An Inuit delegation left in frustration after meeting with officials from the French Ministry of Justice
PARIS — Anger, sadness, frustration.
Those were the sentiments on the faces of an Inuit delegation in Paris as they emerged from a meeting with Justice Department officials on Tuesday evening.
The group met with Isabelle Jégouzou, adviser to the French Minister of Justice, and officials from the Ministry of Justice.
Speaking to reporters outside the Department of Justice building, Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. president Aluki Kotierk said it was a “frustrating meeting.”
“We were interrupted and discussed and the common message was that French nationals cannot be extradited,” she said.
Kotierk and a delegation of Inuit are in Paris and Lyon this week to push the French government to extradite the Reverend Johannes Rivoire, 91, a Roman Catholic priest who worked in Nunavut for more than 30 years and was charged in 1998 of having sexually abused children during this time.
Aluki Kotierk and the rest of the Inuit delegation leave a meeting with Justice Ministry officials in Paris on Tuesday. (Photo by Emma Tranter)
Rivoire left Canada for France in 1993 and has remained there ever since.
Those initial charges were stayed in 2017, but in 2022 the RCMP brought another charge against Rivoire for allegedly sexually abusing a girl in Arviat and Whale Cove between 1974 and 1979.
Canada asked France to extradite the priest and a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest was issued.
The group emerged after spending more than an hour and a half inside the Ministry of Justice building in central Paris, their third meeting of the day.
“There were words that expressed how much they understood our plight, but in the end it was clear that there was no political will to extradite French nationals,” Kotierk said.
Nunatsiaq News sent an interview request to the French Minister of Justice, but had not received a response by Tuesday afternoon.
In addition to Kotierk, the delegation includes NTI CEO Kilikvak Kabloona, Steve Mapsalak, a victim of alleged Rivoire abuse, and Tanya and Jesse Tungilik, children of Marius Tungilik, also a victim of Rivoire’s alleged abuse.
David Aglukark Jr., Program Manager for Missing Inuit Children from Indian Residential Schools at NTI and Ivaluarjuk Merritt, Kotierk’s executive assistant, also joined the delegation in France.
Lieve Halsberghe, a Belgian lawyer and human rights defender working with NTI while in France, said the meeting was difficult.
“We tried to beg them for a very long time,” she said.
“I found it an extremely difficult meeting to be confronted with this reality, this cold reality of the law.”
Although France has an extradition treaty with Canada, France generally does not extradite its citizens.
Tanya Tungilik (left) and NTI President Aluki Kotierk speak briefly to the media following a meeting with Stephane Dion, Canada’s Ambassador to France, on Tuesday. (Photo by Emma Tranter)
The delegation began its day with a one-hour meeting with Stéphane Dion, Ambassador of Canada to France.
The delegation was tight-lipped following this meeting with Dion, refusing to answer questions from the media and only offering a statement when they emerged.
Kotierk said Dion helped arrange the meeting with Justice Department officials.
“We are truly grateful to have had the opportunity to meet the Canadian Ambassador and appreciate his support,” she said.
When asked if she could share more of what Dion said at the reunion, Kotierk replied, “I’ll leave it at that.”
Tanya Tungilik also said she was grateful Dion met them, but didn’t elaborate.
“He looks very supportive,” Tungilik said.
“We…asked him to let France know that France cannot be the country that harbors fugitive criminals wanted by the Church who escaped justice in Canada,” Halsberghe added.
On Wednesday, the delegation will travel to Lyon where it plans to meet with leaders of the Oblates, a Roman Catholic order whose members are traditionally involved in education, including Father Vincent Gruber, who leads the Oblates in France.
