Overview of the Coroner Service
The Coroner Service is a network of Coroners located throughout the country.
A Coroner is medical-legal death investigator appointed by the Minister of Justice upon recommendations from the Chief Coroner.
The Coroners’ core function is to investigate all sudden, unnatural, unexpected, unattended and unexplained deaths in the Territory. This is an important public service to the living and in particular to the next-of-kin and friends of the deceased.
The Coroner is responsible for ascertaining the facts surrounding a death and must determine:
- The identity of the deceased
- How, when, where and by what means the deceased came to their death.
Each death is then classified as Natural, Accidental, Suicide, Homicide or Undetermined.
The Coroner Service not only provides closure for those bereaved suddenly but also performs a wider public service by identifying matters of public interest that can have life and death consequences.
The Coroner can also make recommendations to help improve public safety and prevent future deaths in similar circumstances.
The Coroner Service is a fact finding, not a fault finding agency that provides an independent service to the families, communities, government agencies and other organizations.
"We speak for the dead to protect the living"
The Office of the Chief Coroner for Nunavut serves the living through quality death investigations and inquests to ensure that no death will be overlooked, concealed or ignored. The findings are used to generate recommendations to help improve public safety and prevent deaths in similar circumstances in future.
You may contact us at:
Office of the Chief Coroner
PO Box 1000; Station 590
Iqaluit, Nunavut X0A 0H0
Toll Free # 1 - 844-778-1022
Telephone: (867) 975-6562 Fax: (867) 975-6367
Cell: (867) 222-9472