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Education minister nixes trip
Clyde River graduates shed tears after European excursion cancelled

Casey Lessard
Northern News Services
Saturday, May 16, 2015

KANGIQTUGAAPIK/CLYDE RIVER
Dreaming of Paris, five students raised $30,000 in two months - no mean feat - with individuals, corporations, and several hamlet councils making donations.

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They were supposed to be packing their bags this week for a trip to Europe. Instead, Tyson Palluq, Nora Aipellee, Katelyn Hainnu, Maybelle Enuaraq, and Leah Palituq will be staying in Clyde River after Education Minister Paul Quassa and his advisors said the trip could not happen as planned. - photo courtesy of Quluaq School

MP Leona Aglukkaq offered passport assistance to get the Quluaq School graduates to Europe.

But it was too little, too late for Qikiqtani School Operations and Education Minister Paul Quassa, who ignored requests to fulfil the dreams of five young people from Clyde River.

"Of course, we cried about it, and we're still mad, but we understand that there might be issues," said student Maybelle Enuaraq. "But we're still confused right now because we worked so hard for it. It's really hard to take in because we've done all this work in such a short time."

The news came as a surprise to everyone at Quluaq School.

"We were incredibly shocked when we found out," said student support teacher Heather McIsaac, who announced the trip's cancellation May 11. "We just never in a million years thought it wouldn't be approved and didn't prepare ourselves or the students for that being a reality. I just didn't think it was a possibility."

The trip was student Katelyn Hainnu's idea - the first ever grad trip for the school - and she said she feels devastated and "super-confused."

"It was my idea to have this trip to Paris, because it has been a dream of mine ever since I can remember," Hainnu said, noting she hoped to experience the Eiffel Tower, the food, and the fashion. "I see Paris on TV, and that made me want to go there even more."

Hainnu and Enuaraq were set to travel with Tyson Palluq, Nora Aipellee, and Leah Palituq on a tour that would include a visit to the Second World War beaches of Normandy as well as the fortified city of Saint-Malo, and London, England.

The trip was planned for some time, but no fundraising progress was being made until McIsaac and colleague and chaperone Ashley Howie took charge in March.

Since launching an Internet crowdfunding campaign, the group raised $24,000 from 212 donors, plus received large donations from Pond Inlet, Baker Lake, Northern businesses, and from McCain's - famous for its French fries - which donated $1,000 after hearing about it on the CBC in McIsaac's home province of New Brunswick. First Air was set to sponsor the flights south, and a restaurant was set to provide free meals in Ottawa.

The Department of Education gave two reasons for saying no to the trip: the students didn't have passports, and a male Inuktitut-speaking chaperon was not booked for the trip.

McIsaac said the group had the support of Nunavut MP Leona Aglukkaq's office in Ottawa, which was going to arrange pick-up of passports in Ottawa when the students passed through the capital en route to Europe.

"I have worked with students to track down birth certificates, get legal name changes to make sure forms of ID match, and get updated forms of all IDs," McIsaac told donors in a letter announcing the cancellation. "It has been a lengthy, time-consuming and costly process. We acknowledge that it is a risk, but we owned that risk and were proceeding confidently as the logistics unfolded positively."

The second reason for cancelling the trip is more confusing to McIsaac, who said the board has no public policies stating that a trip must have both a male and female chaperon or that an Inuktitut-speaking chaperon must attend any trip south.

"Why require an Inuktitut-speaking chaperon when part of the Education Act is that we are raising bilingual graduates?" she asked. "We went out of our way to get documentation from the tour company that says there will be a male chaperon at all points. When we take kids to Encounters with Canada in Ottawa, there's literally no school chaperon. They are chaperoned on the ground by staff with the Terry Fox Centre."

McIsaac was set to leave the school at the end of the year, before the trip was cancelled, and the five will be adults next year, so they all plan to take the trip next year.

EF Tours, the company booking the travel, will hold the funds in trust until then, minus cancellation fees amounting to about $3,000.

"We're going to work very hard to make it happen," Hainnu said. "We just want to thank everyone for being here for us, even after this."

The community is showing its support, Enuaraq said.

"Of course, they're sad for us because they were helping us a lot," she said. "They were expecting us to tell stories, to bring back here. They just keep supporting us even though it's gone."

McIsaac said the group is trying to recover from the setback and will use it as a learning experience.

"This is really important so that future students, future teachers will be able to do this the right way," she said of the attitude required to recover from the blow. "We're working hard to make sure the lessons learned can continue in a positive way. I can't deny that there is a cloud of negativity around it right now. We don't envy the position of the people that had to make this hard decision, but we do respect them and respect the decision, and we're going to come out better people for it."

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