Honourable James Igloliorte Resumes Role as Chair of Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System

January 31, 2025

The following is a joint statement from the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation:

The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Innu Nation today announced that retired Provincial Court Judge James Igloliorte is resuming his role as Chair of the Inquiry Panel for the Commission of Inquiry into the Treatment, Experiences and Outcomes of Innu in the Child Protection System.

Commissioner Igloliorte rejoins Anastasia Qupee of Sheshatshiu, former Grand Chief of the Innu Nation, and Dr. Mike Devine, retired associate professor of the School of Social Work, Memorial University, who were appointed Commissioners of the Inquiry in June 2021.

A detailed biography of the Honourable James Igloliorte can be found in the backgrounder below.

The Commission of Inquiry was ordered as a Part II Inquiry under the Public Inquiries Act, 2006.

The Commission of Inquiry is guided by a shared commitment of the Innu Nation, the Mushuau Innu First Nation, the Sheshatshiu First Nation, and the Provincial Government to ensure the safety and well-being of, and to act in the best interests of, Innu children and youth. The Inquiry involves a range of processes, including reviewing relevant documents and records, considering the need for specialized research, and conducting community sessions and hearings.

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BACKGROUNDER

Biography for the Honourable James Igloliorte
James Igloliorte of Hopedale, Newfoundland and Labrador, is a retired Provincial Court Judge. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Education from Memorial University in 1974. He and his wife, Linda Carter, then started their career as teachers on the west coast of Newfoundland at St. James School in Lark Harbour, Bay of Islands. Mr. Igloliorte has lived in Newfoundland and Labrador his whole life.

Appointed first as a Lay Magistrate in 1980, he took responsibility of the Labrador Court and Circuit System and then completed law school at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1985. He then returned to take up duties in Happy Valley-Goose Bay as a circuit judge, a position which he held for the majority of his career. James Igloliorte was a 1999 National Aboriginal Achievement Award recipient in the category of Law and Justice. He stepped down from the bench in 2004.

James Igloliorte is a past Labrador Director with the Innu Healing Foundation and was a commissioner with the Royal Commission on Renewing and Strengthening Our Place in Canada. He has also worked as Newfoundland and Labrador’s Child and Youth Advocate and was Commissioner of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission in Nunavut. In 2003 he received an Honorary Doctorate from Memorial University, made all the more memorable because it was the same week in which singer-songwriter Ron Hynes was also recognized. He sat as a Director of the McLean Day School Settlement Corporation and acted as a Reconciliation Officer of the Sixties Scoop Settlement Agreement. In 2024, he was a named an Officer of the Order of Canada, presented by Mary Simon, Governor-General of Canada.

James Igloliorte was retained in 2020 to provide input on the nature, scope and mechanisms of the Inquiry into Ground Search and Rescue for Lost and Missing Persons in Newfoundland and Labrador.

James Igloliorte and his wife, Linda Carter, live in St. John’s and have four children and five grandchildren.

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