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New coroners named
Six appointments involve four communities

Jeanne Gagnon
Northern News Services
Published Friday, November 18, 2011

NUNAVUT
Dealing with the deceased and informing families a loved one has died is not an easy nor pleasant job. However, six newly-appointed coroners in Nunavut who now face that task are up to the challenge.

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Asenath Kannutaq is the newly-appointed coroner for Hall Beach. The territorial government also named coroners in three other communities. - photo courtesy of Asenath Kannutaq

James Eetoolook, who has been a coroner since 1975 in various communities, returned to the role again in Taloyoak. For more than 35 years, his coroner services were needed on and off first in Taloyoak, then Cambridge Bay for more than 10 years, and now again in the Boothia Peninsula community.

Over the years, Eetoolook took courses on how to handle the decease and investigate deaths.

"The job is not for everybody. I think I need to be part of the society and help out," he said. "It's not pleasant work, but somebody has to do it to assist the authorities with the cause of the death and so forth. It's needed."

Eetoolook, a married father of four and grandfather to eight, was born in Fort Ross on the southern tip of Somerset Island. He worked in Taloyoak from 1975 to 1989, acting as the senior administrative officer for a number of years. He joined Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. in 1993 after being elected as first vice-president, a position he holds to this day.

"I am not doing it for pleasure. I am doing it for, perhaps most, the goodness of my heart and help the authorities to go out and investigate what caused the death," he said. "Hopefully my services will not be ever needed, but it helps to help the authorities to investigate what causes a death because every death is different."

In Hall Beach, Asenath Kannutaq volunteered for the position to help her hometown. The rookie coroner has been the school secretary and officer manager at Arnaqjuaq School for 20 years.

"I am looking forward to it," she said. "My husband is a church leader. He would be contacted if there is a suicide or death in the town … and he doesn't speak English. I speak English. It will be easier if the RCMP contact me, I will understand what they are talking about."

The territorial capital has three new coroners - Ranbir Hundal, Christopher Kennedy and Rene Jacques Gagne – joining the deputy chief and chief coroners for Nunavut.

Hundal said he was interested in the position mainly because there is a shortage of people who can handle this type of job. With a PhD in physiology, he added he could fill that role.

"I can help, in a way, the community, especially the bereaved families who need answers for any death which is happening because … they don't know the reasons, but they want to know the reasons from somebody who can explain it to them," he said. "So, that's why I decided to take this job."

Gagne worked as an ambulance attendant in northwestern Ontario before heading to Iqaluit five years ago, where he now works as a hospital tradesman at the Qikiqtani General Hospital. Because he has spare time, he said he thought he would get involved and give something back to the community.

"This is my way of using my experience and knowledge to offer something back to Iqaluit," he said. "I think dealing with all the traumatic situations I might face, I find it easier for me to deal with since I've already been involved with it."

On Oct. 25 Nunavut Justice Minister Keith Peterson also named Alexander William Napier a coroner for Rankin Inlet and re-appointed the coroners for Arviat and Pond Inlet for a three-year term.

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