RCMP Cst. Jasper Nelson’s father makes a deathbed admission: his son has an illegitimate sister.
It’s one of the opening moments of Ketsia Lessard’s novel On Duty, which was released this spring. Following that scene, the woman is revealed as Heidi Finlay, an RCMP officer raised by an Inuvialuit family in Inuvik.
After the lost siblings meet, Nelson is transferred to Inuvik and the two begin fighting crime and connecting after years of separation. What follows is a largely episodic novel, where the characters live the legacy of residential schools and their own roles as RCMP officers in the community.
Photo Courtesy of Ketsia Lessard
Their relationship is the heart of the novel, and tends to ground it when it veers into more uneven sections, the most unexpected of which is a hastily introduced Free Mason plot in its final chapter. For the majority of the novel, however, Inuvik appears as the third main character, lending place and context to the siblings’ story.
Speaking to Inuvik Drum, author Ketsia Lessard said she was drawn to the setting when painting a picture set in town. Over the course of her research, she read local records and media coverage and the memoirs of a northern RCMP officer to learn more about Inuvik, and wove it into her storytelling.
“When I discovered the town in the context of the painting and the characters, I decided to set it there. I was just drawn to the place I guess,” Lessard said, adding her roots in northern Quebec helped her connect to the setting.
She also chose Inuvik to explore the legacy of residential schools in the area. While the complexity and weight of the subject could be difficult to broach, she said she found “Lots of beauty, not just pain” in her research on the local history of the subject.
Her readings fascinated her. The research pushed back on the south’s stereotypical image of the north, she said.
“It wasn’t just winter 12 months out of the year. The polar nights, the polar days. Mosquito season, It was such an interesting place to describe in the book. I really wanted people to love being in that place, not just find it a depressing subject.”
She said she hopes the novel lends “a certain pride” to residents who read it.
“I hope they can have pride, and be happy about it, feel like they are heard and loved and understood,” Lessard said.
Parallel to this attention to local detail is the two main characters’ process of considering their positions as RCMP officers in the community. Lessard, who’s based out of Montreal, said it wasn’t her job to tell Northerners’ story for them. As a result, the characters aren’t “heroes or saviours,” she said. “They’re eye-witnesses and narrators of what’s happening.”
Their relationship underlays this process, with the novel switching between Jasper’s more florid prose, and Heidi’s more measured reporting. Both sides hint and their growing ties, and was based-off Lessard’s own experience with her older brother, who moved out when she was young.
“I always missed him very much,” she said. “Stories about siblings always moved me very much, and I didn’t have to make that up in the sense that it was already inside of me. These were feelings I already had and I could draw from that.”
Building off that spirit of redemption, she said she hopes the novel, while dealing with heavy themes, is an alternative to downbeat Canadian literature. Addressing larger subjects is important, she said, but it’s also vital to feel hopeful.
Ultimately, that’s what she hopes the residents of Inuvik take away from her book. “I wanted them to feel uplifted,” she said.