The Empathetic Apologist and Diversion Specialist

"Today, I am here to offer an official apology for the [then] federal government's management of tuberculosis in the Arctic from the 1940s to the 1960s. Many of you know all too well how this policy played itself out."
"We [the current government] are sorry. We are sorry for forcing you from your families, for not showing you the respect and care you deserved. We are sorry for your pain. To the people whose loved ones were taken away, we are sorry. We are sorry for breaking what is most precious -- the love of a home."
"To the communities that are facing the consequences of this policy and others, we are sorry. We are sorry that because of our mistakes, many Inuit don't trust the health care system so they can't get help when they need it. We are sorry for the colonial mindset that drove the federal government's actions."
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

"[The mistreatment of Inuit during the tuberculosis outbreaks was a] massive human rights failure [from the government of Canada in the treatment of its own citizens]."
"It is a long time and I do wish the apology came sooner."
Natan Obed, president, Inuit Tapartit Kanatami

"The government has said it wants to eliminate TB by 2030."
"Are they going to do it? Probably not."
James Eetoolook, 72, vice-president, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

Inuk elder James Eetoolook from the community of Taloyoak speaks about his personal and family experience with tuberculosis while taking part in an interview in Iqaluit, Nunavut, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

"Many Inuit people live in overcrowded homes that are poorly ventilated ... they're very airtight. Also, there is quite a bit of poverty, which can make tuberculosis worse. Malnutrition can exacerbate tuberculosis."
"It's just to say that a lot of respiratory disease is over-represented in Inuit populations. Babies or people who have scarring or damage to the lungs probably are more susceptible to active tuberculosis."
"Many Inuit people have been impacted by colonialism, some people with residential schools, some people with the Sixties Scoop. Also, policies that have led to poverty and discrimination as far as employment and funding."
"We're trying to get more medical schools to have Indigenous health as part of their curriculum. A lot of physicians and nurse practitioners are becoming more culturally safe. But some of them haven't had a lot of education experience on Indigenous health."   
Dr. Anna Banerji, pediatric infectious and tropical disease specialist, University of Toronto

A man is tested for tuberculosis in a mobile containment unit in Qikiqtarjuaq, Nunavut. (Travis Burke/CBC)

As of a year ago, the average annual rate of tuberculosis among Inuit in Canada was over 290 times higher than Canadian-born non-Indigenous people, according to the most recent Public Health Agency of Canada report. Social housing and overcrowding are cited by the agency as the major living conditions leading to the malady among the Inuit. Their traditional territory is in Canada's far North where they are exposed to extreme cold and savage weather conditions.

Inuit haven't the immune protection against many diseases they encountered for the first time on contact with European settlers. Many of the communicable diseases that infected them through contact were far harsher in their health impacts and life outcomes than they were for those of European stock who had some level of immunity to some of the contact viral outbreaks through long exposure periods.

The dread disease of tuberculosis took the lives of many Europeans, those living indigent lives of want and extreme poverty and those coming from far more advantaged lives. Medical science finally caught up with tuberculosis and its deadly threat has been largely subdued in developed countries of the world. The Inuit live in regions of Canada that are geographically remote. A well-intentioned government of the day sought to solve the problem of tuberculosis-struck Inuit by moving the ill to areas of the country with up-to-date health care services.

Separation from family in transporting the ill to populous cities where hospitals were able to care for them seemed the logical solution to their plight. Many Inuit who were struck died of consumption, despite the treatment given them. And they were buried where they died. Communication between central Canada and the far North was not then what it is now, and Inuit families were left in the dark about what had happened to many of their family members.

The rate of tuberculosis infection in Canada is vastly higher among Inuit living in the North than among the country's non-Indigenous population. (Channi Anand/Associated Press)

James Eetoolook, now 72, and seven of his relatives had been stricken with tuberculosis -- his diagnosis took place when he was 16 years of age. He was transferred to Edmonton for treatment, where he was bed-ridden for months, but he was fortunate enough to recover. He is now vice-president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc, concerned by the return of TB to levels in excess of what it once was.

A government-struck task force was announced in 2017 to develop a plan for the elimination of TB among the Inuit populations of Canada. So many years later a plan may be put in place to somehow treat the TB-vulnerable Inuit other than transporting them to modern health facilities far from the Arctic. People living in distant, remote communities cannot be guaranteed the same level of immediate care given those in densely-populated, centrally-located cities.

Medical personnel and health infrastructure of the level associated with those large cities geared to treating the health needs of large populations cannot be installed in small communities in the North. The government of the time performed its obligations to its far-Northern communities as best it could at the time, sixty to seventy years ago. The misfortune of genetics, of geography and of communicable diseases visited a heavy burden on the Inuit.

A new database has been established, named Nanilavut ("let's find them" in Inuktitut) whose purpose is to give Inuit a working tool to enable them to find the data that will inform them of what happened with their family members. They will be able to locate records relating to their relatives' health treatment, and for those who perished, it will locate their burial sites in southern Canada.

Prime Minister Trudeau has gone to Nunavut to do what he most enjoys, ingratiate himself with a segment of the Canadian population with his warmth, charm and sunny ways. He is able, as an accomplished thespian, to shed a tear with the best of them. And he did, when he delivered his 'heartfelt' apology for something done before he was born by a government in past history. While it soothed the spirits of many who heard him it does little for a people living in the far North in a semblance of their traditional lifestyles.

Ostensibly contrite over something he had no hand in, he offers reassurances that current governments will of humanitarian necessity strive to do their utmost to ensure that quality of life for these communities -- 85 percent of all residents in Nunavut are Inuit -- improves to a measurable degree; first and foremost to eradicate the return of tuberculosis in startling new numbers. It must, of course, start with funding affordable housing and through social welfare auspices the provision of a fully nutritious diet.

Promises are this man's forte. And while he absolutely adores tender emotional scenes where he is the centre of gratitude emanating from those he promises to endow with a better life, conditions prevail which challenge the full granting of those promises. Frozen Nunavut is a receptive arena for this man, no doubt grateful to temporarily escape the opprobrium he has brought down on himself and his government through unethical behaviour undermining the rule of law, which failed to succeed.

Unfortunately, this multi-millionaire knows nothing of the lives of impoverished people, but he is an accomplished empathizer and he glows with pleasure and accomplishment when admiration and gratitude come his way. His ego is well fed, enabling him to continue his charade of fulfilling his obligations as a leader of a first world country while emulating the attitudes and underhanded manners of a third-world autocrat.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is greeted by an Inuit Elder before delivering an official apology to the Inuit in Iqaluit, Nunavut on Friday, March 8, 2019.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick