By Karen Gross
Chloe Boubalos knew she was approaching paradise before her plane even began its descent into Iqaluit. "Flying over the tundra and the mountains was just breathtaking," she says. "I felt so at peace. I fell in love with the landscape."
Fresh off her first year in law school, Boubalos had been looking for a summer adventure that would also satisfy her need to serve the public and gain some valuable experience. She found it with the help of the Faculty of Law's Career Development Office, and its database of job opportunities for students like herself. An upbringing spent moving among Quebec's remote northern communities fueled her desire to travel and work with Indigenous populations. And funding from a Donner Fellowship, the Nunavut Law Foundation and the Law Society of Nunavut made the package not only possible, but irresistible. "I'm really glad it worked out," she says. "I'm having a wonderful time up here."
Boubalos has split her time between the Law Society and Nunavut Tunngavik Inc., or the NTI. Through an initiative called the Access to Knowledge Project, Boubalos is connecting with stakeholders across the territory, making the legal system more accessible and user-friendly to all of its residents.
"The justice system is very alienating for a lot of people who live here, because it's so removed from their day to day lives," she says. "The only courthouse in Nunavut is right here in Iqaluit. So the judge, counsel and witnesses will fly into a community and set up court in a gym or whatever kind of space they can get their hands on."
Making matters more difficult is a relative dearth of Inuit lawyers, which can leave defendants and plaintiffs feeling disconnected from the people representing them. And there's very little access to information or help over the Internet—something Boubalos is working to improve.
"There are very few websites and very little information that's readily available if you just conduct a rudimentary Internet search," she says. "It's almost impossible to actually access the help you might need."
When she's not working, Boubalos has been immersing herself in the Northern way of life: ice-fishing, dog-sledding on Frobisher Bay, and happily sampling local fare, including caribou and whale meat.
"I'm definitely going to come back," she says. "I don't know how it's going to play out in my life, but I'll be back. I love it here."
Photos: Chloe Boubalos
