'Father of Nunavut' has one more fight left: to live in the territory he helped create

"I'll never go back," John Amagoalik said of an assisted living facility in Ottawa, where he was sent to live by Nunavut's government in February 2025.

The territory's Department of Health transferred him to Embassy West Senior Living after an infection left no choice but to amputate part of his right leg.

"The worst part was the loneliness," Amagoalik recalled in an interview with CBC News as he sat in a wheelchair at his temporary home in Iqaluit with his wife, Evie, on Sept. 7.

"The strange surroundings. That was the worst part, being so far away from home and not ... being able to be with my many grandchildren."

Amagoalik is turning 79 in November and has multiple chronic age-related issues. He also has a difficult time talking.

He's frail, but he's still a fighter.

Amagoalik, who turns 79 in November, is shown in Iqaluit. The Nunavut government declined his request to provide adequate funding for his care and accessible housing, so he's going to court. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)After a lifetime of struggle that included being forced to attend residential schools and advocating for Inuit rights and self-determination, Amagoalik is in his last fight: to age in the territory he helped create.

"It's been my life," he said, when asked what Nunavut means to him. "And I feel fortunate in being part of it."

John Amagoalik is revered as the "Father of Nunavut" for his work spanning over three decades beginning in the 1970s — earning him the Order of Nunavut and the Order of Canada.

John Amagoalik holds a photo of himself attending a meeting of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in Iqaluit in 1983. His work over three decades helped lead to the creation of Nunavut in 1999. (Graham Shishkov/CBC)Among his many roles, he advocated for Inuit as an adviser with the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut before it became Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. He was also on the executive council of the Inuit Circumpolar Council in the 1980s, and served as president of what was then the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, now Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami.

Amagoalik led the land claims settlement process with Nunavut Tunngavik after ratification in 1993. He also chaired the Nunavut Implementation Commission that designed the public government of Nunavut before the territory was created in 1999.

Amagoalik, centre, is shown with Georges Erasmus, left, who at the time was national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, and Indigenous rights advocate Louis Bruyere at a news conference in Ottawa in May 1987. (Chuck Mitchell/The Canadian Press)It's the very government his Victoria-based lawyer and longtime friend, Steve Kelliher, said is now failing him. So he's helping Amagoalik take the Nunavut government to court.

Kelliher, who first worked with Amagoalik in the 1970s formulating Nunavut's future government, said his friend is still as much a force today as he was back then.

But when he and another friend, Mark Stiles of Ottawa — who first met Amagoalik in 1975 while working in the land claims office of the Inuit Tapirisat of Canada — visited Amagoalik at Embassy West in March, they felt he needed their help.

Victoria-based lawyer Steve Kelliher (pictured) and Mark Stiles, friends of Amagoalik, worked to bring him home to Iqaluit and are trying to secure funding from the government for his care. (Submitted by Steve Kelliher)"I said, 'Well, how do you like it here, John?' And he said, 'I hate it,'" Kelliher said.

So he asked Amagoalik if he wanted help to return home. "He said, 'Do anything to get me out of here, to get me back to Iqaluit.'"

First, they delivered a letter to the territory’s health minister, signed by Amagoalik and dated March 31, pleading to return home. Amagoalik claims he never agreed to the move being permanent.

A copy of Amagoalik's letter delivered to Nunavut's health minister in March. (John Amagoalik)When the minister, Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster, didn't take any action on his request to return home, they formed the John A. Committee and brought in Iqaluit lawyer Anne Crawford.

The committee raised $30,000 for a consultant to develop Amagoalik's plan of care, buy medical equipment and supplies, and pay for eight to 10 hours of daily private home care from personal support workers.

It also secured an accessible unit at a subsidized rate of $2,000 a month that has space for his hospital bed and an elevator. The Amagoaliks' public housing unit has stairs that would be too difficult for him to use.

The committee also arranged air transportation donated by an airline to fly Amagoalik to Iqaluit. On June 12, 16 months after he arrived in Ottawa, he returned home.

Amagoalik’s public housing unit has stairs, making it difficult for him to access his home. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)An uncertain futureBut despite all of the hard work to bring Amagoalik back to Nunavut, his future is still uncertain.

The funds raised by the committee were only meant to be for the short term, and Anne Crawford said the money is running out.

"Which we did tell the government at the time, this will not last forever. And therefore, can you talk to us about how and what we can do going forward to continue to support him and live in his home community?"

Anne Crawford, a longtime lawyer in Iqaluit, says Amagoalik is leading the way for Nunavut elders to be cared for in their communities. (Juanita Taylor/CBC)The request to the territorial government for $16,000 a month to cover accommodations in the accessible unit and up to 10 hours a day of support worker care was declined. However, the government can provide a maximum of two hours per week of personal support worker care.

The committee says its research shows that Nunavut was spending about $30,000 a month for Amagoalik’s care at Embassy West.

The Health Department told CBC News that it can't comment on his care in order to protect his privacy. Brewster, the health minister, also declined to be interviewed.

But a communications manager provided a written statement saying the government has not refused to provide publicly funded health care to Amagoalik and that it continues to work in "good faith to support him."

Amagoalik and his wife, Evie, embrace. (CBC)"So we have no alternative but to appeal to the courts to compel them to do the right thing," Kelliher said, calling the situation "despicable."

"If we've got no money, we'll go beat the bushes," he said. Amagoalik "deserves better. He's earned it. He is an exception. Who treats their leaders like that? Not the Inuit. I don't believe it."

On Sept. 16, two notices of application for judicial review were filed in the Nunavut Court of Justice on behalf of Amagoalik.

"One for judicial review of the assistant deputy minister's letter, the decision not to fund John's care and housing," Kelliher said. "And an application for urgent relief to compel them to do so until the matter is fully heard, which could take months."

Amagoalik's care situation is emblematic of a wider problem in Nunavut. The vast territory, which covers a total area of just over two million square kilometres and is home to roughly 40,000 people, has only six seniors' facilities spread across its three regions.

The government says it's expanding two more long-term care facilities in Nunavut.

Currently, 73 elders from Nunavut are being cared for at Embassy West Senior Living, the only out-of-territory facility contracted by the government for more complex needs.

"We don't want to continue seeing our elders getting flown to Ottawa,” said Gloria Uluqsi, president of Nunavut Tunngavik. "I think they can do better. I think we as a team can do better for our elders."

Gloria Uluqsi, president of Nunavut Tunngavik, says she empathizes with Amagoalik. (Cameron Lane/CBC)ABOUT THE AUTHORJuanita Taylor

Juanita Taylor is Senior Reporter for The National in the North. Juanita joined CBC North in 2008 and comes from Arviat in Nunavut.