Federal government ends NunatuKavut’s bid for Indigenous rights

POLITICS  SEP 11, 2026 – 8:30 AM EDT Federal government ends NunatuKavut’s bid for Indigenous rights Nunatsiavut Government, NTI, and ITK support federal decision Todd Russell, the president of the NunatuKavut Community Council, and Carolyn Bennett, minister of Crown-Indigenous relations, shake hands at the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the NunatuKavut council and Canada recognizing Indigenous rights and self-determination, on Sept. 5, 2019. The federal government announced last week it is ending NunatuKavut’s bid for Inuit rights. (Photo courtesy of NunatuKavut Community Council) By Nunatsiaq News The federal government has ended a years-long process to negotiate Indigenous rights and self-determination with the NunatuKavut Community Council, an organization that says it represents about 6,000 Inuit in southern and central Labrador. According to a Tuesday statement from NunatuKavut, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty informed the council in a letter on Sept. 4 that the federal government was terminating its Recognition of Indigenous Rights and Self-Determination negotiations. “[NunatuKavut Community Council] is a strong and modern Inuit government that remains committed to the recognition of our rights and the advancement of our people’s well-being,” the statement read. The council said it was not given substantive reasons for the decision. The federal government has reviewed submissions from NunatuKavut, historical and legal analysis, expert reviews and discussions with the council, said Jennifer Cooper, a spokesperson for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, in an email to Nunatsiaq News. The evidence provided by NunatuKavut did not meet “court-established tests for Indigenous rights and title,” Cooper said. She said her department has offered to meet with NunatuKavut to discuss its findings in detail. NunatuKavut’s leaders have said its group’s members are of mixed ancestry who primarily come from communities south of Churchill River, and are descendants of Inuit in the region. They argue their members are the inheritors of a 1765 treaty between Inuit and the British Crown. The group does not have a modern comprehensive land claim agreement, and the council has acknowledged that relatively few of its members speak Inuktitut. The federal government has never recognized NunatuKavut as an Indigenous group capable of holding rights under Section 35 of the Constitution. That changed in…