Investigating alcohol smuggling in Arctic Quebec Inuit communities
Alcool is seriously harming many Inuit of Nunavik. Exaggeration or reality?
Bootleggers ship cases of alcohol to villages where their sale is forbidden or severely restricted.
The result: more violence, domestic violence, sexual assaults, and poverty.
It’s a very profitable business for smugglers as some are willing to pay $100 for a single 375 ml bottle of vodka that can normally be picked up for $14 in Quebec’s liquor stores.
And there’s an even more dangerous product bootleggers are bringing to the Northern Nunavik villages: 94% alcohol.
This high proof spirit is potentially lethal and is readily available in Quebec’s liquor stores.
Follow the path of the bootleggers and the struggle to keep the Bad Water at bay in Quebec’s North.
Report originally aired on Enquête in French on February 6, 2020
Journalist: Josée Dupuis / Produceer: Alain Abel / Cameramen : Éric Carbonneau, Dominic Dallaire, Jean-Pierre Gandin, Mathieu Potvin, Michel Riverin / Editor: Jean-Yves Houle
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Police make raids across Montreal as part of investigation into alcohol, drug network selling into Arctic Quebec, Eye on the Arctic
Finland: Number of reported domestic violence cases rises in Finland, Yle News
United States: U.S. Justice Department to send millions to rural Alaska law enforcement, Alaska Public Media
