Peter Ittinuar
|
The Honourable Peter Ittinuar ᐲᑎᕐ ᐃᑦᑎᓄᐊᕐ |
|
|---|---|
| Member of the Canadian Parliament for Nunatsiaq |
|
|
In office 22 May 1979 – 4 September 1984 |
|
| Preceded by | District Established |
| Succeeded by | Thomas Suluk |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
January 19, 1950 Chesterfield Inlet, Northwest Territories (Now Nunavut) |
| Political party |
New Democratic Party (1979-1982, 1993-2008) Liberal Party (1982-1984) Independent (1984-1993) Green Party (2008-present) |
Peter Freuchen K. Ittinuar (Inuktitut: ᐲᑎᕐ ᐃᑦᑎᓄᐊᕐ; born January 19, 1950) is a Canadian politician. He was the first Inuk in Canada to be elected as an MP, and represented the electoral district of Nunatsiaq in the Canadian House of Commons from 1979 to 1984.
Ittinuar, the grandson of Danish explorer, Peter Freuchen, was born in Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, then part of the Northwest Territories. He spent part of his youth and adolescence being educated in Ottawa, Ontario, with two childhood friends, Zebedee Nungak and Eric Tagoona. All three later were important figures in advocating for the rights of the Inuit. Unbeknownst to them, they had been relocated to Ottawa by federal government authorities, as part of an experiment in cultural assimilation. These actions and their consequences form the subject of the documentary The Experimental Eskimos (2009).
Ittinuar was originally elected as a member of the New Democratic Party, but on November 26, 1982, he crossed the floor to sit with the Liberal caucus shortly after Indian Affairs and Northern Development minister John Munro announced plans to improve Inuit self-government by dividing the Northwest Territories into two (see Nunavut).
In 1984 Ittinuar was charged with breach of trust, theft and forgery for allegedly using his parliamentary budget to purchase a boat motor. As a result of the court case he was suspended from the Liberal Party caucus, and he became an independent for the final few months of his term in office. Ittinuar ran for re-election in the 1984 federal election, but was defeated by the Progressive Conservative candidate Thomas Suluk.
...
Wikipedia