Ottawa to compensate Inuit in Nunavik for mass sled dog slaughter [Video]

The federal government says it will offer financial compensation to Inuit in Nunavik for the devastation caused by the mass slaughter of their sled dogs decades ago.

More than 1,000 of the dogs that Inuit relied on for their livelihoods were shot to death by Mounties, employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company and other authorities during the mid-1950s and late 1960s across Nunavik, the Inuit region of northern Quebec.

Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Gary Anandasangaree told CBC News he will soon travel to the region to apologize on behalf of the federal government for the slaughter. He’s expected to make the trip before the end of the month.

“It destroyed the way of life,” Anandasangaree said. “It decimated people’s self-confidence…. And the impacts of that continue to linger today.”

Pita Aatami, president of the Makivvik Corporation — the organization representing Inuit in Nunavik, launched an investigation into the slaughter when he first heard about it in 1999.

“It …