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Pauktuutit applauds condemnation of intoxicated women's arrest

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Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit. photo courtesy of Pauktuutit

An organization representing Inuit women is commending a recent court decision by an Iqaluit justice of the peace who chastised the RCMP for arresting two women who had been assaulted but had broken the law by drinking alcohol despite court orders prohibiting it.

Rebecca Kudloo, president of Pauktuutit: "We must work together to implement Inuit-led solutions in programs, services and legislation so that Inuit women and our children can finally live a life free of intergenerational trauma.” 
photo courtesy of Pauktuutit

“The cases referenced by justice of the peace Joseph Murdoch-Flowers once again highlight the urgent need for a full commitment from the federal government to implement the MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) Calls to Justice," said Pauktuutit president Rebecca Kudloo. "We must work together to implement Inuit-led solutions in programs, services and legislation so that Inuit women and our children can finally live a life free of intergenerational trauma.”

A news release issued Monday stated that Murdoch-Flowers' decision was "very well received by Pauktuutit," which has spent 35 years "working towards ending violence towards Inuit women and girls."

The organization highlighted these words from Murdoch-Flowers: “All who administer justice in Nunavut must be aware that our uniforms cloak us in that history, whether they are suits in a courtroom, or yellow stripes on police uniforms. Our actions can work towards reconciliation, or against it. To advance the work of reconciliation, we must consider the complex and ongoing relationship between law enforcement, courts, and Indigenous peoples in this country and in this territory."

Read more about the court decision here: https://nunavutnews.com/nunavut-news/justice-of-the-peace-slams-police-for-disservice-to-intoxicated-women-who-called-for-help/

"Pauktuutit acknowledges that it takes an enormous amount of courage for Inuit women to report physical and sexual abuse to policing services, particularly when there is a lack of infrastructure to provide timely access to safety and when the message received is, as the judge put it: "Call us at your peril,'" the news release states.