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Man charged in mother's death in Montreal

Leah Qavavauq of Arctic Bay "was a very loving person," cousin recalls

JANE GEORGE

CLICK PHOTO TO ENLARGE
Holidays and family were important to the late Leah Qavavauq, shown here at Christmas when she was in her 30s. (PHOTO COURTESY OF TOCASIE BURKE)

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While mothers across the North looked forward to celebrating Mother's Day with their children, the body of Leah Qavavauq, whose son now faces a murder charge in connection with her homicide, was shipped from Montreal to Arctic Bay for burial.

Anie Lemieux, a spokesperson for the Montreal Urban Police, said police were called early on the morning of April 27 to Leah's apartment on Villiers St. in the Côte St Paul district of Verdun, where she lived with her adopted son, Greg, and his girlfriend.

Police arrested Greg, 18, on that Wednesday morning, not long after Leah's daughter had discovered her mother's badly beaten body. He has since been charged with second-degree murder.

The Qavavauq home was not a tranquil household, according to neighbours, who told the Montreal Gazette that police were called four or five times a week to settle disputes.

The most recent argument occurred the evening before Qavavauq's death.

Earlier in April, Greg had been charged with possession of a knife. The troubled teen had a history of drug use and violence.

"I think he had a problem between his two ears," one of Greg's friends told a Gazette reporter.

Another of Leah's children, a son who lives in Quebec City, learned about his mother's violent death through the media coverage of the incident.

Her sudden passing deeply affected a large and close family whose members now live across Nunavut and in southern Canada.

Iqaluit resident Tocasie Burke, Leah's first cousin and the bearer of her late daughter's name, was devastated by the news.

"She had had health problems in the past, but we weren't ready for this kind of news. She was a very loving person," Tocasie said. "The whole family was pretty close to her - she was that type of person."

Burke said Leah was deeply religious and had adopted four children so their mothers would not undergo abortions.

"She was such a giving person," Tocasie recalled. "I remember when she would give me a little something she owned - when I visited her in Montreal and I was leaving, she gave me a little ceramic figurine."

Leah was the best friend of Tocasie's mother, who was also, as the sister of her mother, Leah's aunt.

"They would talk on the phone so many times a day like teenagers even when they had nothing to say. They both grew up together like sisters, not like niece and aunt," Tocasie said.

Despite the love she freely gave to others, Leah had a hard life, Tocasie said.

"I remember her being in so much pain because she had lost three children: two from illness and one to suicide. Then her husband died in a tragic accident while working on the Arctic Bay and Nanisivik road. They were separated at the time, but she took it really hard. Her children have no more parents now."

Tocasie said the entire family wanted to be in Arctic Bay where Leah's funeral was held this week.

Leah had requested to be buried in her home community, next to her late husband.

Her death was the ninth homicide in Montreal this year.

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