34 years later, Guy Lafleur is remembered by the small Inuit village that welcomed him

Since the news that Montreal Canadiens great Guy Lafleur died, Quebecers have flooded social media channels with their anecdotes of having crossed paths with le Démon Blond. 

Minnie Grey's story is a little off the beaten track.

It's 1988, and Grey was the young third vice-president of the Makivik Corporation, which represents the Inuit of Nunavik. At the time, she had spearheaded a project to build Nunavik's first hockey arena in her home village of Inukjuak, on Hudson Bay. When it was built and ready to be inaugurated, she wanted to invite a famous hockey player.

"And there was no one more famous than Guy Lafleur," said Grey, now the executive director of the Nunavik Regional Board for Health and Social Services.

In 14 seasons with the Canadiens, Lafleur won five Stanley Cups, multiple individual trophies and was the leading goal scorer in the history of the club.

In 1988, though, he was officially retired, although months later he would lace up again with the New York Rangers. When Makivik called, he readily accepted the invitation. 

That April, Lafleur and his son, Martin, flew 1,472 kilometres from Montreal to Inukjuak for the dual inauguration of the community's new Tikittavik Airport and the Sikulik Arena.

Emanuel Lowi, now a professor of First Peoples Studies at Concordia University, was a young reporter covering Lafleur's visit for the Makivik News at the time with his colleague, Charlie Patsauq.

Lowi remembers hundreds of people from Inukjuak and other communities waiting under the spring sun as the airplane landed.

"As they were coming down the stairs, there were these crowds yelling: 'Guy! Guy! Guy!'" he said. "It was thunderous!" 

Officials had to whisk Lafleur and his son away so the visiting dignitaries, including the local MP,  wouldn't be completely ignored by the crowd. 

Lowi describes Inukjuak as a tiny village at the time, with a population of about 800. The only visitors were government officials and construction workers. 

"No one of that stature had ever visited the north. And no one has since," says Lowi. "Nelson Mandela stopped over once in Iqaluit, in Nunavut. But in 1988, in Inukjuak, Guy Lafleur was bigger than Mandela."

At the end of his first day in the community, after the official business was over, Lafleur was the guest of honour at a community feast. Grey remembers people from the community laying out food they'd prepared — caribou stew, fish, ptarmigan and more.