Investigation opened after Nunavik woman dies following arrest for bylaw violation

MONTREAL – Quebec’s police watchdog says it is investigating after a woman died in police custody in the province’s northern Nunavik region.

The Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, which investigates all in-custody deaths in Quebec, says the 39-year-old woman died at a police station in the village of Puvirnituq, on Hudson’s Bay, Friday evening.

The BEI issued a release saying the woman had been arrested by the Nunavik Police Service for a municipal bylaw infraction.

It says police found the woman unconscious in a cell shortly after 7 p.m.

She is the second woman to die in the custody of Nunavik police this year, in March a 33-year-old woman died in a police station in the village of Akulivik on Hudson’s Bay.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 1, 2022.