Coroner investigating after 2 Inuuk women fatally struck in Montreal while staying at health centre

Quebec coroner Éric Lépine has been assigned to investigate the deaths of two Inuuk women who were killed on Montreal highways in the space of two days.

Both women were staying at the Ullivik health centre after travelling south from northern Inuit communities.

Mary Ninguik is from a village of only a few hundred people and travelled to Montreal to give birth. She is also staying at Ullivik and was saddened to hear that 22-year-old Mary-Jane Tulugak from Puvirnituq and 26-year-old Nellie Niviaxie from Umiujaq were killed on two separate highways in the early hours of Friday and Saturday respectively.

"I heard about it, the first one (Tulugak). I knew her, and she was younger than me, and I've known her since maybe I was 12 or 13," said Ninguik.

CTV News reached out to Ullivik for answers but was directed to the Nunavik Regional Health Board of Health and Social Services (NRHBHSS).

"Although isolated, each case is extremely traumatic for everyone involved," said health board spokesperson Steve Kelly. "Circumstances seem to be very similar to the first one, someone who was residing at Ullivik very temporarily."

Kelly said Niviaxie was accompanying someone who was receiving care.

It is not the first time a person staying at Ullivik has perished while staying at the facility.

In April, a man staying there was killed by a train on nearby tracks, and in 2018 a woman was struck and killed by a truck a few blocks away.

Neither was deemed a crime by police.

Most residents at Ullivik are from small northern communities and face a much different reality when coming south to Ullivik on the side of a major highway in Montreal's Dorval suburb.

"It's different in the village," said Suvaki Tooktoo. "There's no traffic... There's no park space or anything, no shops."

Sources with knowledge of Montreal's Inuit community told CTV News they're concerned about the lack of coordination and services provided at the centre.

The health authority said a stay at Ullivik is similar to a hotel stay, and that they can't force them to stay inside or monitor their activities.

"They're like anyone else staying in a hotel or staying in nearby areas," said Kelly. "We don't have control over their coming and going. We tried to sensitize them about being down south, staying in Montreal, the dangers, so on and so forth, not just in regards to traffic but just the difficulties being in Montreal coming from a northern community."

A spokesperson for Quebec's Minister of Indigenous Affairs Ian Lafreniere, said he has spoken with people at the Nunavik health board.

"I am reassured by the follow-up that will be done directly with Ullivik," said spokesperson Mathieu Durocher in an email.