Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

NUNAVUT - When Special Const. Ooyoumut died on patrol at a fish camp near Baker Lake in 1954, the RCMP ruled that he "was not on duty at the time of his death." But was that really the case? Internal police records obtained under the federal Access to Information Act reveal how the RCMP failed a special constable with more than eight years service.

Special Constable Andrew Ooyoumut drowned in 1954 at age 37 while tending fishing nets to feed RCMP sled dogs. - photo courtesy of Joe Scottie

Born around 1916, my grandfather Special Const. Andrew Ooyoumut lived a traditional nomadic life until moving into the new settlement of Baker Lake. He married Rhoda Qaqsauq and they had four children. Ooyoumut was a skilled hunter and traveller. A man of good character, he was said to be well-liked by Inuit and non-Inuit alike. These skills and personal characteristics landed him a job as a special constable with the RCMP in 1946.

It was not Ooyoumut's life that was out of the ordinary, but rather it was his death and how the RCMP mishandled it.

Researching my family history, I made four requests for information about the circumstances surrounding his death before I obtained his service file. This service file contains 80 pages covering Ooyoumut's application for service with the RCMP, the certificate of registration of death that did not list death on duty of a fellow member, the subsequent decision not to grant his widow a pension, the failure to consider Special Const. Ooyoumut for the RCMP Honour Roll until 45 years after his death and further unsuccessful attempts in 1999 and 2000 "to try and have this injustice rectified."

When Ooyoumut was hired, the staff position held was listed as "hunter, with pay at $15 per month, and single native rations." Later Ooyoumut's position was classified as a "hunter and guide" and then also as an "interpreter."

Cpl. .Clare Dent was in charge of the Baker Lake detachment from 1953 to 1956 and he worked with Special Constables Ooyoumut and Parker. One of their tasks was operate a fish camp.

Dent describes the events leading to Ooyoumut's death:

"During the spring of 1954, S/Cst. Ooyoumut and I had crossed through open water to solid ice, then proceeded over the ice by dog team to fish camp at the Kiktavyuk River ... We tended fish nets for almost a month harvesting fish for dog food, which we filleted and hung to dry, feeding our dogs tethered on the island. This was an annual chore.

"When the main body of ice had broken up making easier access back to the settlement, Ooyoumut and I patrolled back to Baker Lake. With supplies replenished, S/Cst. Ooyoumut, and S/Cst. Parker... went back over to fish camp to prepare the dried fish for return to the settlement to be stored in our dog-food shed. I did not expect them back for at least a week with the first load.

"Surprisingly, early the next day I heard, then saw, the police canoe coming back towards the detachment, with only one occupant, S/Cst. Parker. I went down to the shore to meet him, and he came towards me, crying and putting his arms around me, explaining at the same time that S/Cst. Ooyoumut had drowned.

"After learning the details, that Ooyoumut had drowned over at fish camp while tending nets, and he had fallen in where the current was strongest, I made up dragging equipment..."

Upon returning to Baker Lake, Dent completed the certificate of registration of death and dispatched two messages. The following teletype was forwarded to Commissioner Leonard Nicholson:

RE S/CST OOYOUMUT REG.NO.9161 ACCIDENTALLY DROWNED APPROXIMATELY 2.30 P.M. WEDNESDAY JULY 21 KIKATZYUK RIVER, N.W.T. WHERE SUMMER FISHING WAS IN PROGRESS STOP WITNESSES UNABLE TO REACH HIM IN TIME STOP HE WAS SWIMMING WHEN DEATH OCCURRED AND PROBABLY SUBJECTED TO CRAMPS DRAGGING PRODUCED BODY 100 YARDS OFF SHORE IN 20 FEET OF WATER LATE P.M. SAME DATE STOP NEXT OF KIN NOTIFIED STOP CORONER NOTIFIED AND I SUGGESTED INQUEST NOT NECESSARY STOP REPORT BEING SUBMITTED.

Dent wrote five reports that discuss Ooyoumut's death, but all have been removed from the service file. As for the certificate of registration of death, the cause of death was recorded as, "Drowning - Accidental due to cramps." Although Dent listed the occupation as "guide and hunter to RCMP," the big mistake he made, and acknowledged years later, was that he "...reported the death under a territorial ordinance, rather than death on duty of (his) fellow member."

The certificate did not specify that Ooyoumut was on or off duty at the time of death and there was much discussion about it in recent years.

From Dent's perspective, Ooyoumut was on patrol, on duty at the time of his death.

"It was pointed out in previous correspondence that he was swimming recreationally, and, I know not how that conclusion was reached or by whom ... Yes, I possibly used the term swim, rather than bathe. That was probably my inexperience as a relative young detachment commander ..." he said.

Dent was not alone in believing that Ooyoumut died while on duty. In 2000 Insp. Dan Fudge of V Division in Iqaluit wrote to Panich, "On the facts presented by Dent I must tell you that the CO and I agree with him. In our view if Dent is correct this member was on duty at the time of his death and should have received the necessary recognition after his death."

"Those of us who have been posted in the North realize that an Inuk was not recreational swimming in July with his kamiks on. That this member was away from his detachment on duty performing the task assigned to him. Since he was alone we will never know exactly what happened but was the duty he was performing part of the unusual risk associated with police work of the day. I think so."

Richard Stanton, who had helped Dent recover Ooyoumut's body, added Ooyoumut was wearing his "long winter underwear," when they found him. Stanton points out that Ooyoumut was on patrol, not "recreational swimming" wearing clothing and footwear.

What is not stated in the service file is what Ooyoumut's family believes. Lucy Evo, one of Ooyoumut's three daughters, was told by her mother about how her father died: "He drowned while taking supplies, including tea, to a family."

If this were the case, giving out rations was one of the RCMP's tasks at the time.

Ooyoumut's widow Rhoda Qaqsauq was about 34 years old and had four young children when her husband died. Little is said in the service file about the decision to grant her a pension under her husband's name except that Insp. Usborne recommended that no payment be made because Dent had not stated that Ooyoumut died on duty.

It was decided that Qaqsauq be given a gratuity of two months salary and that Dent supervise the spending of it. To add insult to injury Dent wrote, "The writer is trying to make arrangements for the four children to be left homeless, to be accommodated by a reliable person in Baker Lake. The police will then be in a position to assist in the welfare of the family."

This matter had been long forgotten until Fudge pressed the compensation issue. In an email message from 2000, he questioned Panich about it. She said she would have the matter reviewed by the National Compensation Policy Centre. That correspondence is not included in the service file.

As for honour, Dent was "disillusioned" to learn about Ooyoumut's absence on the revised list for the Honour Roll so he wrote to Commissioner Norman Inkster in 1994 to report the circumstances of Ooyoumut's death, admit his mistake in registering the death and to request that Ooyoumut's name be included. Commissioner Inkster replied, "While it was noted that the inclusion of members' names have been applied differently over the years, I support the historian's recommendation to accept the inconsistencies of the past, and allow the cenotaph and honour roll to remain unaltered as an historical document. I have, therefore, decided not to include Special Const. Ooyoumut's name on the cenotaph and honour roll."

Not willing to accept this decision, Dent wrote a six-page letter to Panich in 1999. She directed the historian to review Ooyoumut's file and he discovered that Ooyoumut was never considered for inclusion on the honour roll when he died.

As a result, 45 years after the fact, Ooyoumut was finally considered for the honour roll. However, the outcome had not changed. Panich replied to Dent, "there is no clear indication on file that S/Cst. Ooyoumut was 'on duty' at the time of the accident..."

It appears that the committee that ruled against including Ooyoumut did not have a copy of Dent's reports detailing the circumstances of the death. And when that was not available, Dent or the witnesses were not asked to testify.

Again Dent could not accept the decision not to include Ooyoumut in the honour roll and he wrote a lengthy letter to Panich.

"I would appreciate having this plea revisited. Also, I would be more than pleased to enter into any discussion with those committee members and yourself. Also, after I have had an opportunity to review reports in question, by whatever means, to explore yet further avenues to try to have this injustice rectified." His efforts were again unsuccessful.

The one honour that Ooyoumut was given was on April 13, 2000, at the wall of honour ceremony in Yellowknife in recognition of Northern members who died in the line of duty. Ooyoumut's family attended the ceremony.

Any sense that the RCMP intended to honour Ooyoumut and set the record straight was lost after reading the service file. Rather, it appears the RCMP wanted to appease Dent.

Where was the esprit de corps, that sense of unity and camaraderie, towards a fellow member with more than eight years service? Evidently it was not there either when special constables Jimmy Nahogaloak, John Tologanak and Andre Evaglok of Cambridge Bay had to fight for recognition for their services. These special constables served around the same time as Ooyoumut and were not given RCMP headstones until 2008.

How many other special constables, the RCMP's "lifelines," have to fight for benefits and recognition?