President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Natan Obed, joins Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as they co-chair the meeting of Inuit-Crown Partnership Committee in Ottawa on Thursday, May 9, 2024.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country’s eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
The chambers of commerce for Baffin and Labrador North say they have halted the Northern Lights Business and Cultural Showcase because of changing relationships and sociopolitical environments in the North.
Julianne Griffin with the Labrador North chamber says organizers got a letter from Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, which represents Inuit in Canada, saying it would advise its members not to attend if the NunatuKavut Community Council in Labrador was invited.
The NunatuKavut Community Council claims to represent about 6,000 Inuit in southern and central Labrador, but Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami says the council is a “shape-shifting non-Indigenous organization” falsely taking resources from recognized Indigenous Peoples.
Griffin said the Baffin chamber of commerce in Nunavut ultimately decided to pull out of the event and, without a partner, the Labrador North chamber had no choice but to call it off.
She says the Northern Lights conference is one of the largest trade shows in Canada, and the 2025 event was set to take place in Montreal in February.