Update March 2026
As part of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+
People National Action Plan, funded by Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern
Affairs Canada, Amautiit Nunavut Inuit Women’s Association has been reviewing legal
protections for women and 2SLGBTQQIA+ (two-spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans,
queer, questioning, intersex, asexual) people. The 2003 Nunavut Human Rights Act
prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex and sexual orientation, among other
grounds. In 2017, that Act was amended to include gender identity and gender
expression. We considered the extent to which the Government of Nunavut complies
with its own human rights law.
First we had to develop a glossary of terms relating to sex, gender and sexuality in
English and Inuktitut. We convened a group of translators, interpreters, gender diverse
individuals and subject matter experts who met three times in 2023 and together
developed the glossary. We welcome feedback and look forward to expanding and
improving the glossary. We will post revisions as the glossary develops. Link
to Terminology for Sexuality, Sex, and Gender in Inuktitut and English.pdf
Progress! Gender markers on
Government-Issued Identification and Health Records
Not discriminating on the basis of gender expression and gender identity means
allowing people to express and change their gender, including on government-issued
identification documents (ID) including on birth, death and marriage certificates, health
cards, drivers’ licenses and general identification. Every other government in Canada
has implemented the change to its human rights legislation and provides a non-binary
gender option (usually “other/prefer not to disclose”) on primary identification
documents, including on birth certificates, passports and drivers’ licences. Only the
Government of Nunavut does not. Every other government in Canada provides a way to
change the gender markers on all its official identification documents. Only the
Government of Nunavut does not.
In March 2024, we sent a letter drawing these issues to the attention of the Ministers of
Departments that issue ID. We also provided the Department of Health with resources
related to health care records. The Minister of Health replied on behalf of all the
Ministers responsible, and a lively correspondence resulted, following which work began
on the necessary legislative changes.
In September 2025, amendments to the Vital Statistics Act passed Third Reading
allowing changes to gender on government-issued identification, and also allowing for a
non-binary gender designation. Those changes will not take effect until Regulations and
application forms are developed, a process which the GN has said might take up to 18
months. Amautiit will continue to follow up.
Income Assistance
We considered the Income Assistance Regulations – unchanged since before Nunavut
was a territory – and noted that an income assistance officer has broad and unfettered
powers to require a recipient to do any of the following: counselling, treatment, community
service, traditional activities, training, parenting, and care of adult family members The
discretion of the income assistance officer is so broad and undefined that it can be whimsical,
arbitrary, or intentionally cruel, and still be acceptable under the Regulations. The activities are
not defined: the income assistance officer can order the recipient to do anything at all under one
of those descriptions. The income assistance officer also decides whether or not the recipient
has satisfactorily done what was ordered, or can decide that the parenting or the care of adult
family members performed by the recipient is not enough to count, and terminate their
assistance anyway.
There is no provision acknowledging worker protection laws. The income assistance officer can
order the recipient to work for a wage thief, for a sexual predator, or in an unsafe workplace.
The income assistance officer has the power to direct the recipient to do unpaid work (as
“community service”). All workers – and that includes unpaid workers – are protected by a host
of legislation: the Employment Standards Act, the Safety Act, the Human Rights Act, and
privacy legislation. The Income Assistance Regulations do not require the income assistance
officer to consider those protections, and so effectively deny them to recipients. These
regulations provide a highly disposable and exploitable Iabour pool to employers who are not
held to the law. Income assistance recipients are more vulnerable to predation and abuse
precisely because the employer knows they can be denied income assistance for objecting or
refusing.
There are no conflict of interest provisions to prevent an income assistance officer from forcing
a recipient to work for free for that income officer’s family, business, or church. There is no
requirement that the recipient agree to counselling or to the particular type counselling or
treatment ordered by the income assistance officer. There is no protection from “conversion
therapy”, a pseudo-scientific treatment that amounts to abuse, or from faith-based counselling
that seeks to “heal” the recipient of their gender, sexuality, neurodiversity, or any other aspect of
their personhood.
We wrote to the Ministers of Family Services and Human Rights, and to NTI, which is to be
consulted on social programs. See letters here
Protection of Personal Information
We considered gaps in the legal protections for personal information in Nunavut. The
problem is that non-profit societies are not covered by any existing privacy legislation –
legally, they can do anything they want with the personal information they collect,
including selling it or letting somebody abuse it. This affects organizations that
Nunavummiut interact with and depend upon, including the NTI and the regional Inuit
organizations. That also includes the agencies that operate group homes, boarding
homes, shelters and similar services – housing and caring for the most vulnerable
Nunavummiut. Of particular concern is the privacy of women and children fleeing
domestic violence – fleeing someone who intends them immediate harm, and who
really wants to know where they are. We wrote letters to the office of the GN that is
reviewing privacy legislation, to the Nunavut Inuit organizations, and to the Law Society
of Nunavut.
The GN advised that its contracts with the non-profits that run social services include
privacy protections on the contract (but did not supply an example of such a contract
term.)
The Law Society of Nunavut replied that it would provide some information on its
website for people making complaints;; Amautiit is promoting a more complete privacy
policy.
QIA actually has a privacy policy, buried on its website, and not readily accessible to
anybody looking for it. The other Inuit organizations have not replied.
Praise
In the course of other research into GN processes, we looked at many application
forms. We noted that one set of application forms, for Financial Assistance to Nunavut
Students, were admirably easy to use, and clearly drafted with privacy considerations in
mind. We had the pleasure of writing a letter of praise. See letter here.
Nunavut Human Rights Act and Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal
In March 2024 we published a report on the profound failures of the Nunavut Human
Rights Tribunal, with our recommendations. We sent it to both the Minister Responsible
for Human Rights and the Human Rights Tribunal, more on which below. We have
received no acknowledgement or reply from either, and from the Tribunal’s website,
nothing appears to have changed. Our follow-up letter of July 2025 has received no
response.
Link to Executive Summary of the Report on the Nunavut Human Rights Act and the
Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal.pdf [existing]
Link to Follow up letter. Pdf [new]
The Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal has been in operation since 2004. In that time it
has heard only two cases and published two decisions. It has been obvious since at
least 2011 that the Tribunal was not fulfilling its function, but little to no action appears to
have been taken.
We analyzed the publicly available data and concluded that there are three major
problems with the human rights system in Nunavut:
– There is no agency charged with promoting or protecting human rights in
Nunavut. The legislature intentionally did not establish a Commission in the
Human Rights Act; it did not create an office to promote awareness of human
rights or provide public information about the duties and remedies under the law.
The result is that there is no real public information about human rights and
remedies in Nunavut, and no monitoring of human rights in Nunavut or of the
Human Rights Tribunal. We recommend the creation of a Human Rights
Commissioner.
– Second, the process that the Nunavut Human Rights Tribunal uses is completely
different than the process set out in the Human Rights Act and the Tribunal’s
Rules of Procedure. The process that the Tribunal uses is not in compliance with
the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act. We recommend that the
Tribunal comply with the applicable legislation and the Rules, and have provided
detailed schedules to assist.
– Finally, the lines of accountability and reporting between the Tribunal and the
Government of Nunavut, and within the Tribunal operation, need to be clarified
and properly observed.
Acknowledgements
This project was made possible by funding from the Missing and Murdered Indigenous
Women, Girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA+ People National Action Plan, funded by Crown
Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada.
We are grateful to those who gave their time, knowledge and experience to participate
in consultations:
In Iqaluit:
Local Interpreter/Translators
The 2SLGBTQQIA+ Community
Outside of Iqaluit:
Billy (they), a nonbinary transmasc person undergoing medical transition
Research: Rachel Kohut.
Research and writing: Margaret Hollis.
Report Cards on Child Poverty in Nunavut
Link to Unveiling Poverty: Beyond Numbers, Beneath Lives, 2023 Report Card on Child
Poverty in Nunavut.pdf
Link to Grief Fills Our Land as Poverty Soars, the 2024 Report Card on Child Poverty in
Nunavut.pdf
