The caker kingdom ... it just gets better and better, doesn't it? You thought the prairies were a shithole (and you were right) so it's no surprise that Saskatchewan had the most klan members, just as it's no surprise that Manitoba is a racist, barren dump that's regularly mocked in American films. You thought the Northwest Territories was a frozen abomination: the culmination of incompetence, indifference and the arctic... but now we do one better: Nunavut.
I sometimes forget that the NWT and Nunavut are presently separate territories; they were unified when I was a child in school, and formally separated in 1999. Nunavut has the distinction of being the "newest, largest, northernmost, and least populous territory of Canada." Sounds fun.
Most of the territory is in a polar climate and averages -30 Celsius in winter. Its population is just slightly over 37,000.
And if you've read the post on the NWT you'll remember this bit: "Statistics Canada does not collect or compile data directly measuring poverty in Nunavut ..."
Because hey, who needs to compile statistical data for the federal government in its own country? Data leads to information and provable facts, that in turn would require action and common sense - not allowed in the caker kingdom! So what other fun facts do we learn from a 2015 report?
- lower life expectancy than the rest of Canada
- high school graduation rate is 54%
- approx 58% are living in public housing
- at least 41% are on welfare (up by 1% from ten years ago)
- 45% or more are "food insecure" (up to 70% for Inuits)
- the suicide rate is 10x the Canadian average
-unemployment rate is 17% [as high as 56% in some communities]
(this information was compiled by a non-profit)
Note: The next report released after the one quoted said virtually all the same things.
Food prices are insane due to the expense of importing them up north. An article from 2014 referenced this:
"...$12 boxes of Rice Krispies and $9 bottles of ketchup ...
The outing is an exercise in sticker shock. In the meat fridge, two rib-eye steaks cost $26. Frozen chicken nuggets are nearly $23. The fresh strawberries are just $5, but five ear of corn are $8. Ms. Papatsie stops at the fridge lined with Tropicana orange juice, at $11.99 a pop.
... Onion prices were 233 per cent higher; bananas, 155 per cent higher. Flour is only partly subsidized through the program, though it’s a staple in traditional Inuit food like bannock; a 5-kilo bag was selling at the NorthMart for $25."
Some families pay up to $600/week for food. The prices are ridiculous for other services as well:
"Heating and lighting costs more in Nunavut than anywhere else in Canada. In Toronto, commercial electricity rates range between 8.3 to 12.9 cents/kWh. In Iqaluit (which has the lowest rates in the territory) they are a staggering 43.42 cents/kWh."
In 2013, forty-five unfortunate souls took their own lives. Who could blame them, in such a place as this? And more to the point, which of us wouldn't - being forced to live there for a lifetime? At least by 2017 that had somehow gone down to 25.
Some other recent new stories regarding Nunavut:
- Lousy health services so bad that child deaths aren't even investigated.
- A shitty, greedy, failing airline that people have no alternative but to use.
- Since the child mortality rate is the highest in Canada they've had to start giving out baby boxes filled with supplies and doubling as a bed (smart idea, which naturally the cakers didn't come up with on their own, but copied Finland).
- A social work system so incompetent that 40 foster children have been stranded without social workers for eight months in Ottawa, living in group homes.
- Unsurprisingly, a shit prison "condemned by everyone from judges and lawyers to Canada's auditor general and the federal Office of the Correctional Investigator." (Now needing to be overhauled)
- A rushed vaccination program after the largest whooping cough breakout on record
It just goes on and on. And like the Northwest territories, there are no political parties - Nunavut runs on a "consensus-based government." Eighty-three percent of the population is Inuit, which means tiptoeing through politically-correct jargon; having 'inclusive' meetings and studies but not actually accomplishing anything concrete.
How did this mess start? With colonials taking over Canada who then proceeded to ignore the Inuit before forcing "relocation" on them after destroying their culture and way of life. Instead of using their 'traditional' names, the government gave them numbers with small discs meant to be worn to designate which "number" was which in the community. In 1939 the federal government took over "responsibility" for the Inuit (who were not under the same Indian Act as other Aboriginals) and now the cakers are attempting damage control after the situation has spiraled to terrible depths.
The Inuit claim they were forcibly moved in order for Canada to claim sovereignty over certain Arctic territory by having its "citizens" residing there, and therefore making its claim more 'legitimate' than the US or Russia. (Knowing the cakers, this is completely believable.) After leaving them with almost nothing, in -51C temperatures the government insisted they be "self reliant".
In 1996:
"When Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development Ron Irwin signed a compensation deal with Inuit survivors that same year, he flatly refused to apologize for what he called the actions of civil servants who organized the relocations.
"It's hard to go back 50 years and say who was right," said Irwin, a minister in former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's government. "I can't assess their motives."
Denying any blame for the relocation of 17 families from Inukjuak and Pond Inlet, Ottawa agreed to set up a $10 million fund, called the Arctic Exile Relocatee Trust, in exchange for the Inuit giving up any right to sue for more."
And so now, after being forcibly relocated, left with next to nothing and spending decades and generations suffering by the actions of the federal government who wanted the land ... the Inuit people very understandably are in dire straights and unable to resolve all the issues themselves.
We can trust the cakers to make everything right, can't we? I mean they're doing a swell job of it!
The takeaway:
Nunavut is a cold, desolate arctic hell hole run by incompetents where people would rather kill themselves than continue residing in. It may well hold the title for worst place in Canada (which is really saying something). Shamefully, it doesn't look to be turning around any time soon.
O Canada!
Update: nothing changes. Come back and check this blog post in 5 years for more of the same.
