Yumimi Pang
Northern News Services
Published Monday, July 07, 2008

NUNAVUT - A group of Inuit who were part of a project called the Eskimo experiment have embarked on a legal battle with the government of Canada.

"So far it's a light skirmish. It's in the context of the war called the residential school experience," said Peter Ittinuar, one of the seven Inuit represented by Edmonton lawyer Steven Cooper.

The Eskimo experiment was a project created by the Canadian government in the 1960s to see if Inuit children could successfully adjust to southern cultures, schooling and language.

The project started after intelligence quotient testing of children in the North revealed higher than expected scores in areas like Rankin Inlet.

"They decided, let's see if little (Inuit) kids can compete with white kids. Let's see how smart they are, if they're smart enough to compete with middle class Canadians," said Ittinuar.

Ittinuar is also currently filming The Experimental Eskimos, a documentary about the experiences that he, Zebedee Nungak and Eric Tagoona had as children transplanted from their Northern homes to the south in the 1960s. Nungak and Tagoona are also among the plaintiffs in the legal action.

In 1962, at the age of 12, Ittinuar was one of the children chosen from Rankin Inlet to be relocated to a foster family in Ottawa. Once in the south, he participated in activities such as music, judo and swimming.

In 1964, Ittinuar was returned to his family, who had relocated to Lynn Lake, Man.

"My experimental Eskimo days in Ottawa not only made a gap between me and my fellow Inuit but there was already an obvious gap between me and these kids in Lynn Lake who were white," said Ittinuar.

Ittinuar considers the decision to take children south for integration as fraught with dismissals, since their parents were not consulted and the decision to take the children was colonial in nature.

Unlike the residential schools, students who were part of the Eskimo experiment were not subject to abuse but the program tore the children away from their families, language and culture. Still, many thrived in the south, including Ittinuar who would become Canada's first Inuk member of Parliament.

"They lost their family connection; they lost the ability to live on the land. They lost the ability to raise an Inuk child in the Inuit way. So really what they were left with was a complete integration into southern culture," said Cooper.

In their lawsuit, among the reasons for the statement of claim, they cite that they were denied regular communication with their families, that it was the government's obligation to properly care for the children and that, "Canada treated the Plaintiffs as experimental subjects to be used for Canada's benefit, rather than as individuals deserving of respect and fair treatment from Canada."

The group is seeking $350,000 for each of the seven plaintiffs.

"People focus on the money. But this is about recognition, vindication, apology," said Cooper. "The bottom line is that the money represents a tangible apology."

Currently the federal government is seeking more details about the group's claims and Cooper is in the process of responding to that request.