Mike Gardener

Reverend Mike Gardener was born 26 September 1930 in Runnymede, England. In 1955, when he was twenty-five years old, he traveled to Kimmirut as a missionary for the Anglican Church. Mike remained in Kimmirut from 1955 to 1960 before being moved to the growing community of Kinngait. Mike states that the real reason he believed the Inuit were moving from camps into larger communities was because their dogs had died off from illness and they could no longer travel to communities to trade. In 1970 Mike moved on to Pangnirtung where he had a congregation of over 200 Inuit. In his testimony Mike discusses the health exams for TB that took place on board the CD Howe and the subsequent evacuations. Mike has no recollection of RCMP dog shootings, with the exception of one of two cases where the dog was dying of disease. He also states that it was not the Inuit practice to have their own dogs running loose once they moved into the communities.