Montreal's Inuit Experience High Rate of Homelessness

Inuit represent 10% of Indigenous people in Montreal, but account for 43% of homeless Montrealers who are Indigenous.

Circumstances including residential schools, the 60’s scoop and forcing Inuit into settlements have led to generational trauma and barriers in our society. 

But colonialism isn’t a relic of the past, as Inuit in Inuit Nunangat (the four Inuit land claim regions) experience food insecurity, high food prices, inhumane living conditions and more. 

In this episode of Local 514, we’ll be looking into how past and present day colonialism has led to barriers in Inuit seeking the same living opportunities and conditions of others in Montreal and the rest of Canada.

Before the Pandemic, there were 2,000 homeless people in Montreal on any given night. This number has since doubled!

10% of Montreal’s homeless population is Indigenous, despite making up only 0.6% of the city’s population. These statistics are even higher among Inuit, a population which represents 10% of Indigenous people in Montreal, but accounts for 43% of homeless Montrealers who are Indigenous.

So how exactly does colonialism lead to homelessness among some Indigenous populations?

David Chapman, executive director of shelter Resilience Montreal recognizes the effects of colonialism within Resilience’s clientele, including residential schools and the 60's scoop. He said that many of his clients are survivors of either or had parents who were.

From the 1950’s to 1980’s, the Canadian government removed Indigenous children from their families and placed them in catalogs to be adopted by white families during the 1960’s to continue forced assimilation – generated great trauma, as did residential schools. Trauma not only endured by those who experienced it, but passed down generations.

Intervention worker with the Indigenous Support Workers Project Pierre Parent, who is mixed Cree from the James Bay area, says this trauma can be handled in different ways – not always ones that are conducive to healing.

Parent said sometimes addictions surface as a result of trauma and homeless can be a product of trauma and or addiction.

For Inuit, some unique situations in the North have also led to precarity. In the 1950’s, the federal government relocated many Inuit to the High North, about 2,000 km from their homes. They were promised bountiful wildlife and food, however, they suffered from hunger, extreme cold, illness, poverty and alcoholism. It was not until 3 decades later that many returned home again. 

Inuit women in Montreal are particularly at risk, as many deaths of Inuit women have been highlighted over the years. Just last year, a group of Indigenous women from Cabot Square in downtown Montreal said since Spring 2020, seven Inuit women have died.

Contrary to common belief, colonialism is very much a present day issue and should not only be seen as a relic of the past.

With trauma from colonialism and colonial practice extending into how the foster care system is run and the living conditions in Inuit Nunangat largely ignored by the government, this continues to generate barriers for many Indigenous people – barriers that most of us don’t face. Thus, continuing the cycle of homelessness and lack of reconciliation in Canada.

Local 514 reached out to the Southern Quebec Inuit Association, Makkovik (Labrador), Makivik (Quebec), The Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Montreal Indigenous Community Network, the Native Friendship Center, and the Inuuqatigiit Center but was not granted an interview before the publication of this report.