Longtime Nunavut politician Jack Anawak has been ordered to pay a $2,000 fine after pleading guilty to driving with a suspended licence.

“You did breach the conditional sentence order,” Justice Susan Charlesworth told Anawak, who appeared in court in Iqaluit Thursday morning by video conference.

“Things may go differently the next time.”

Anawak — a former member of Parliament and Iqaluit city councillor — was handed a six-month conditional sentence and 10-year driving ban in January after pleading guilty to operating a vehicle with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit.

The sentence stemmed from his involvement in a crash the evening of Nov. 4, 2023, the same week he was sworn in as an Iqaluit city councillor.

Anawak admitted to drinking wine that night, court heard earlier this year.

Two weeks after being sentenced for that, on Feb. 15 this year, Anawak drove a snowmobile with a child passenger seated on board, Crown prosecutor Chris McCarthy said in court Thursday. While driving, Anawak was recognized by one of his neighbours who was aware of his sentence conditions and called police.

McCarthy said the Crown was seeking a $2,000 fine for the violation. Additionally, he suggested Anawak’s three-month house arrest order be extended to six months, which would be served within the original conditional sentence.

Craig Rogers, Anawak’s lawyer, agreed with the Crown. He said Anawak, 74, is on a “retirement” income and should be able to pay the fine.

“I take full responsibility,” Anawak said.

In handing down her sentence, Charlesworth noted how soon after his sentencing that the breach occurred and that there was a child passenger on the snowmobile. She emphasized there was no allegation of alcohol consumption in relation to the breach.

“I hope you do well for you in the future,” Charlesworth said, handing down the fine and extended sentence.

Quebec authorities say a man who was under a court order not to harass a Puvirnituq woman has been charged in connection with her death last week.

Paulusie Aupaluktuk-Nutaraluk, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 28 death of Luuku Luuku, according to information filed with the court.

The documents show Aupaluktuk-Nutaraluk was on a court release order to not harass, bother, follow or spy on Luuku, and to refrain from using or possessing intoxicating substances and not possess or carry weapons.

Aupaluktuk-Nutaraluk was charged in March 2023 of assaulting another member of the Luuku family.

The documents indicate he was charged with committing five violations of the order between Feb. 16 and Feb 28.

Nunavik Police Service officers responded after the body of a woman in her thirties was discovered in a Puvirnituq home on the night of Feb. 28.

When it was determined her injuries suggested she might have been intentionally killed, Sûreté du Québec’s crime against the person department took over the investigation.

Aupaluktuk-Nutaraluk’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 21.

The federal government is launching its National School Food Program in the NWT and extending funding for cheaper childcare in the territory.

Iqaluit will be one of three sites, along with Inuvik and Yellowknife, for new operational support hubs to serve “critical military objectives” in the Arctic.

“Each of these locations has been identified as an ideal site for the network based on their geography and the strong military ties that only exist here in this community,” Bill Blair, the minister of national defence, said at the military’s Iqaluit Forward Operating Location near the airport on Thursday.

The announcement — made inside a hangar where a Royal Canadian Air Force jet was parked — was attended by about a dozen officials along with Canadian rangers.

The hubs are a key pillar of the Liberal government’s $81.1-billion defence policy that was introduced in April.

They will cost $2.67 billion over 20 years and the money will go toward airstrips, logistics facilities, and equipment to help the Canadian Armed Forces better “assert Canadian sovereignty,” said a Department of National Defence news release issued with the announcement.

The price tag rose from the $218 million that was initially planned for the project after “discussion” with local partners, Blair said.

“Today’s announcement is an important step towards the work that we need to do to fortify our defence capabilities,” Premier P.J. Akeeagok said at the announcement, adding that the hub in Iqaluit will include “multi-purpose infrastructure” that will meet the needs of the local community.

That would include operational support for emergency response, search and rescue operations, and infrastructure like roads and housing that could be used for civilian purposes as well, Blair said.

Currently, the Canadian Armed Forces has four operational support hubs, all of them overseas — in Germany, Kuwait, Jamaica and Senegal.

When asked, Blair didn’t specify the timeline for those projects to be completed, but said there is “an urgency to making those investments.”

The military has tried to learn from the experience of the Nanisivik Naval Facility, Blair said. The completion of that facility has been delayed multiple times over the past two decades and is now in limbo.

Blair’s announcement comes a month after Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre came to Iqaluit to pledge to build a permanent military base in the community within the first two years if he becomes prime minister.

“I think he sees the political necessity of at least attempting to demonstrate that he cares,” Blair said of Poilievre’s visit.

“This is not about slogans. It’s about the hard work that we have to do together.”

The federal government is increasing the amount of money it’s spending to build a network of northern military hubs to$2.67 billion. It also announced Thursday the first hubs would be in Iqaluit, Yellowknife and Inuvik.

Expect lots of fireworks in the legislature over the next few weeks.  

Yukon's premier says he's been getting an "incredible" amount of advice and suggestions from Yukoners about how to retaliate against the U.S. for its punishing new tariffs — with suggestions ranging from putting on a toll on the Alaska Highway to banning American athletes from the Arctic Winter Games.

One of the north’s biggest landlords is calling for changes to landlord-tenant law in the Northwest Territories, saying it’s “drowning in this crisis” of constant vandalism and violence plaguing its buildings in Yellowknife and Inuvik.

Yellowknife, Inuvik and Iqaluit were confirmed as the Canadian military's first northern operational support hubs alongside an apparent huge jump in funding.

With the newly built 24-bed Rankin Inlet elder facility expected to open next month, work continues on similar facilities in Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit. Combined, they will create 72 more beds for seniors in the territory.

“I am pleased to say our commitment to supporting elders to age in dignity is one of our dreams which is coming to life,” Finance Minister Lorne Kusugak told the legislative assembly last week while delivering the territory’s budget for 2025-26.

The 24-bed Cambridge Bay facility is currently going through the “detailed design” stage. Construction is to start next year and it’s expected to be substantially complete by fall 2028, but no date has been set for it to open.

It will be similar to the $59.4-million Rankin Inlet facility, which was finished in January and will start operations in April.

As for the 48-bed elder home in Iqaluit, a location near the Arctic Winter Games arena has been confirmed and the building is expected to be substantially finished in late 2029 or early 2030 though no opening date has been released.

There is no cost estimate for either facility at this point because they are still going through design work, John Main, Nunavut’s health minister, said in a media briefing Tuesday.

The update comes with the release of a 32-page progress report on the Nunavut government’s 2024 Aging with Dignity strategy.

The strategy aims to address the needs of aging Nunavummiut and includes five goals, 15 objectives and 89 actions.

“It’s a file that’s very important to us,” Premier P.J. Akeeagok said in an interview after tabling the report in the assembly Wednesday.

Along with having elder facilities in all three regions, the government hopes to replace existing community health centres at a rate of three new centres every four or five years, the report said.

Currently, there are plans to replace health centres in Qikiqtarjuaq, where design work is being done and the building is to be substantially complete in winter 2028, and in Baker Lake which is approved for planning with no dates set yet.

As well, the government is continuing work on providing safe transportation and housing for elders as part of Nunavut’s goal to build 3,000 homes by 2030, the progress report says.

The transportation aspect involves providing a wheelchair-accessible bus with a driver in every community, as well as reduced rates for elders on all airlines serving Nunavut communities.

Also this year, the government is starting to develop an awareness campaign around elder abuse.

Some of the goals were identified as long-term with work to be done over the next 10 years.

Following through on those items will be the responsibility of future governments, with territorial elections set for October.

“We can’t commit for future governments,” Akeeagok said of the long-tern actions, adding that they are prioritizing work that can be continued through the term of the current government.

But the goal is for the future Nunavut leaders to also continue with the implementation of the strategy, he said.

The federal government appointed a former BC minister to a new position designed to advance reconciliation over Giant Mine's toxic legacy.

The federal government has appointed former MP and MLA Murray Rankin to assess the impacts of Giant Mine near Yellowknife, specifically as it relates to the impact on Indigenous communities and historical treaty rights.

Raglan Mine is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year and the company’s leadership is reflecting on progress that has been made during that time.

“I feel a huge sense of pride on both sides of the fence,” said Samwillie Grey-Scott, Raglan’s deputy director of public affairs and the first Inuk employee to hold a management position at the mine.

He started at the company 15 years ago.

“We have put in the effort,” Grey-Scott said in an interview. “Every year, we try and live up to the agreement that we signed.”

The Raglan Agreement, an impact benefit agreement that provides a framework for Inuit to benefit from what is extracted from the mine site, was signed Feb. 28, 1995, said a news release from the company commemorating the anniversary.

Raglan is inviting people from all around Nunavik to the mine on May 15 to celebrate.

The mine produces approximately 40,000 tonnes of nickel and lesser amounts of copper and cobalt annually.

The Raglan Agreement was one of the first impact benefit agreements in Canada. Now, Inuit in Nunavik receive $18 million annually in payroll and Inuit-owned businesses provide 25 per cent of contracted services at the Glencore Canada-owned mine, located on the Ungava peninsula of Quebec.

The Raglan Agreement specifies a profit-sharing component for beneficiaries and a donations program. More than $1.4 million has been contributed to community initiatives, and $600,000 worth of scholarships awarded, said the release.

Nunavimmuit have also received $254 million over the past 30 years through profit sharing, allowances and various payments.

Communication director Amélie Rouleau said that although there have been ups and downs, where at times locals have said plainly that what the mine was doing was not enough, “it is a relationship that is evolving, and [we are] nurturing it.”

One of those downs was a strike by workers that reduced production at the mine for approximately three months between May 24 and Sept. 8 in 2022.

Nunatsiaq News asked how Raglan might be affected by new challenges appearing on the horizon.

U.S. President Donald Trump imposed this week steep tariffs on all Canadian goods crossing the border. Rouleau said this shouldn’t directly affect Raglan operations because its ore is sent to Norway.

“It is Norwegian nickel in a sense, it comes from Canada but it is transformed there,” she said.

Retaliatory tariffs on some imported U.S. products, if imposed by Canada, might impact the buying of some equipment, Rouleau said. However, she thinks the company is “well-positioned” to withstand the hit.

There is a critical shortage of vacant medical travel accommodation in Yellowknife. At least one boarding home for patients is full and so are hotels, MLAs say.

"Part of this is just trying to stay strong." The Aurora Ukrainian Dancers' spring recital arrives at a meaningful moment for Yellowknife's Ukrainian community.

Yellowknife Literacy Outreach Centre, which won an award from Canada's premiers in 2023, is at risk of closure. The GNWT said work has begun to try to save it.

Every year, community leaders get a meeting dubbed "the bear pit" to at which to question NWT ministers. Here are some of the topics from this year's event.

Leela Gilday will get a career achievement award at Thursday's Women in Music Canada Honours. Carly McFadden is nominated for her work with Folk on the Rocks.

N.W.T.'s health minister says that a rise in tourism is putting more strain on the medical travel system. The Keskorie medical boarding home in Yellowknife is full right now, along with city hotels, leaving some medical travel patients with nowhere to stay.

Nunavut’s Department of Family Service has not significantly improved its services for the protection and well-being of vulnerable children in the territory, the federal Office of the Auditor General has found.

But increased staffing and changes to workplace policies have enabled some improvements to be implemented, says deputy auditor general Andrew Hayes.

“The bottom line is that while initial actions and steps have been taken, they have yet to produce appreciable changes to outcomes for vulnerable children and youth,” Hayes told reporters in Iqaluit Wednesday, following the release of the auditor general’s followup report on the department’s work.

The report looks at how the Department of Family Services takes care of hundreds of children who are in foster care for reasons such as abuse, harm and neglect.

“This means that children and youth in Nunavut still remain at risk of not receiving the protections and services that they require and that they deserve under the law.”

The report, tabled Wednesday in the legislative assembly, is a followup to auditor general Karen Hogan’s 2023 audit on child and family services in Nunavut. In that report, Hogan cited problems involving care and oversight and called her findings “an urgent call for action.”

Wednesday’s report was the fourth of its kind by the federal auditor general. Previous reports were conducted in 2011 and 2014.

One of the key findings in this report was that the Department of Family Services was able to provide the exact number of children in Nunavut’s foster care system — something the department was unable to do two years ago.

That number is 533 — including 444 in the territory — Family Services Minister Margaret Nakashuk’s staff told reporters Wednesday.

“It required a lot of manual effort for them to identify where the children and youth all were, but they were able to do that,” Hayes said.

The department has implemented a new information management system to track those numbers although not all staff had been trained on it, the report said.

The department has also begun updating policies for responding to and investigating suspected instances of child abuse, the report said.

Family Services Minister Margaret Nakashuk speaks in the legislative assembly Wednesday. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)

As well, the department increased its number of community social service workers. However, a lack of staff housing continues to limit that progress.

“The department needs to invest in their staff, and that will also produce better outcomes for people,” Hayes said.

Speaking to reporters, Nakashuk called the report “a very good followup” that shows where her department needs to continue making improvements.

Family Services has a lot of “capacity” issues that affect staffing and staff housing. But the department continues to fund more staff positions, she added.

“Of course, things are a bit slow, but we’re just talking about a very short timeline here,” Nakashuk said of the progress made since the auditor general’s 2023 report.

“I think the more we continue, there’s goals that we have to do and we have to ensure proper data is there as well, so there’s a lot of work to be done yet.”

Wednesday’s report did not include any recommendations for Family Services.

Hayes said he expects his office to produce another follow-up report within two years.

A new report from the auditor general of Canada finds that Nunavut's Department of Family Services has made initial steps to fix the service it provides to youth and children, but the changes haven't been big enough to make much of a difference.

"The scale of this crisis is almost unimaginable." In a rare on-record briefing, Northview – the NWT's biggest landlord – set out a relentlessly bleak picture.

A new research and training centre in Nunavut could soon be offering skills development in fields such as mining, environmental management, administration, and health.

The Nunavut government is still in the early planning phase for new water treatment plants in Igloolik and Clyde River, MLAs heard Monday.

The NWT's health minister said lower rates of vaccination against measles, flu and other diseases are leaving Elders and children vulnerable.

Two grocery chains that serve the North say stores in remote communities that rely on large, infrequent shipments of goods are shielded from the effects of Canadian counter-tariffs – at least, for now.

A Nunavut judge imposed a $5,000 fine on the federal government earlier this year over delays in a lawsuit that alleges Inuit were subjected to medical skin graft experiments.

The claimants are former premier Paul Quassa, filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, artist Madeline Ivalu, Lazarie Uttak and Lydia Inooya.

The group alleges they were five of about 30 Inuit subject to biological experiments in Igloolik between 1967 and 1973, including cutting off patches of skin from one person to be grafted onto another. The experiments were done under auspices and financial support from the federal government, the lawsuit, filed in 2019, claims.

“You cannot take bits and pieces of [someone’s] body and weld them onto somebody else,” said Steve Cooper, the lawyer representing the claimants, in an interview.

The group is seeking more than $1 million each in damages and an apology, according to the statement of claim.

The case stalled last year while the group waited for a federally appointed officer to testify and supply documents on behalf of the federal government.

The federal government had a time frame of July 2024 to Nov. 29, 2024, to appoint an officer, and ended up providing that person one day before the deadline, on Nov. 28. Cooper said he was then told the officer would only be available for a short period of time.

Legal examinations, under court order, were to be completed Jan. 8, Cooper said.

When that date passed with no examinations, the judge awarded the claimants $5,000 and set a new deadline of March 31. Now, Cooper said, an officer is appointed and an examination date is scheduled.

“I don’t know why the government is fighting,” he said.

“Every single plaintiff I’ve represented in 35 years of practice wants to settle out of court,” he said, suggesting this is the preferred route for his clients.

The federal government’s stance is that it did not “design, conduct, direct, supervise or otherwise control” the alleged research studies, according to a statement of defence filed Feb. 21, 2020. Instead, the government said, the studies were conducted by the University of Alberta, University of Manitoba, University of Toronto and Montreal’s McGill University.

That pulled the universities into the case as third-parties, which has slowed progress, Cooper said.

Since then, McGill University and University of Toronto have been removed from the case.

“We weren’t interested in suing the universities, at least not based on what we knew,” Cooper said. But, he added, they might have information the claimants need.

“The Government of Canada remains committed to resolving litigation related to past harms suffered by Indigenous people in a respectful, compassionate, and fair manner, whenever possible,” said Anispiragas Piragasanathar, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, in an email last month.

The allegations are “deeply troubling,” he said.

However, Piragasanathar said, to date the government has not seen any evidence of its involvement in the experiments or research.

“As this litigation remains before the courts, it would be inappropriate to comment further,” he said.

If the case were to go to trial, it might not be until late 2026 or early 2027, Cooper estimated, noting there are many variables involved.

The Yukon Supreme Court has tossed the territorial government's case against the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board over the board's recommendation against a proposed exploration project in the Peel watershed.

Multiple skiers were reported trapped in the Alaska backcountry after being swept up in an avalanche, Alaska State Troopers said Wednesday.

Nunavut’s finance minister says the territory is considering banning American companies from bidding on government contracts in the wake of the trade war with the United States.

Two Ottawa buildings near Parliament Hill, including the former U.S. Embassy, are set to become a permanent space for Indigenous work.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree signed an agreement with Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami president Natan Obed and other national Indigenous leaders Tuesday in Ottawa to transform buildings at 100 Wellington St. and 119 Sparks St., and a connecting infill space, to a national space for Indigenous governance and culture.

This move will ensure First Nations, Inuit, and Métis are no longer treated as “visitors” when conducting business in Ottawa, Obed said at the signing ceremony.

The space will serve as a venue for governance, cultural events and meetings. The full redevelopment will take up to a decade, with interim public exhibition spaces opening before the final redevelopment.

The building at 100 Wellington St. is the former U.S. Embassy. It had been vacant for over 20 years until 2017, when the federal government announced plans to use it as a space dedicated for Indigenous use.

“The history of that particular footprint being the U.S. Embassy is an interesting juxtaposition of where we are today,” Obed said, referring to the U.S. imposition of tariffs on Canada on Tuesday.

“This announcement is an act of diplomacy between Canada and First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.”

The federal 2024 budget includes $4.2 million over two years, starting in 2024–25, to support the design process, which will be Indigenous-led.

People in Skagway, Alaska says they're anxious about what a Canada-U.S. trade war will mean for the cost of living in their small, remote town.