Town At the Top of the World (43:57)A government experiment dropped a community into one of Canada’s most unforgiving landscapes. From the struggle to overcome those odds, the community of Grise Fjord has succeeded. What does it take to live in a place where it is dark half of the year and isolated all the time? Travel to Canada's most northerly non-military community. This program examines that thriving community, less than 1,600 kilometres from the North Pole.
Broken Promises - The High Arctic Relocation (Patricia Tassinari 1995 | 52 min)In the summer of 1953, the Canadian government relocated seven Inuit families from Northern Quebec to the High Arctic. They were promised an abundance of game and fish, with the assurance that if things didn't work out, they could return home after two years. Two years later, another 35 people joined them. There they suffered from hunger, extreme cold, sickness, alcoholism and poverty. It would be thirty years before any of them saw their ancestral lands again. Interviews with survivors are combined with archival footage and documents to tell the poignant story of a people whose lives were nearly destroyed by their own government's broken promises.
Apology for the Inuit High Arctic relocation | Government of CanadaOn August 18, 2010 in Inukjuak, Nunavik, the Honourable John Duncan, PC, MP, previous Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development and Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians apologized on behalf of the Government of Canada for the relocation of Inuit to the High Arctic.
After decades of anguish, High Arctic Exiles monument unveiled By Gabriel Zarate (2010) | Nunatsiaq News“We had arrived in a dead land”
Carver Simeonie Amagoalik, right, stands beside his year-long labour: a monument to the High Arctic Exiles who founded Resolute. A plaque reads in English and Inuktitut,
“They came to these desolate shores to pursue the government promise of a more prosperous life. They endured and overcame great hardship, and dedicated their lives to Canada’s sovereignty in these lands and waters.”
