Teachers investigated for having alcohol in dry community

Nunavut education officials are sending a school operations team into Coral Harbour Thursday to investigate allegations involving one or more teachers and alcohol.

Coral Harbour is one of Nunavut's dry communities where alcohol is prohibited.

RCMP have also confirmed that they are investigating.

The territory's Minister of Education Paul Quassa told CBC he had heard about a situation where alcohol was found at the home of one or more teachers, but he knows very few details at this time.

"It would be up to the community and/or whoever to deal with that," said Quassa. "We're waiting now just to see what happens."

Quassa said he doesn't know how many teachers were involved but said it's a "very serious situation."

While he isn't aware of any previous instances where teachers were charged with having alcohol in a dry community, Quassa said the department has policies in place to deal with any incident where teachers break laws.

"We are there to abide by the law and abide by the rules of the community and that's how it should be," said Quassa.

RCMP are not releasing information at this time.

The last time Coral Harbour held a plebiscite to vote on lifting liquor restrictions was in 2007. According to Elections Nunavut, about 75 per cent of people who cast ballots voted no to lifting restrictions at that time.