IQALIUT—There have been 14 police-related deaths in Nunavut since the territory’s creation in 1999, all of them Inuit and all of whom died in RCMP custody or after an interaction with the Mounties.The RCMP is the only police force here and runs jails in all 25 Nunavut communities. After a police-related death, RCMP usually hires an outside police force to investigate the incident.Between 1999 and 2016, the last year for which there was complete coroner data, the rate of police-related deaths in Nunavut was more than nine times higher than Ontario’s rate.While there is no evidence the RCMP committed any wrongdoing in the 14 deaths, the alarming trend – with four of the deaths occurring since 2016 — is fuelling calls for greater and more independent police oversight and the creation of an agency such as Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit.Four members of Nunavut’s Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are demanding the territory’s justice department take action.“A civilian oversight body is definitely needed for policing in Nunavut,” Iqaluit MLA Adam Lightstone told the Star. “The ideal situation would be to have Nunavummiut sitting on that civilian oversight body.”In Nunavut’s consensus-style government, MLAs are not considered part of an opposition party, though, if they are not in cabinet, they are free to criticize government.Nunavut’s lack of such an oversight agency to review serious incidents is an “outlier,” says Paul McKenna, former deputy director of the Ontario Provincial Police Academy.MLAs Cathy Towtongie, Joelie Kaernerk and Pat Angnakak are echoing Lightstone’s call.“Who are the police accountable to? There’s no oversight,” said Towtongie. “I support the idea of an independent oversight body.”In most Canadian jurisdictions, an independent civilian-led body investigates serious incidents or allegations of police misconduct. In O ...
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