| Paul Quassa | |
| Birth Date: | 12 January 1952 |
| Birth Place: | Igloolik, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) |
| Office: | 4th Premier of Nunavut |
| Term Start: | November 21, 2017 |
| Term End: | June 14, 2018 |
| 1Blankname: | Commissioner |
| 1Namedata: | Nellie Kusugak |
| Predecessor: | Peter Taptuna |
| Successor: | Joe Savikataaq |
| Office2: | Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut for Aggu |
| Term Start2: | October 28, 2013 |
| Term End2: | August 13, 2021 |
| Predecessor2: | district created |
| Successor2: | Joanna Quassa |
| Office3: | 11th Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut |
| Predecessor3: | Simeon Mikkungwak |
| Successor3: | Tony Akoak |
| Term Start3: | February 26, 2020 |
| Term End3: | August 13, 2021 |
| Party: | non-partisan consensus government |
| Relatives: | Joanna Quassa (sister in-law) |
| Occupation: | indigenous land claims negotiator, journalist and MLA in Nunavut |
Paul Aarulaaq Quassa (born January 12, 1952)[1] is a Canadian politician who served as the fourth premier of Nunavut from November 2017 to June 2018. He served as a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, representing Aggu from 2013 until 2021.[2]
An Inuk, Quassa became involved in Inuit politics at the age of 20, and was one of the chief negotiators of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement that created the modern territory of Nunavut.
Quassa was born in Manitok, a hunting camp near Igloolik.[3] Born in an igloo, he was raised for the first years of his life in what he described as "the Inuit traditional way of life", part of the last generation to do so. At the age of six, he was taken to a Canadian Indian residential school in Churchill, Manitoba.[4]
He returned to Igloolik in 1972 to work on land claims and served as president of the Tunngavik Federation of Nunavut in the early 1990s.[5] He was one of the negotiators of, and a signatory of, the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement settlement that led to the establishment of Nunavut.[3] [6]
He was dropped from the presidency of TFN in 1992 following allegations of sexual assault against a woman,[7] but received a discharge in court[8] and was subsequently reinstated as president of the organization and the successor Nunavut Tunngavik Incorporated.[9] Quassa also worked as a journalist with CBC North, the Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and Isuma Productions.[4]
First elected to the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut in the 2013 election,[10] he represents the electoral district of Aggu. He served in the Executive Council of Nunavut as Minister of Education during the 4th Legislative Assembly of Nunavut.[11] As Education Minister, he unsuccessfully attempted to introduce bilingual education in schools, in both English and Inuktitut.[4]
He was reelected in the 2017 election, and was subsequently selected as premier at the Nunavut Leadership Forum under the territory's consensus government system.[3]
On June 14, 2018, he lost a non-confidence vote by 16–3, with two abstentions. The motion of no-confidence was tabled by MLA John Main, in response to what Main described as an "autocratic style" of leadership, and wider criticism by MLAs of the spending decisions made by Quassa's government.[12]
Quassa was replaced as Premier by former deputy premier Joe Savikataaq.[13]
On February 26, 2020, he was selected as the new Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut following the resignation of Simeon Mikkungwak from the legislature the previous day.[14] He did not seek re-election in 2021.