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"We do not know who's alive and who's dead. We have heard a lot of sad stories "
COURTNEY EDGAR
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David Rochette, Regional Director of Crown-Aboriginal Relations and Northern Affairs, said the federal government will apologize this fall for the historic abuse of Inuit in TB hospitals between the 1950s and 1960s. Rochette said the apology would launch a TB initiative called Nanilavut, intended to help the families of victims and survivors, as well as to raise public awareness of public health in the North. Rochette made the remarks during the last day of the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Annual General Meeting in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY COURTNEY EDGAR)
The federal government should formally apologize for the historic abuse of Inuit in TB hospitals during the 1950s and 1960s.
This is what David Rochette, Regional Director of Crown Relations, Aboriginal Peoples and Northern Affairs, said at the Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. Annual General Meeting in Iqaluit on October 25th.
"Official apology will launch the initiative [Nanilavut] this fall, but the date and time have not been confirmed yet, "Rochette said.
Rochette said his department, known as CIRNAC, will work with NTI on a three-pronged approach to fighting TB, as part of a project called Nanilavut.
Official recognition will launch the initiative, which should include a database and family supports, as well as public education and health awareness.
The Nanilavut initiative is one of the points put forward by the Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee.
According to Rochette's presentation, this initiative will give Inuit access to the records of lost family members as a result of the past tuberculosis epidemic.
"The goal is to help end the situation and begin the healing process for families and Inuit communities," Rochette said.
In March, the eve of World Tuberculosis Day, Minister of Aboriginal Services Jane Philpott promised that the federal government would eliminate TB from Inuit Nunangat by 2030.
In January, the federal government committed to set a timetable for its northern TB eradication plan, which has infection rates among Inuit at 270 times higher than the non-Aboriginal population in Canada.
With $ 27.5 million in federal funding for tuberculosis treatment and prevention in Inuit Nunangat, Nunavut opened its second TB clinic last week in Whale Cove.
Another tuberculosis screening clinic was held in Qikiqtarjuaq earlier this year.
"We were treated like dogs," said Alice Ipkornerk, Kivalliq Women's Representative at the NTI Annual General Meeting last Wednesday.
She burst into tears as she recounted her own experiences in tuberculosis hospitals from her childhood.
Ipkornerk had tuberculosis three times in total, she said, when she was a child, teenager and adult.
"It was a very hurtful and bad experience," said Ipkornerk. "We were forced to eat, pushing food to the throat, even though we were vomiting … and we would be hit physically."
According to Jeannie Arreak-Kullualik, NTI's Director of Operations, a list of people from Nunavut who have been sent to TB hospitals is being created. She says she thinks that about 900 people from Nunavut have been fired and never returned.
NTI members discussed the possibility that graves of some people with TB could not be found because their bodies were cremated. Some NTI members reported hearing testimony about cremation in tuberculosis hospitals.
NTI has a team of three people who are working to locate the graves of people who have died of tuberculosis and whose remains have not been returned.
"We do not know who's alive and who's dead. We have heard a lot of sad stories, "said Arreak-Kullualik.
"Those who survived and came back were a pretty high number too."
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