Experimental Inuit hope to see claim move forward after 12-year wait – Nunatsiaq News
13 July 2020
“I think there’s a realization that these seven people have fallen through the cracks”
Peter Ittinuar says people accuse him of dying his hair black.
At 70, the former Nunavut MP, teacher, broadcaster and government bureaucrat said he enjoys naturally black hair and a youthful disposition. But after a long and full career, Ittinuar still hopes to see some things resolved before it’s too late.
Ittinuar is one of a trio of Inuit men, including Eric Tagoona and Zebedee Nungak, who were separated from their families in the 1960s and sent to live with foster families in Ottawa, as part of a federal experiment to see how the boys would fare in a new environment.
Dubbed “The Experimental Eskimos,” after the 2009 documentary featuring their story, Ittinuar, Tagoona and Nungak are plaintiffs in a 2008 lawsuit filed against the federal government, each seeking $350,000 in damages for their forced removal and assimilation.
Twelve years later, the plaintiffs have watched a number of other similar cases settled for residential school and Sixties Scoops survivors. Their case has sat for years, waiting for the federal government to determine whether it would rely on limitations—a time limit in which plaintiffs can bring a claim—and, more recently, COVID-19 delays.
