Federal government wants lawsuit dismissed pertaining to biological experiments on Inuit

By William Koblensky Varela, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A lawsuit in the Nunavut Court of Justice seeking millions of dollars in compensation for biological experiments conducted on Inuit exploring racial characteristics through invasive and non-consensual procedures should be dismissed, the federal government has argued in court.

Inuit are also seeking acknowledgement of the experiments and a public apology via the lawsuit. 

The federal government recently filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that the experiments in the 1960s and 1970s happened too long ago to be subject to a court battle. 

Six Inuit from Iglulik, including filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk and former Nunavut premier Paul Quassa, are behind the claims against the Canadian government.

Quassa said he believed the experiments conducted on him were normal for decades, until he learned they were what he described as morally reprehensible and legally impermissible.

“I call upon the prime minister to make this right and stop victimizing me and other Inuit who were treated as lab rats for the benefit of… [a] biological program. I am not a monkey,” Quassa said.

Survivors of the experiments in Iglulik say they were subjected to skin grafts, where skin was removed from one part of an Inuk’s body to put it on another part of their body, and exposure to extreme cold without proper clothing.

The number of survivors is not known, but many of the victims were children and former residents of residential schools and federal Indian hospitals.

The federal government is hiding behind a technicality, according to the lawyer representing the Inuit in the action, Steven Cooper.

It’s been six years since the claims were made in Nunavut court against the Government of Canada, but this is the first time the federal government has argued that too much time has elapsed since the experiments were undertaken to pay out a claim. 

Courts usually take between two weeks and six months to make a decision on a motion to dismiss a claim, Cooper said, but the average is two months. 

Other Inuit could join the claim if they also had experiments conducted on them, Cooper said.

The six Inuit making the claim are currently asking for $1.1 million each, but they’ve told Cooper that they’re willing to accept less if the government admits responsibility. 

“If the matter comes to trial the amount so will be adjusted at that time higher or lower as the circumstances dictate,” Cooper said. 

As far as the federal government’s argument that too much time has passed, Cooper said that claims usually have between two to six years until they can no longer get brought before the court. 

However, the federal government has widely distributed a policy of not using a technical defence against historic mistreatment of Indigenous peoples, Cooper said. 

Furthermore, how much time has passed is also up for debate, Cooper argued. 

The Inuit making the claims say they didn’t  know being subject to biological experiments was wrong or illegal until recently, meaning limitations on when they could make a claim began a few months before they filed one with the Nunavut Court of Justice, and not in the 1960s, Cooper explained.