SQ withdrawal leaves Nunavik with police problems

Many new recruits still being trained, while meth poses new threat

By JANE GEORGE

KUUJJUAQ — The Sûreté du Québec is gone.
The SQ pulled out of Kuujjuaq last week after racking up a bill of more than $1.5 million that either Quebec or the Kativik Regional Government will have to pay, rotating 80 officers in and out of the region and opening 500 new criminal files.

The provincial police force arrived in Nunavik on Sept. 29 to maintain order after the firing of former police chief Brian Jones and the revelation that few members of the Kativik Regional Police Force had been properly sworn in.

Only the two regular members of the SQ in Kuujjuaq remain.

The SQ officer in charge of the police’s command centre in Kuujjuaq said the SQ takeover of the region was a routine emergency operation, similar to those overseen by the SQ when a natural disaster strikes.

“Our mandate was to provide assistance until the swearing in was finished, not more not less,” said Lt. Dany Parent, from the SQ’s emergency services in Quebec City.

Parent said the SQ has no plans to make a report on the SQ’s experience in Nunavik.

This disclosure comes as a disappointment to many KRPF members. They hoped a detailed SQ report would back up their complaints about their tough working conditions, lack of equipment, chronic understaffing and slim benefits.

Over the past weeks, the SQ brought in more manpower, with superior working conditions.

With rotations of seven to 10 days, and 12-hour daily shifts, SQ officers were able to take breaks from the job of policing. While in Nunavik, they stayed in hotels and often rented vehicles, so they were spared the endless days on the job, poor housing and broken-down vehicles of the KRPF.

There were four officers on duty daily in Kuujjuaq, and two at night, while the KRPF generally has only two during the day and one on call at night. In Kangiqsualujjuaq, the SQ brought in four officers to tackle the heavy workload, twice the number usually maintained there by the KRPF.

Even though the SQ is gone, many KRPF members say they don’t see an end to the crisis in the department. Morale is low.

Quebec’s public security department confirmed Luc Harvey’s appointment as interim police chief to replace Jones, who has since moved to Great Whale to work for the Cree police force in Whapmagoostui. Harvey’s grey KRG van is now parked in front of the police station and the KRG has posted his old position of assistant general manager.

However, the Nunavik Police Association is still protesting the appointment of Harvey: “It isn’t who’s here now, but who’s not here.”

“The KRG didn’t realize how attached we were to Brian,” said one member. “He had heart.”

The result of the upheavals in the KRPF means more than 10 full-fledged KRPF members are planning to leave the force within the next few months.

As many of these qualified police leave, the KRPF will find itself in a fragile situation once again. That’s because half of the 54-member force still has to finish the aboriginal police program offered at Quebec’s police college in Nicolet.

This program takes three months to finish, and some say the KRG should have asked the SQ stay in the region so police still working on four-month, temporary contracts, could finish their studies.

Meanwhile, the SQ says no investigations into drug trafficking or bootlegging, started under Jones, were actively pursued while the SQ was in the region. Sources within the KRPF say the force, absorbed with its own administrative problems, is not dealing with investigations into any drug or illegal booze shipments into the region.

The halt to these investigations comes the same time as regional health officials have been warning the residents of Kuujjuaq that crystal meth is in town.

Methamphetamine is a synthetic stimulant drug, also sold on the streets as glass, ice, or crystal. It induces a strong feeling of euphoria and is highly psychologically addictive.

Some Nunavimmiut say they’re sorry to see the provincial police force in Nunavik leave because conditions in the communities will deteriorate.

“Anyone who thinks the SQ was some sort of super-police force that came into town and restored order is dreaming in technicolor. Things were quieter for one reason only, and that’s that the riff-raff really didn’t know what the SQ would tolerate, so everyone was on their best behaviour. It was a whole new game, and no one really wanted to risk testing the boundaries,” says a message to the Talkback forum of the Nunatsiaq News website, which for weeks has been hopping with comments about policing in Nunavik.

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