ITK Joins Nunatsiavut Government in Questioning Detention of Inuk Grandmother

June 2, 2017 – Ottawa, Ontario – Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK) supports the Nunatsiavut Government in objecting to the decision of the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Justice and Public Safety to hold Nunatsiavut woman Beatrice Hunter at a prison for medium- to maximum-security male offenders in St. John’s.

Hunter was detained on Monday for refusing to obey an injunction against protesting near the Muskrat Falls hydroelectric generation project outside Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, and is currently being held in Her Majesty’s Penitentiary in St. John’s. She was among a number of Inuit who occupied the Muskrat Falls site in October 2016.

“I fully support the Nunatsiavut Government in calling for fair and humane treatment of Beatrice Hunter, who has not hurt anybody and should not be forced for any reason to spend time in a prison with violent offenders,” said National Inuit Leader Natan Obed, President of ITK. “I join Nunatsiavut President Johannes Lampe in calling on the province to overturn this decision.”

In September, ITK joined the Nunatsiavut Government in calling on the governments of Canada and Newfoundland and Labrador to demand changes to the project to mitigate the environmental and health impacts on Labrador Inuit.