Catherine PorterVerified account

6/Cape Dorset is a restricted town; you need be approved by a committee to legally buy alcohol. Many turn to the black market, where a bottle of vodka goes for $600Cdn — $140 less than the monthly welfare check a single person receives. There are no shelters or AA program.

11/There is a housing emergency in Nunavut. Many of the homes I visited were run-down and crowded. Building costs are hefty because everything needs to be shipped in. Cape Dorset’s waiting list for social housing is 3 yrs long — relatively short, compared to other hamlets.

12/The town is haunted by Ed Horne, a convicted pedophile who taught here for 3 years starting 1978 & sexually assaulted 100 boys, by one estimate. It’s not hard to understand why locals distrust the education system. Of 30 kids who start kindergarten only 7 finish high school.

13/Hamlet councillor Chris Pudlat told me while art had helped some in the town, it could not fill an existential crisis. What he said stuck in my head till this day.