Did Makivik jump the gun on dog allegations?
I have been reading the letter from Jacob Oweetaluktuk (“Makivik, RCMP both wrong about dog killings,” March 7, 2008.) I agree with what he is saying, because when I taught Inuktitut, I found a documentary about the shooting of the dogs. The documentary I watched in Inuktitut class was about a Labrador woman who shared her memories of the days when their dogs had to be killed by RCMP officers, because when the Spanish influenza hit the Newfoundland area by ship it started to spread into the Ungava area. To prevent other Inuit from getting the disease, RCMP officers killed dogs that had eaten humans who died of influenza. I think the Makivik Corp. has to be careful with the facts when they say RCMP officers killed Inuit dogs. Makivik has jumped the gun without looking for the real facts. The RCMP did kill Inuit dogs, but they did so with good intentions, because the dogs were killed to save the population of Inuit. But I find the majority of former residential school students tend to be
