Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
A little over four months ago, Leo Nangmalik graciously welcomed a reporter and photographer from The Globe and Mail into his home to share his story.
Mr. Nangmalik lived 6 kilometres outside of Repulse Bay, a small hamlet in Nunavut on the edge of the Arctic circle, in a modest dwelling patched together with items from a nearby landfill.
He recounted, tearfully, the sexual abuse he suffered as a young boy in a Catholic school. He bravely agreed to discuss his life, pockmarked as it was by drug-dealing and stints in jail. And he spoke of the need for his community to grieve, of the comfort he had gained by attending local healing services, and of how Nunavut's future will be determined by how honestly it confronts its past.
Shortly after this piece was published, The Globe and Mail learned that Mr. Nangmalik had tragically taken his own life. He was 50.