Cases stuck in limbo, detainees pleading guilty over justice system delays in northern Quebec
It’s been nine months since Andrew Naluktuk was home or saw his family following a police-involved shooting in northern Quebec that led to the death of his six-year-old daughter.
Since then, he’s been waiting — in detention — about 1,000 kilometres away from his family in Inukjuak.
His court date was supposed to be in August. But August became September — and September’s date was pushed to December.
Exceptionally, his lawyer pushed for an online court date scheduled for this Thursday, according to a family spokesperson.
The delays come after Nunavik's travelling court — which serves several fly-in northern communities on rotation — cancelled in-person court dates this fall in Inukjuak and Puvirnituq.
It’s primarily due to the lack of necessary accommodation for those involved in the cases, says lawyer Lucie Demers, the executive assistant to the Court of Quebec Chief Judge Henri Richard.
While the Court of Quebec, which operates the travelling court, was unable to confirm how many cases are affected by this delay, activities should “in principle” resume in January 2027, said Demers in an emailed statement to CBC News.
But advocates say the long wait is leading some to opt for a guilty plea and impacting the accused’s right to be tried in a reasonable time.
“There's something wrong here,” said Sarah Ruptash, Naluktuk’s aunt, who is speaking out on behalf of his family.
“It does not help a person heal while being held in the cell. Mentally, it must be excruciating.”
Naluktuk is facing charges for weapons possession, assault, assault of a peace officer, and unlawfully causing bodily harm to a child. He is also facing charges for discharging a firearm with intent, pointing a firearm and possession contrary to order.
‘It's been so long,’ says family member
It’s difficult for Ruptash to talk about the last time she saw her nephew and his daughter.
Following the incident, the two were sent to the local health centre in Inukjuak before getting transferred south to hospitals for further medical treatment.
“I broke down,” recalled Ruptash. “I couldn't sleep afterwards. Why should that child be in this situation?”
According to a statement released by Quebec’s police watchdog, officers with the Nunavik Police Service were called to a home in the early morning of Dec. 20, 2025, following reports of a person who posed a danger to other occupants.
Police officers arrived on the scene, encountered a person with a firearm outside the residence and an exchange of gunfire reportedly ensued.
According to the statement, an individual was injured in the intervention, arrested and taken to hospital in stable condition while another person was reportedly found seriously injured inside the home and was later transported to hospital.
Ten days after the incident, the BEI confirmed the seriously injured person – identified as the six-year-old girl by local authorities – had died.
Ruptash says this whole ordeal has been very hard on the family and on her nephew. She was particularly disheartened when he was denied bail in April.
“It was heartbreaking enough for him to lose his daughter,” she said.
“He calls me once in a while. I tried to let him know that the time will come when he'll be released, but it's been so long.”
Some suspects pleading guilty due to delays
Detention is hard on anyone, says lawyer Virginie Dallaire, but especially for Inuit — who are flown out of their communities and held in facilities in Amos or Saint-Jérôme, Que., hundreds of kilometres from home, family and resources.
“Any period of detention is much harsher,” said Dallaire, a defence lawyer with Yves Ménard Avocats, who takes on cases in northern communities, mainly on the Hudson Bay coast.
“But now, with that unknown and having to wait months and months… it’s just extremely difficult.”
Current delays for the fall dates are leading some of Dallaire’s clients to change their pleas — to guilty, she says.
“A lot of them that had initially asked for trial contacted us saying, ‘I'm not going to wait [until] 2027. I want a deal,’” she said.
The Court of Quebec noted it has adopted a declaration and a reconciliation action plan to make justice among Indigenous people a priority, “notably that which concerns activities of the travelling court,” read its statement.
To reduce the impact of this situation, the court says it has put in place various measures, including progressing cases and in some circumstances, not requiring in-person sessions. It says it has also met with representatives and mayors of villages to come up with solutions.
But Suzy Kauki, a justice advocate in Nunavik, says things keep changing without the communities’ knowledge.
“Here we go again,” she said. “More changes being made for the community without the community.”
Kauki, who previously worked in suicide prevention, began studying the justice system in Nunavik.
The way things are — with all the postponements and the cancellations — she says some can feel forced to plead guilty “without really understanding what pleading guilty is going to mean 10 years from now,” she said.
“The heaviest systemic racism that we face in the north right now is within the justice system and the health system,” she said.
The office of Quebec's minister responsible for relations with the First Nations and the Inuit, Ian Lafrenière, said he was “sensitive” to the situation, but did not provide a comment to CBC News. His office instead referred CBC to the Justice Ministry.
The office of Quebec Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barette did not respond to CBC in time for publication.
Johanne Fortin, the director of legal, social, judicial and municipal management department for the Kativik Regional Government, acknowledged "the gravity of the situation," noting lack of accommodation is not just a problem for the travelling court.
Hotel rooms in Nunavik ‘always full’
Mark Blair, general manager of the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec (FCNQ-Ilagiisaq), says Nunavik has 282 hotel rooms across 13 communities, but the region needs to double its capacity to answer the current and future need.
“They're booked all the time. They're always full,” he said.
The federation provides hotel training, support and manages booking for the independent co-operative hotels across Nunavik.
But with the cost of construction in the north dramatically increasing since the COVID-19 pandemic, it would cost an estimated $203.6 million to add 275 rooms to the existing 13 independent co-operative hotels, he says.
These hotels, he notes, offer essential services to the community — with its primary clientele being government services, including the courts, health, education and social services workers.
Typically, the courts book at the start of the year, after their schedule is determined. But Blair says this year, they were only informed of the schedule at the end of April or beginning of May.
“We just got it way too late and the hotels were already filled," he said.
Considering the longstanding issue with accommodation, this problem could have been predicted by the travelling court, says lawyer Dallaire.
The extent of this delay is unjustified and “truly a lack of respect,” she said.
“Whether it's for the accuser, the witness or the victim in the case,” said Dallaire.
The more the case is delayed, the more time separates the accused, the victim and witnesses from the alleged incident, she notes.
“Your memory needs to be fresh so that you can defend yourself,” she said. “And the more we drag this justice, it's injustice for the client, it's injustice for the witness, for the victim, for everyone.”
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