Paul Idlout

Paul Ullatitaq Idlout (April 21, 1935 – December 31, 2025) was a Canadian police constable and Anglican bishop. Born and raised in a traditional Inuit hunting culture, he was a young man when his family was relocated to the high Arctic in the 1950s. Idlout was among the group of hunters who appeared on the Canadian $2 banknote as part of the Scenes of Canada series in the 1970s. After a career as a Royal Canadian Mounted Police constable, Idlout trained for ordained ministry in the 1980s and was ordained a priest. In 1996, he became the first Inuk to be made an Anglican bishop and the third indigenous Anglican bishop in Canada. He retired as suffragan bishop of the Diocese of the Arctic in 2004.

Early life Idlout was born on April 21, 1935, in the northern Baffin Island settlement of Pond Inlet, the eldest of nine children born to Joseph Idlout and Rebecca Qillaq. Joseph's daughter, Leah Idlout, has said that her father was the son of Joseph-Elzéar Bernier, making Paul his grandson.

Extended family members include Paul's nieces Lori Idlout and Lucie Idlout. He grew up before the transition of Inuit life to fixed settlements, and the Idlouts lived a nomadic life in tents in the summer and igloos during the winter while hunting for seals and caribou. He did not attend school as a boy. Paul had early exposure to Anglicanism; his father was a guide for Anglican missionaries and he grew up singing in the church choir and attending Sunday school.

In 1955, when Idlout was around 20, he, his parents and some siblings were relocated to Resolute on Cornwallis Island as part of the Canadian effort to relocate Inuit from Nunavik in Quebec to higher Arctic settings. He later said that he had found himself drinking to excess in that period of time, and decided to change his life. In 1986, he enrolled in the Diocese of the Arctic's Arthur Turner Training School, then in Pangnirtung. His consecration service at St. Jude's Cathedral was fully bilingual in English and Inuktitut. Diocesan bishop Chris Williams was based at the diocesan office in Yellowknife, while Idlout oversaw congregations in the eastern Arctic from the cathedral in Iqaluit.

Later life

After retiring from his episcopal role, Idlout continued to serve in pastoral ministry in Apex and assisted at St. Jude's Cathedral.