Sled dog slaughter...

Anybody heard about this? I'm not jumping to conclusions but the way the government is acting, I believe the Inuit 100%. They've been the victims of other atrocities at the hand of the govt, I'm sad that this one involved up to 20,000 sled dogs...

This is from The Gazette, Friday, March 11, 2005.

MPs call for probe of dog slaughter

CanWest News Service


Friday, March 11, 2005

A Commons committee is recommending the government launch a full inquiry into the slaughter of thousands of sled dogs through the 1950s and '60s.

After listening to another morning of emotional testimony from Inuit elders who say they watched their dogs being shot at the hands of northern police, committee members endorsed a recommendation to have a superior court judge investigate the killings.

Inuit are demanding the federal government not only investigate the deaths of more than 20,000 sled dogs killed by RCMP and provincial police across northern Quebec and Nunavut, but also apologize and provide compensation packages to the 250 families affected by the loss.

They believe the decimation of sled dogs was part of a secret policy to push remote Inuit settlements closer to communities where their children would go to school.

In testimony to the committee on Tuesday, an RCMP director-general said officers killed only dogs that were lamed by illness or distemper.

Ottawa Citizen

© The Gazette (Montreal) 2005

I actually saw that on TV a while back a documentary,the RCMP herded the dogs on to the ice and shot them one by one.... :sad:

That is very sad :(

This goes beyond what we would call creulty to animals as this was directed at an ethinic group in order to displace them. Isn't that a crime against humanity according to the definition? I hope they do get compensation.

The defense would indicate that distemper and lameness was running rampant in the dogs of the north. Right.

I heard/read about the slaughter years ago in university and our prof was of the opinion that it was done to destroy traditional Innu hunting and the nomad lifestyle that went along with the hunting.

Much easier for the government to control if the natives are not able to feed themselves in traditional ways.

Of course, it was the same time as residential schools for First Nations and forcing Innu with TB to come to the sanatorium in Hamilton and die thousands of miles from their homes. Many of the graves are unmarked and the Innu that were left in the North never found out where their children and their brothers and sisters were taken, whether they lived or died. Even today we get the occasional Innu who comes looking for long-dead relatives -- there's generally a sympathy piece in the paper if its a slow news day....

sad.

really sad.