As the Federal Government announced funding last Thursday to tackle the overrepresentation of Inuit people in jail, the head of Labrador’s Inuit Government urged policymakers to visit his region and understand the issues for themselves.
Nunatsiavut Government President, Johannes Lampe said Inuit in the region are targeted by police and forced to navigate a justice system that does not understand their language, history, or current circumstances.
“Come and see the poverty that Inuit are living today, where at times you are so poor, you have to do what it takes feed your family,” said Lampe told reporters. “Where food security is prevalent, high prices, and not having the means of obtaining a boat or a snowmobile to help you get out on land to find that fish, partridge, or a seal.”
Lampe joined the press conference by video last Thursday, as did Justice Minister David Lametti, who announced 1,17 million dollars in funding over several years to help overrepresentation of Inuit from the Nunatsiavut region in the justice system.
The Nunatsiavut region comprises five fly-in communities along Labrador’s north coast. Part of the money will fund a cultural awareness educator who will help criminal justice officials better understand why disproportionate number of Inuit end up in correctional facilities, Lametti said. It will also support the Nunatsiavut government’s community-based justice services.
Lametti did not have statistics specific to Inuit in corrections, but numbers last April from Newfoundland and Labrador Justice Department showed Inuit women are overrepresented at the province’s only women’s jail.
Though Inuit women represent less than one percent of the province’s population, they accounted for nine percent of inmates at the Correctional Centre for Women in Central Newfoundland between April 1, 2011 and April 1, 2021.
Lampe said the numbers are too high.