{"id":6965,"date":"2025-11-06T14:51:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/losing-hope-he-quit-the-nunavik-police-years-later-many-still-feel-unsupported-by-the-force\/"},"modified":"2025-11-06T14:51:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T17:51:17","slug":"losing-hope-he-quit-the-nunavik-police-years-later-many-still-feel-unsupported-by-the-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/2025\/11\/06\/losing-hope-he-quit-the-nunavik-police-years-later-many-still-feel-unsupported-by-the-force\/","title":{"rendered":"Losing hope, he quit the Nunavik police. Years later, many still feel unsupported by the force"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>A week before his 19th birthday, Johnny Saunders fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a police officer \u2014 but it didn\u2019t play out how he had hoped.Saunders was given a fresh uniform and the keys to a truck, he said, recalling the moment he joined Nunavik Regional Police, which was called the Kativik Regional Police Force at the time.\u201cWe were all naive, but I guess we all had a dream of trying to make a difference,\u201d Saunders said in an interview.He was part of several Inuit officers recruited and trained for policing jobs in their hometowns in the early 2000s.But two and a half years later, by the time he was 21, Saunders was losing hope, \u201ctaking stress leave after stress leave,\u201d and drinking heavily to cope.He also felt like he was being viewed as an outsider in his own community in Nunavik, an Inuit territory in northern Quebec.In some cases, his time as a police officer altered his relationships with loved ones \u2014 like when he was forced to arrest his cousin for a minor offence.It\u2019s something he still regrets.\u201cI looked into his eyes and I told him I have to,\u201d said Saunders.\u201cPutting your cousins in handcuffs that you grew up with, you know how unnecessary it is, but the law states that you must do what you must do.\u201dFeeling overwhelmed and unsupported by the police, Saunders quit his job. And he wasn\u2019t the only one.Johnny Saunders worked in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, the largest of the region\u2019s 14 Inuit communities. (Matisse Harvey\/Radio-Canada)There\u2019s been a decline in the number of local police officers on staff.With more non-Indigenous officers, Saunders says Nunavik has become a rotating training ground for police and is \u201calways dealing with the new guy\u201d who don\u2019t always fully understand the people they\u2019re serving.Advocates say that has contributed, over time, to an erosion of trust in communities and an increase in violent interventions.According to data from the provincial police watchdog, police officers in Nunavik are involved in 73 times more fatal shootings than the provincial average.Last year in November protests were organized to denounce police violence after police killed 26-year-old Joshua Papigatuk and injured his twin brother.  (F\u00e9lix Lebel\/Radio-Canada)Earlier this week, residents in communities across Nunavik took part in marches to denounce police brutality.Some residents say they continue to feel concerned about safety a year after police fatally shot 26-year-old Joshua Papigatuk and injured his twin brother \u2014 in an incident that made headlines across the province.Only 3 out of 151 officers in Nunavik are InuitAnother former police officer who joined the region\u2019s police force in 1999 says the way forward needs to include recruiting more Inuit and focusing on community policing models.CBC News has agreed to withhold his name because he fears he could face consequences for speaking out against the police.He says there was a lack of support for Inuit officers and working in communities long term was unsustainable.\u201cIn hindsight, it was the most difficult thing in my life, policing your own community,\u201d he said.\u201cMany of us who were recruited then are no longer here.\u201dSome former colleagues passed away and others continue to struggle with the effects of trauma they endured while being an officer, he says.\u201cThe force has not improved \u2014 it\u2019s worsened,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are not served by our people. We are served by people from the south, who have no regard for our culture, our way of life.\u201dOnly 3 out of 151 officers in Nunavik are Inuit, according to a Kativik Regional Government report. (F\u00e9lix Lebel\/Radio-Canada)Police also face challenges in Nunavik. In 2024, crime rates in the regionwere roughly 15 times higherthan the rest of the province, according to Statistics Canada. There is also heavy struggles with addiction and suicide, compounded by intergenerational trauma and a lack of housing.  The regional police acknowledged in a recent report that recruitment and retention was \u201can enormous and constant challenge.\u201dIn 2005, eight Inuit officers worked with local police, according to a Kativik Regional Government (KRG) report.Two decades later, in 2025, that number dropped to three Inuit officers out of 151 serving the region.In June, the KRG passed a resolution requesting an audit of the Nunavik Police Service. The resolution called for a review of police operations and ways to make policing better reflect Inuit culture.Police chief Jean-Pierre Larose has said he is in full support of such a review. He has also spoken out about the lack of resources for the Nunavik Police Service. Larose also said recently he would like his officers to get more involved in the community and he said he wants to \u201chave a better relationship and build better trust.\u201dKRG did not return a request for comment to CBC News for this story. The lawyer representing families of men killed in police-involved shooting says they have not heard back from Ian Lafreni\u00e8re, public security minister and minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit. (Olivier Croteau\/Radio-Canada)In an emailed statement, R\u00e9my Charest, a spokesperson with Quebec\u2019s Public Security Ministry said it will be available to support, advise and facilitate the implementation of the results of the police audit.Charest said police officers must complete two training courses offered by Universit\u00e9 Laval on Inuit culture and Indigenous realities.\u201cMaintaining good relations with the community is the foundation of a community policing model,\u201d Charest said.Calls to disarm policeSome residents are asking for police officers to no longer carry lethal service firearms in the field.It\u2019s one of the demands listed in an online petition co-signed by the families of two men killed in police-involved shootings in the region this year.Their lawyer, Louis-Nicolas Coupal says the families requested to meet with Premier Fran\u00e7ois Legault but the government has \u201cstraight up failed to reply.\u201dNor have the families heard from Ian Lafreni\u00e8re, public security minister and minister responsible for relations with First Nations and Inuit.\u201cThe killings need to stop,\u201d said Coupal. \u201cThe province of Quebec has failed to deliver proper policing and judicial services to Nunavik for many years now.\u201dHe says immediate reforms are needed and suggests the implementation of non-lethal weapons.Handguns were slowly introduced in the region in the late 90s, and the weapons at the police\u2019s disposal got more powerful, according to a report prepared for Public Safety Canada.In Saunders\u2019s two-and-a-half years as an officer, he says he never put a hand on his weapon. He says he used de-escalation tactics.Responding to calls heavily armed with rifles or assault weapons is not the right tool to de-escalate, says Olivia Ikey, an advocate who helped organize the Nov. 4 protest against police brutality.\u201cWe understand that there [are] guns needed,\u201d she said, then added: \u201cBut at what cost? How do we manage that?\u201dShe made the jump from her hometown of Kuujjuaq to Montreal six years ago with her family.Ikey says it\u2019s becoming dangerous and Inuit are \u201cterrified of the police officers.\u201d\u201cWe cannot call police officers when we need help. We know things will escalate even worse when we call,\u201d she said.\u2018Do I want this to be happening to my daughters?\u2019Suzy Kauki, who lives in Kuujjuaq, says her family experienced this firsthand in 2020.Kauki says that, during a police operation in response to another girl who was in crisis, officers pointed guns at her 11-year-old daughter, Harmony.\u201cShe was held on our house balcony with her hands up in the air and with police officers pointing their semi-automatic weapons at her,\u201d said Kauki.Suzy Kauki also organized a march in 2024 to demand justice for Inuit, following the death of Joshua Papigatuk. (F\u00e9lix Lebel\/Radio-Canada)It\u2019s an example, she says, of just how the policing model falls short.Kauki has long been involved in police reform and advocacy within the justice system in Nunavik and was another one of the organizers of the remembrance march against police brutality.Kauki doesn\u2019t always remember it being this way with the police.Moving back to Nunavik with her three daughters after pursuing her studies in Ottawa, Kauki said she noticed a major disconnect between police and the communities they serve.\u201cAs a mother, do I want this to be happening to my daughters or do I want this to be happening to my granddaughters? Is this the kind of environment that we\u2019re going to raise our children [in]?\u201dPeople don\u2019t make time for each other anymore, says Saunders, comparing how policing approaches have changed since his time on the force.\u201cPeople don\u2019t interact, people don\u2019t look into each other\u2019s eyes,\u201d he said.Saunders has also found himself on the other end of policing \u2014 arrested in 2014 after he became violent, he says.\u201cThere was not enough support for what we were going through,\u201d he said.\u201cThe things that we got to see \u2014 you weren\u2019t necessarily prepared for that.\u201dSaunders, now a musician, uses his guitar as his way to find healing from his experiences and not \u201callow shame to hold me back.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A week before his 19th birthday, Johnny Saunders fulfilled his childhood dream of becoming a police officer \u2014 but it didn\u2019t play out how he had hoped.Saunders was given a fresh uniform and the keys to a truck, he said, recalling the moment he joined Nunavik Regional Police, which was called the Kativik Regional Police [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6966,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,1],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-6965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-indigenous","category-uncategorized","tag-indigenous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}