Colin Alexander

Colin Alexander lived in Iqaluit for five years in the 1960s. He was publisher of News of the North for ten years before moving to Ottawa where he served as the senior advisor on education for the Ontario Royal Commission on the Northern Environment. Colin’s testimony is in the form of an essay written to the Nunavut Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The essay addresses several aspects of Canada’s northern policy including the role of Inuit leaders in undermining the future of their own people. Colin writes that images and preconceptions of the Inuit often do not meet the reality, and he discusses the paternalism shown by the federal government towards the Inuit. Colin also addresses the employment situation in hunter-gatherer economies, the lack of education and skills training which have kept many Inuit in a support role, and the causes of high suicide rates among Inuit youth.