NUNAVIK DRUG DEALER SAYS PRISON TERM VIOLATES INUIT RIGHTS

James Bay agreement prohibits imprisonment in the South for Inuit,
Kuujjuaq offender says.

MONTREAL - The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement may be the
only land-claim deal in Canada that's ever been used to defend a
convicted drug trafficker.

Three weeks ago Willie Gordon, 42, was sentenced in Kuujjuaq to 14
months in jail. In October, Gordon had pleaded guilty to possession
of hashish with the intent to traffic, and to another separate charge
of trafficking.

The charges were laid after a seizure made on June 30, 1999 in
Kuujjuaq by the Kativik Regional Police Force and the Surete du
Quebec.

It was the largest drug bust ever made in Nunavik, netting 1.778
kilos of hashish with an estimated street value of $800,000.

Gordon's arrest following the raid was noteworthy, too, because he
had held several important positions in regional and local
organizations.

Gordon is a former employee of the Kativik Regional Government as
well as a former director of Kuujjuaq's landholding and development
corporations.

Bobby Gordon, 20, and Jobie Gordon, 32, were also charged and later
pleaded guilty to possession of hashish in connection with the same
seizure. In October they received their sentences: Bobby Gordon got a
suspended sentence with a $1,500 fine and six months on probation,
while Jobie Gordon received a suspended sentence, a $1,500 fine and
four months probation.

Willie Gordon also expected a fine and a suspended sentence for his
role in the trafficking incident.

Instead, Judge Daniel Bedard handed him a jail term. Bedard
restricted Gordon's future access to firearms and gave him a two-year
probation period after his release from jail.

"We were all very surprised," said Gordon's lawyer Jean Dury. "I told
him, 'We were screwed. White people fuck you.'"

In a novel move, Dury then filed an appeal against the sentence,
using sections of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement as a
defence.

Durey said the land claim effectively prohibits the incarceration of
Inuit beneficiaries in the South.

Sec. 20.0.25 of the land claim says "Inuit should not be, unless
circumstances so require, detained, imprisoned or confined in any
institution below the 49th parallel."

Gordon is being held at the provincial detention centre in the
Laurentian community of St-Jerome.

Dury also said that Gordon's negative pre-sentencing report was
prepared by a non-Inuk probation agent who was not, as the land claim
sets out, "cognizant with the usages, customs and psychology of the
Inuit people."

Dury cited the Charter of Rights as well, saying Gordon's lengthy
imprisonment in the South constitutes an excessively cruel and harsh
punishment.

Dury said Gordon only intended to use the hash for medical purposes
to control his seizure problem.

The Quebec Appeals Court refused, however, to hear the appeal. Dury
said he nonetheless intends to pursue the sentence's appeal up to
Quebec's Supreme Court.

Dury said Inuit should be outraged their land claim is not being respected.

"The land claim, what does it mean? Is it just paper?" he said.

Dury said the continuing imprisonment of Inuit in the South is
another way to assimilate and even exterminate people.

In the court's attempt to block drug use, Dury also sees a sinister
hidden agenda - one that is backed by a coalition "Satanists" and
"socialists."

He said efforts to impose prohibition on drug use is another move to
exert "complete control" over rights and freedoms.

"The new world order is incompatible with human freedom," Dury said.