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Inuit 15 times more likely to be jailed in Quebec than the provincial average

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Osman Ilgun was arrested in September 2021 and soon transferred to a detention centre 1,500 kilometres away from his home in the Inuit community of Quaqtaq in Quebec’s Nunavik region.

At the jail in Amos, Que., he was fed raw food — he says he believes guards stereotypically assumed Inuit people eat raw meat. He said he was forced to quarantine for 28 days, adding he had limited access to showers and phone calls with family during that time.

“My mother, she was so worried because I didn’t have access to the phone to tell her what’s going on,” said Ilgun, who was charged with sexual assault. He has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Ilgun was one of the 617 Inuit people admitted to a Quebec jail in the 12 months ending March 31, 2022. That number represents 4.5 per cent of the 13,613 Inuit living in the province — a rate 15 times higher than the average incarceration rate in Quebec, provincial data shows. It’s also a rate almost twice as high as that of any other Indigenous group in the province.

The disproportionate detention rates for the Inuit are a result of an “outraging lack of resources that would not be tolerated anywhere else in Quebec,” said David Boudreau, a legal aid lawyer who has been working in the province’s North for more than five years.

Boudreau said programs aimed at preventing crime and diverting offenders from the justice system are often not available in Quebec’s Nunavik region, home to the majority of Inuit who live in the province.

Sexual education programs and services to help people heal from trauma have been lacking in the region for decades, “which leads to that never-ending cycle of abuse,” he said. Nunavik courts handle many sexual abuse cases, but treatment programs open to offenders in southern Quebec aren’t available to those living in the North, he added.

Often, the only professional support accessible to residents is provided by social workers who usually come from the south and are “often” asked to address problems beyond their professional capacity, Boudreau said.

As a result, he said, Inuit offenders are more likely to be jailed rather than sentenced to house arrest or given conditional sentences.

“Judges are truly sensitive to the lack of resources, but it’s beyond their power to do anything about it,” he said. “They have to work with what they have … What’s missing is political will to try and put in place some programs that are ultimately going to help reduce the criminality rate.”

Inuit represent slightly more than 0.16 per cent of Quebec’s population but accounted for 2.45 per cent of provincial detainees during the year ending March 31, 2022.

Mylène Jaccoud, a criminology professor at Université de Montréal who studies the criminalization of Indigenous people in Quebec, said that while non-Inuit Indigenous Peoples are over-represented in provincial jails, there’s an “over, over-representation of Inuit.”

Data from the federal and provincial governments show 12.4 per cent of Indigenous people in Quebec are Inuit, but they accounted for 35 per cent of Indigenous people in provincial custody in the year ending March 31, 2022.

Jaccoud said the 1975 James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement gave the Inuit a level of self-government. But that self-governing process isn’t as advanced in the North as it is in other Indigenous communities, such as the Cree territories, she said.

“The Cree have taken charge of their administration of justice, while the Inuit have not. That’s a big difference,” Jaccoud said, adding that most police officers in the region aren’t Inuit. Of the 88 officers who worked at the Nunavik Police Service in May 2022, only four were Inuit, while about 90 per cent of the people they serve are Inuit.

The Nunavik Police Service declined an interview request.

There is no jail in the North, so detainees are usually sent to Amos, Que., more than 1,000 kilometres south of Nunavik’s largest community of Kuujjuaq.

A 2022 class-action lawsuit filed against the provincial government on behalf of more than 1,500 Inuit detainees alleges the rights of Inuit are systematically violated when they are transferred long distances from home.

The lawsuit has been authorized by a judge and alleges the length of time Inuit people are often detained before bail hearings is unconstitutional; they are often flown to Montreal before they are driven around 600 kilometres northwest to Amos. The suit also alleges that Inuit detainees are frequently strip searched during the multiple stages of the journey to Amos and often plead guilty to charges in order to get out of extended pretrial detentions.

Ilgun, who worked as a firefighter and paramedic for 15 years, said he was left with post-traumatic stress disorder after he was unable to save a relative who had suffered a serious injury. A colleague underwent similar trauma and took his own life, he said.

He said provincial regulations stipulate that first responders — as a way to protect their mental health — shouldn’t provide medical treatment to family members. But in a small community like his, emergency workers may find themselves alone at the scene, or with a single partner, and there isn’t time to wait for someone else to arrive.

“I wasn’t getting help and I became an alcoholic and I turned violent because of my past trauma,” he said. “We can prevent that if the government provides us healing and support.”

The Makivik Corporation, which represents Inuit in negotiations with various levels of government, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. The office of Quebec’s minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit, Ian Lafrenière, directed questions to the Public Security Department. Public Security Minister François Bonnardel declined to comment for this story.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Feb. 26, 2023.

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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