Another shot: homeless Ottawa Inuit find comfort in managed alcohol program – Nunatsiaq News
12 July, 2019
“There’s more help, medical or whatever help you need, you can get it here”
It’s a humid day in Ottawa’s Central Park neighbourhood, and three Inuit and an Indigenous man from the west coast are playing cribbage at one of four long rows of tables in a common room filled with sunlight from a wall of windows.
In the back parking lot, men smoke tobacco, cannabis or both.
In the corner of the common room, near a hunk of caribou meat thawing on cardboard, volunteer Larry Dakin and an Inuk man play a soulful version of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” on guitars. A couple of people sing along.
Behind the musicians, in a glassed-in room, two Inuit men watch Mantracker on a big-screen TV. The billiards room is surprisingly empty, two cues and a couple of balls resting on the red-felted slate.
