Former Iqaluit councillor says accessibility issues stopped him from running in municipal election

A former Iqaluit councillor says he wasn't able to run in Monday's election because the documents he needed to do so weren't in an accessible format and Iqaluit's returning officer gave him the wrong deadline to apply. 

Noah Papatsie, who is blind, sat on council from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2017 to 2019. He also ran for mayor in the 2019 municipal election, losing to former mayor Kenny Bell. 

Papatsie uses a Job Access With Speech (JAWS) program on his computer, which essentially reads out the words on the screen. 

He said documents sent to him by Elections Nunavut couldn't be read by that program. 

"I asked for a document. I was sent a document that was unaccessible, unreadable to my computer," Papatsie said. 

"I'm not really happy. To me it's not an inclusive election."

Papatsie, a former broadcaster with the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation, also says the returning office in Iqaluit gave him the wrong date, telling him the deadline for nominations closed on Nov. 22 instead of Sept. 22. 

Emails obtained by CBC from Iqaluit's returning officer, Jason Roberts, to Papatsie states the deadline is Nov. 22. 

In another email, Roberts apologizes for the mistake and provides Papatsie with the contact information for Elections Nunavut. 

Papatsie said he complained to Elections Nunavut about the situation. 

"It seemed like no one was understanding … how to process documents for accessibility," Papatsise said. 

Nunavut chief electoral officer Dustin Fredlund told CBC he isn't in a position to speak to individual complaints, but that a summary of those complaints will be addressed in an election report. 

Roberts also told CBC in an email that because Elections Nunavut is "the governing authority, they will address any complaints and issues that arose during the election in the upcoming election report."

Under its mandate, Elections Nunavut has to submit a report 280 days after the date of the writ, which in this election was Sept. 18. 

"I trusted the system, even the electoral officer," Papatsie said. 

It's not the first time Papatsie, who works for the Nunavummi Disabilities Makinnasuaqtiit Society, has encountered issues like this. He's spent years advocating for accessibility improvements in the city and beyond.

"I think it's important that we work together," he said. 

"In the bigger field, where people work in the bigger environment where they work in a city, or government of federal government, people need to understand accessible information to promote and educate inclusion."