 Canine epidemics, Inuit and the Canadian Government in the Eastern Arctic, 1920-1970 
This paper examines with the epidemics that struck dog populations in the Canadian Eastern Arctic (Nunavik and Nunavut) between 1920 and 1970. Reported by police officers, state officials, researchers and visiting explorers, these epidemics are known, but they have never been systematically examined. The objectives of this paper are therefore to describe these canine epidemics, to better understand the motivations and interventions of the Canadian government to mitigate them, and to identify the consequences for the Inuit of the epidemics and government interventions. This paper documents a very large number of epidemics that occurred between 1920 and 1970 in the Canadian Eastern Arctic. It also shows that the Canadian government’s responses toward dog epidemics were based on its overall policy for the Arctic, they are not therefore similar at the start and at the end of the study period. Finally, it shows that while the Inuit seemed to put up with epidemics when they could do so on their own terms, government intervention created a lot of frustration.