Stephanie McDonald
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 17, 2007

IGLULIK - Police are investigating the death of Kolitalik Innuksuk, 43, of Iglulik.

RCMP were called to a residence at 1:30 a.m. and found Innuksuk lying on the floor. They were unable to find his pulse and took him to the town's health centre.

He was pronounced dead at 1:55 a.m.

"We knew there was a knife involved," Paul Quassa, the town's mayor, said on Tuesday morning.

Sgt. Mike Toohey, media liaison with the RCMP's V Division, would not confirm Friday if Innuksuk was stabbed, as the investigation is ongoing.

"At this point all it is is a sudden death that they're investigating," Toohey said.

Two members of the Nunavut General Investigation Section and one from the Forensic Identification Section in Iqaluit were sent to Iglulik to assist the RCMP.

Innuksuk's body has been sent to Toronto for an autopsy. Toohey said it usually takes a couple of weeks to receive the results from a postmortem.

Innuksuk grew up in Iglulik but he lived in Ottawa for a number of years. He returned home a couple of years ago.

His family lives in Iglulik, Quassa said.

He did odd jobs around town and recently worked as an interpreter at a gathering of elders and educators on language of instruction.

"He was a very quiet person," Quassa said.

He was independent and wasn't the type of person that was seen around town everyday, the mayor added.

Innuksuk had a girlfriend but no children.

This most recent death comes at a difficult time for Iglulik's 1,500 residents, as they deal with three other deaths in the community within the last month.

"It's something that we just have to accept, but certainly we will be needing a lot of healing in our community ... We do feel for the family," Quassa said.

"Iglulik, being a very strong community ... we are coping with the events and keeping together and being strong. That's all we can do right now," he said.