Daniel T'seleie
Northern News Services

Iqaluit (Aug 29/05) - The RCMP's top cop's take on the dog slaughter allegations isn't sitting too well with some Nunavummiut.

Sytukie Joamie tends to his mother's dog in Apex, close to the exact spot where he says RCMP killed his father's team years ago. Joamie says RCMP should have a third party conducting the inquiry into allegations of dog slaughters. - Daniel T'seleie/NNSL photo

"From everything we have seen there is no indication of a systematic approach to eliminate dogs from the communities," RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said in an interview with Northern News Services in Inuvik last month.

An RCMP inquiry into allegations of systematic killing of sled dogs by police officers between 1950 and 1970 is still under way.

Iqaluit's Sytukie Joamie says the RCMP is not credible on this issue, being both the accused and the inquirer.

"Who in the free world studies themselves?" Joamie asks. "They should have used a third party right from the beginning.

"The people were there when the dogs got slaughtered, and to this day there's people who have never forgiven the RCMP," said Joamie, who says 10 of his father's dogs were "assassinated" by the RCMP.

In recent years, after Inuit began demanding answers, Joamie has heard "distemper" being cited by RCMP as the reason some dogs were shot. But at the time, no justification for the act was given to his family.

"You've got to understand, back then the white man never had to give any reason to any Inuk," Joamie said.

"They were the dominant people, they were the ones with the arms."

It is not uncommon for sled dogs to be infected by rabies, and some likely were at the time, Joamie said, but a whole team is never infected at once.

He remains convinced some slaughtered teams were not sick at all and should never have been killed.

'Asking for a reason'

"People were losing their dogs left, right, and centre at that time," Joamie said. "Now we're asking for a reason, and we know the reason that they're giving is not credible either."

Many people believe killing sled dogs was an attempt on behalf of the federal government to eliminate the Inuit's nomadic way of life and keep people in settlements, thereby strengthening Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic.

Police in Ottawa received information from the inquiry in June, said Inspector Paul Young of the Iqaluit detachment.

As part of the inquiry, RCMP have interviewed around 30 long -time residents of the territory who live in communities with complaints of dog slaughter, Young said.

Another 30 people are expected to be interviewed before the inquiry is completed.

A final report on the findings, expected to be finished within a month, will go to the office of Anne McLellan, federal Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

It will then be up to her to release the findings, said Inspector Rod Booth from the National Contract Policing Branch in Ottawa.