By Madalyn Howitt, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Nunatsiaq News
December 16, 2023
Nunavut food security advocate Beth Kotierk is resigning from her role on Nutrition North’s advisory board in protest of the Canadian government’s support of Israel’s military bombardment of Gaza.
“I cannot, with a clear conscious, continue this work with a government that supports the genocide of the Palestinian people while purporting to seek reconciliation for the same genocidal tactics and mindsets being used against Indigenous peoples,” Kotierk wrote in a letter of resignation shared with Nunatsiaq News on Dec. 8.
Kotierk is a civil lawyer in Iqaluit who also serves as a board member of the local Qajuqturvik Food Centre. She was appointed to Nutrition North’s advisory board in July 2021.
Nutrition North is a program that provides food subsidies and nutrition education. Its board members are not policy decision makers. They meet once a month to share updates on programming and ideas for how to improve access to food in the North.
In her letter, addressed to Northern Affairs Minister Daniel Vandal, Kotierk specifically criticized Canada’s ongoing military and political support of Israel over the past 75 years, and the government’s current “support of the genocide that has killed over 16,000 innocent civilians in Palestine.”
“The settler colonial violence that we see in Palestine is intrinsically linked to the settler colonial violence carried out here in Canada against Indigenous peoples,” she wrote, citing Israeli forces’ blockage of humanitarian aid like food, water and medical supplies from entering Gaza.
“Similar tactics have been used in Canada to displace Indigenous peoples from the land, force economic dependency and spread anti-Indigenous propaganda while suppressing Indigenous voices.”
In an interview Monday, Kotierk said that while the current bombardment on Gaza was what ultimately compelled her to resign, she’d actually been considering the move since the spring.
“I started to feel that board activities were not exactly what I had thought they would be when I first joined,” she said, adding she felt the work the board was doing wasn’t as effective as she had hoped.
In her letter, Kotierk also cited cuts to the Harvester Support Grant program as another factor in her decision.
“[To learn] that the funds are going to be cut by 80 per cent alongside the fact of the current government support of the genocide happening in Palestine, I feel like personally, I can clearly see the connection between the genocide against Indigenous peoples in [this] country and the ongoing genocide. It’s not hard to make that leap. They’re connected,” she said.
“Then to talk about reconciliation while still participating in genocide, I just felt like all of this was just a game of politics. I felt so disheartened and I felt like I couldn’t just continue to do this work without speaking out.”
The Harvesters Support Grant is funded through Nutrition North. It’s meant to make it easier for northerners to access traditional food through hunting, harvesting and food sharing.
Money is paid out to individual community and Indigenous organizations. Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. received $28.8 million in a funding deal that is set to expire in March 2024.
In a statement to Nunatsiaq News, Vandal’s press secretary Kyle Allen said: “Let’s be clear: We are not cutting funding for the Harvesters’ Support Grant by 80 per cent.”
He said the federal government provided a three-year funding increase to the Harvesters Support Grant. That agreement is set to expire in 2024, but Northern Affairs is working on proposals to renew that funding.
Kotierk said she hasn’t heard from Vandal’s office since she announced her resignation, but said she has received support from other advisory board members which she called “encouraging.”
“I encourage Nunavummiut to speak out against things that they see that are wrong and to not be afraid to do so, and that support will be there for you if you choose to speak up,” she said.
Allen told Nunatsiaq News that Vandal thanks Kotierk for her service to the Nutrition North advisory board and “relentless advocacy” for Inuit in Nunavut.
“He wishes her well in all her future projects,” Allen said in an email.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s position on Gaza appears to be shifting slightly.
Trudeau urged Israel to “respect international humanitarian law” Tuesday in a joint statement with the prime ministers of Australia and New Zealand.
They also said they support “urgent international efforts towards a sustainable ceasefire” and that the price of defeating Hamas cannot be the “continuous suffering of all Palestinian civilians.”
“This cannot be one-sided,” the statement said.
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“Hamas must release all hostages, stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and lay down its arms.”