the Liberal government's attitude and lack of commitment that is responsible for the lack of plausible and proper training of Inuit for the bureaucracy.

We Inuit are just as ashamed to see "non-experienced" southerners being hired to deal with issues that they do not have any clues about, never mind their paper credentials. They are more dangerous then Inuit who have lived their whole lives under the stewardship of an uncaring southern government.

Malachi Arreak
Pond Inlet

March 19, 2004

Land claim orgs aren't benefitting Inuit

In reading your article on the Iqaluit co-op's inability to greatly lower prices for the Nunavummiut consumer, I was initially disappointed, as I too had high hopes that the co-op would help lower the costs we consumers are faced with in Nunavut.

Then I thought more about the issue and realized that any business venture, even one as worthy as a co-op, in itself can't resolve the issue of high costs to its consumers, as they too are subject to high costs for freight and air transport. We all know the rationalization that our cost of living is so high because our economy relies wholly on fly-in services, Canadian North and First Air being the two airlines that service this need.

All overhead costs and the subsequent costs borne to the consumer start and depend on rates set by the airlines.

But what responsibility do these businesses have to us, in a competitive economy, to ensure that in their monopoly position they aren't over-taxing our economy? The question highlights the problem Nunavut is faced with generally.

As a territory born out of the desire for an aboriginal land claims agreement, we are governed as a public government. First Air is owned by the Inuit of Makivik, whereas, Canadian North is owned by the Inuit of Nunavut and the Inuvialuit of the western Arctic.

Nunasi's mandate is for the benefit of its Inuit shareholders. Nunasi's uniqueness is based on its willingness to temper bottom-line considerations with concern for its shareholder's environmental, cultural and social well-being.

These economic endeavours, which flow from under the land claim, don't live up to Inuit citizen's social, or cultural well-being. How do I as a beneficiary benefit from Canadian North, really?

Businesses that are set up through the land claim for beneficiaries need to consider more than the bottom line and offer benefits to all beneficiaries. For instance, perhaps I could receive a discount from land claim businesses, to incur a real benefit that I can feel.

In a move that could so easily be made, Nunavut's quality of life and cost of living could be enhanced. Travel could be made more accessible, food and services could be affordable.

Kudos to Makivik Corporation, in that they support cultural and social economic well-being as well as turning a profit. They support Nunavik-wide cultural events, and offer fares that are accountable to their beneficiaries. It's high time our Inuit political leaders and bureaucrats paid attention to this aspect of the land claim, and offered up real accountability to all Inuit.

The land claim currently only seems to benefit those individuals who work within the organizations, or those who apply and receive funding under special programs, while Inuit as a collective whole, are failing to receive any meaningful benefit.

Where there is the mandate and resources to do so, why is it not done? The old style of politics is apparently in vogue, where those with power are not inclined to run with accountability and integrity for the people.

Our leaders must return to governance with a "G," and not continue to govern their own people as they were governed by others. Perhaps, the Competitions Commissioner of the federal Competition Bureau should look at the situation up here, to look at the unique economic dynamic here in Nunavut and consider if anything tangible can be done.

I go out on this note, in the hopes things will get better. I gave up my aboriginal title for this? To be faced with a Orwellian nightmare as in "Animal Farm", where I can no longer decipher the faces of my aboriginal land claim leaders, from the non-representative Liberals of today?

Siobhan Arnatsiaq-Murphy
Iqaluit

March 19, 2004

Women tired of being victimized by predators

We are tired of being victimized by predators (people who they say who love us).

There are so many committees meeting about social problems, but when are we gonna see the results? Spousal assaults take many years to recover from and, even after that, you can become a very negative person.

Women in Nunavut are walking on eggshells because they are afraid to speak what they feel.

They are afraid to express their views. They have to be careful how they act, how they say things. Even a smile to anyone or even a simple hello can result in torture in private. No person should live like that.

When you say, "why don't you leave him or her?" - well, you have to live it to understand it. We become totally dependent on the person, hoping and trusting that they will eventually change. People who try to help tend to make it worse.

Nunavut MLAs and the people who are worrying about same-sex marriage, well, let me tell you, you are wasting your time and money.

Women and children in Nunavut, and even a few men, live a very unpleasant life.

(Name withheld by request)
Sanikiluaq

March 19, 2004

Non-union employees shouldn't be displaced

Was Doug Workman running for election in Iqaluit West as an individual or as a representative of the Nunavut Employees Union?

I don't think all union members agreed to have their money finance his campaign. After the controversy he caused during the municipal strike, with his tactics, I can't believe he ran at all.

Is it a coincidence that the government jobs he would have so willingly eradicated were non-union positions?

The NEU was involved in the negotiations and in the creation of the government's organizational charts before Nunavut was formed.

Yet now they are unhappy with their input. Granted, there have been some self-indulgent, ineffective individuals in the outgoing government, but getting rid of non-union members is ridiculous.

The problems begin with the lack of talented Nunavummiut becoming politically active, not upper management organization.

The number of professional Inuit is low due to the difficulty that naturally passive Inuit have in conforming to the aggressive methods of a European-based culture. Inuit just don't want to be fully indoctrinated in Western culture and are struggling to find a balance.

To have an MLA representing a communist idea in our native government would just go against the grain of Inuit culture.

With only a few years left in the mandate for Inuit self-government, the focus should be on finding the balance between cultures and producing enough competent graduates to benefit all Nunavummiut, not just the paying members of an overly rich union organization.

(Name withheld by request)
Iqaluit

March 19, 2004

Akitsiraq comments were demeaning and false

As acting dean of the University of Victoria Faculty of Law, I am writing in response to the letter from Janson Biggs published in your March 5 issue.

The students in the Akitsiraq Law School Program are referred to in that letter in a way that is demeaning and false. Let me reiterate what I said in an interview for Canadian Lawyer magazine in May 2002, when I was teaching in Iqaluit:

"It's a pleasure being in class because these [students] are intelligent, lively people who want to talk about things. They are also knowledgeable about their own culture. If one is ready to sit back and listen as often as you talk, it's very educational for the instructor."

Having taught for close to 40 years at four different Canadian law schools, I believe I know of which I speak.

Later in the interview I added:

"These people will be equally well-trained as any student coming out of any law school in Canada... there is a thirst for knowledge and understanding in the class that is not uniformly true for an ordinary law class."

I stand firmly by those statements and would add that the Akitsiraq students' achievements since early 2002 bear out and strengthen my conviction that they are an outstanding and talented group of people.

While many of the students may not have the pre-law academic qualifications of many students in southern law schools, they have proven to the satisfaction of myself and my colleagues that they are eminently capable of mastering the study of law and will in turn make fine lawyers.

John McLaren
Acting Dean of Law
University of Victoria
Victoria

March 12 , 2004

Inuit NEU members asked for culture days

As a shop steward and a union activist, I've represented many union members over the years who are Inuit.

One of the frequent and very frustrating problems they have encountered has been working in a place where their employer doesn't understand that you go to hunt whale when the whales come; that you go to be with your friend when she's giving birth because you've been asked to be there to help and support.

Having a request for leave denied because your collective agreement doesn't mention these things, and your supervisor doesn't understand, has been a very painful experience for some. Others have just walked away from their jobs.

The Nunavut Employees Union went to all members last year and asked them to identify the biggest problems and the biggest concerns so that the union can properly represent them in bargaining a new contract.

Members of our union said, loudly and clearly, that they want the needs and reality of their culture protected and recognized in the workplace. The union does that through negotiation and placing the issue in the collective agreement so union members have a protected right that cannot be dismissed out of hand.

Mr. Taylor [Mitch] speaks as an elected representative of NEU members and he is only conveying the message we have received from our members.

Respectfully, there is no "institutionalized agenda" here, rather, a very human agenda of working to build a workplace that respects and reflects the needs identified by the unionized Inuit (and non-Inuit) working within it.

Mary-Lou Sutton
Iqaluit

Akitsiraq grads will be fully-qualified lawyers

I'm writing this letter as the chair for the Akitsiraq Law School Society.

I've been prompted to write this letter in response to the March 5 letter by Janson Biggs, who described our program like this: "a law school program made up of students who don't have the academic qualifications to get accepted even into a third-rate undergraduate program in southern Canada."

I would like to inform Janson Biggs that when these students graduate they'll be getting a degree from the University of Victoria, whose faculty of law is consistently rated as the best undergraduate teaching law faculty in the country.

Also the professors that come and teach here come from all over Canada and are the cream of the crop. Our students would have to traipse all over the country to get this calibre of law school education in southern Canada.

Upon graduation they will be writing the same bar admission exams as southern law students and will emerge as fully qualified lawyers - so much for Mr. Biggs' assertion.

As an educator with a degree from one of the best education faculties in Canada I applaud all those who strive to better themselves through continuing their education especially our students of the Akitsiraq Law School.

There will be and have been many who have tried to put you down, but remember that you are in the program because of your desire to become worthwhile contributers to the betterment of your inuuqatit. Now that is what makes this law school unique for everyone.

Alexina Kublu
Chair
Akitsiraq Law School Society

Iqaluit recyclers clarify their role

Following the article published Feb. 27, "Recycling chief wants Iqaluit to think clean thoughts," I would like to clarify some issues.

While plastic bags are a problem, the article focused on that single issue, making it sound as if we thought we could single-handedly save the world by eliminating plastic bags. This of course is not the case.

The Iqaluit Recycling Society is a non-profit group composed of volunteer citizens who joined together to help move the city toward responsible waste management practices. The recycling society does not make the decisions regarding the management of waste in Iqaluit, nor does it run the existing recycling program.

The numbers that we have seen quoted about the costs of recycling as compared to the cost of landfill are misleading if not inaccurate. Last year the city paid approx. $6,287 and not $7,700 per ton to recycle material.

While $6,287 is still a large sum of money, with effective planning and management, the cost of recycling can be reduced to $1,900 per ton or less this year. The estimated cost to send waste to the landfill was $200 per ton. This figure could not have included the long-term costs of exhausting our landfill's capacity or the considerable costs already incurred for new machinery, maintenance and staffing. Dealing with waste, in any form, is a costly business.

There are many people who want to recycle, but are concerned that the program is ineffective. The city recognizes that there have been cases of blue bags picked up by the garbage truck instead of the recycling truck.

Together, the city and the IRS are addressing this issue and are taking preventative measures to ensure that this ceases to be a problem. Just a few years ago we were burning our garbage and polluting our air in the process; the fact that the word recycling is in our vocabulary is an accomplishment in itself. That said, there is still much work to be done. The City of Iqaluit needs to find the most environmentally and economically responsible system for here; this takes time.

Currently, the following rinsed and dried materials can be put in blue bags for curbside pick-up: All plastics, tin cans, pop cans and glass, aluminum foil, tetra pack.

Mixed paper (cereal boxes, egg cartons, magazines etc.) can be placed in blue bags inside a separate bag of any kind. Aluminum cans (beer and pop) and alcoholic beverage containers can also be dropped off with the South East Nunavut Company (building 1324), open 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays, some for refund of 10 cents to 25 cents each.

If your office participates in the paper recycling pick-up program, office paper and newsprint is more effectively recycled through this separate collection.

Most waste can be either recycled or composted. In the coming weeks, the city and the IRS will be supporting a composting pilot in partnership with Earth Day Canada. If you would like more information, please feel free to contact me at iqaluitrecycles@yahoo.ca

Erin Brubacher
Coordinator
Iqaluit Recycling Society

March 5 , 2004

NTI did respond to Ayalik

In your article on Feb. 6, 2004, "Adjudicator will rule on one-man rights crusade," Robert Ayalik is reported as being "very disappointed that no one from NTI responded to his complaints about either the Rankin Inlet health conference, or the manner of his departure from the GN."

For the record, NTI did respond to Mr. Ayalik's request. Since the NTI president was away at the time, her executive assistant, Caroline Anawak, had two telephone conversations with Mr. Ayalik to discuss the issue and NTI's position.

After discussion with the CEO, Ms. Anawak explained to Mr. Ayalik that, while NTI is actively engaged in a working group with the Government of Nunavut on the issue of increasing Inuit employment in government (Article 23 of the land claims agreement), it does not involve itself in individual workplace complaints.

In this case, there already exist clear processes and proper authorities mandated to investigate complaints and represent individuals - including the NEU, the Fair Practices Officer, and public and private legal representation.

All of this was conveyed to Mr. Ayalik personally on the phone. Finally, at Mr. Ayalik's request, NTI arranged for the translation into Inuktitut of his complaint, and this was faxed to him so he could distribute it to others.

Richard Paton
Chief Operating Officer
Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

March 5 , 2004

Need info about Cape Dorset artist

I have a print by Pitseolak Ashoona. I found it at an estate sale. It looks like the print is 10 by 11 1/2 inches on art paper of some sort. The numbers 20691 are on the back of the print. The title is "Bird Stealing Fish." I loved it from the moment I saw it.

I am very curious about it. So on the chance of finding something about it, I entered the artist name in the Google Internet search and up comes information about this marvelous lady artist. I did find out that the print was done in 1967, but that's about all.

Can any of you give me any information about what I have? It had been professionally framed but was not a particularly good job. On the paper covering the back of the print was a sticker with her name in English. I took this back paper off to see the back of the print and that's where the numbers 20691 are. I intend to have it reframed better.

I would really appreciate any information any of you can give me about it.

Anna Brown
4095 Fruit St. # 749
La Verne CA 91750
USA
(909) 593-9540
annabrown@aol.com

March 5 , 2004

Nunavut's trainee-led government is facing collapse

I read with dismay Carmen Levi's recent statements in the press regarding the qualifications that will now be considered when hiring new bureaucrats for the Government of Nunavut.

While I have no doubt that "living on the land" and "raising a family" are admirable qualities, they are not those needed by a public government when staffing critical positions within an already over-stretched bureaucracy.

Enough is enough. Nunavut has made far too many concessions to political correctness and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit. Just because you are an accomplished hunter, that doesn't mean you are qualified to administer government programs on behalf of the people of Nunavut, and anyone who thinks differently is deluding themselves.

Nunavut has already poured too many of its scarce taxpayer dollars into questionable senior management trainee and internship initiatives and a law school program made up of students who don't have the academic qualifications to get accepted even into a third-rate undergraduate program in southern Canada.

In the latest salvo aimed at getting Inuit hired at any cost, the government has once again "dumbed down" the bureaucracy rather than ensuring that Inuit get the education they need to succeed.

Rather than putting in the hard work to ensure that Inuit get the necessary education to be able to compete with anyone in Canada for a civil service position, the Government of Nunavut would rather take the easy route. They would rather use the lethal combination of pre-existing preferential hiring policies and watered-down entry qualifications to ensure that every man, woman and child in Nunavut is now eligible for a career in the public service.

Jobs are important, and with unemployment running at almost 50 per cent in some communities, the Government of Nunavut's attempts are honourable. They are also programmed to fail. The Government of Nunavut has already made far too many concessions to effective and efficient program management and good government in its attempts to integrate Inuit into the public service.

And what is the result of these efforts?

To enhance the optics of having a representative aboriginal government, Nunavut is now burdened with a largely ineffective bureaucracy that is top heavy with Inuk managers, directors, assistant deputy ministers and deputy ministers, who are mostly unqualified for their positions of authority.

For the most part, they are so far over their heads that the very stability of the territorial civil service is at stake.

Those qualified and well-educated civil servants who remain loyal to the Government of Nunavut are now burdened with not only doing their own jobs, but also covering for less-capable superiors. What will happen to the Government of Nunavut when their remaining qualified staff burn out and leave? I predict that this top-heavy and under-qualified bureaucracy will finally collapse under its own inertia.

What is the Government of Nunavut's primary responsibility? Is it to meet the terms and conditions of the various articles of the Nunavut land claims agreement?

No. The Government of Nunavut's primary responsibility as a public government entrusted with public funds is to provide effective, professional and responsible governance to the residents of Nunavut and Canada who are funding their efforts with their hard-earned tax dollars. Anything less than this is, in my view, stealing money under false pretenses.

Would anyone reading this letter allow an unqualified doctor or nurse to examine and treat their children, or an untrained teacher to educate their children, or a "trainee" civil engineer design and build their schools and hospitals?

If in your mind the answer to these questions is very obviously "no," then why is it acceptable to entrust millions of the government's program dollars to the hands of a civil servant with a Grade 10 education, but who has good land skills?

It is time for everyone to take a deep breath and take a big reality pill. If we don't turn the current trend around and begin to view our public service as a place where education and training are valued pre-requisites for employment, then it will only be a matter of time before our public government will become a wasteland characterized only by its incompetence and gross mismanagement.

Janson Biggs
Iqaluit

March 5 , 2004

NEU position an institutionalized agenda?

I just wanted to comment on NEU's demands for cultural days.

This is yet another example where institutionalized agendas have usurped IQ for its own purposes. The GN, the union, the system - who gave it the authority to speak on behalf of Inuit?

Cultural days are great, but tell me how a guy like Mitch Taylor would take advantage of a cultural day to practice his IQ? How would he see it (the cultural day) being administered? What sort of criteria would he propose that that specific day was useful for IQ and Inuit in general?

While we're on the subject of IQ: tell me how a guided harvest rate (a product of a mathematical equation that generates the inherently unjust polar bear quota system) is IQ?

Jay Arnakak
Iqaluit

March 5 , 2004

The Canadian state is a murderer

Inuit have cried out for so long, pinched against a tidal wave of systematic victimization, and some not-so-well-intentioned assimilation tactics as described in some Inuit "history" books.

The one trait Inuit have traditionally held, that of acceptance, tolerance and diplomacy is one that I am starting to question. I am getting so tired of living in a system that does not recognize my culture, in all its sophistication.

We will never be integrated. Until such time when we move from the "something-needs-to-be-done-about-suicide-and-our-social-problem" speeches, I myself will have probably thought about ending it all.

In the end, we will have realized that maybe something could have been done a lot sooner. You see, we don't want to change the world - we just want our rightful place in it. And the easiest part is that we simply want it back.

But it seems we need to assimilate non-Inuit ways to assert ourselves as a people within a system that might not do anything about it for us otherwise.

We need not look so far around the world to see that a fire in one is a fire in all when it comes to oppression of a people. When the pressure valves start blowing, that's when there's violence and bloodshed.

In the case of our Inukness, we simply kill ourselves, while the "debate" continues along with diplomatic negotiations and its processes.

If we could prosecute the State each time our friends, neighbours and family members committed suicide, it would be indicted for cultural genocide and sent to prison, for the maximum allowable punishment of about 130 years.

A lot of these people are victims of social workers and police officers who exercise their mandate for the State, a mandate that is utterly foreign to us, with its policies and procedures wreaking havoc on our culture.

Am I angry? You bet I am! Deranged? No. Just caught in a radical transition, triggered by needless and preventable loss that has gone on far too long with nothing being done to alleviate the current injustice.

As far as I am concerned, the State is a murderer, in its unrelenting search for power, greed and riches.

Iglulingmiutaq
(Name withheld by request)
Igloolik

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