Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: Remarks by Commissioner Wilson, Responses by Relocatees
| Database ID | 30787 | |
| Institution | University of Saskatchewan Archives | |
| Fonds/Collection | Native Law Centre fonds | |
| File/Item Reference | Reference Library, RCAP vol. 107 (Box 17) | |
| Date of creation | April 6, 1993 | |
| Physical description/extent | 8 pgs | |
| Number of images | 1 | |
| Scope and content | File contains remarks by Commissioner Bertha Wilson on the day's proceedings which deal with the High Arctic Relocation. Wilson, after discussing preceding testimony regarding abuse by government officials of private mail, asks the participants whether they ever wrote their relatives further south about the conditions which they faced, and if so, if such letters might still exist. SE explains the Inuit mentality towards letter writing in the 1950s. SE states that the police in the community (during the High Arctic Relocation) tore up the letters the Inuit would send out, and that the Inuit would not have written letters expressing hardship to their relatives in the south who would have been simply worried by such things and materially unable to provide assistance. JA discusses mail that got through to the south during the High Arctic Relocation despite the RCMP's practice of tearing up mail from Inuit in the north that carried descriptions "very unfavourable towards the description of the new land." JA also alleges that the police read the mail and treated the relocatees as "prisoners, or sort of charges of some sort." SA discusses the communications available to the High Arctic Relocatees during the 1950s. SA makes note that there was no telephone but letter service was possible. SE discusses how his community during the High Arctic Relocation was unable to send letters south via air mail, and only once a year via ship. SE states that his people attempted to send some letters via dog-team, but that he saw letters that had been torn up by officials himself. JA discusses how peoples displeasures were expressed during the High Arctic Relocation program, which he states was done during group taping sessions rather than via letters. | |
| Other terms governing use and reproduction | Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples - Transcriptions of Public Hearings and Round Table Discussions, 1992-1993. Reproduced with the permission of the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, and Courtesy of the Privy Council Office, 2008. | |
| Type | Published | |
| Primary Media | Textual documents | |
| Provenance Access Point | University of Saskatchewan. Native Law Centre | |
| Other notes | Volume 2, Ottawa, Ontario. April 6, 1993. Pages 256-265. | |
| Place | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | |
| Treaty boundaries | No treaty Canada -- National | |
| Cultural region | Arctic Canada -- National | |
| Names | Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Simon, Mary | |
| Subject | Government commissions -- Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Government policy Relocation Inuit Affairs Community Life Royal Canadian Mounted Police Law Enforcement -- Treatment Legal Issues Inuit Affairs -- Lifestyle Issues | |
| Date Range(s) | 1990-1999 1950-1959 | |
| Permanent Link | https://digital.scaa.sk.ca/ourlegacy/permalink/30787
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