Assessment: This story rings false for at least three reasons. (1) First and foremost, the same account² is also told of an Innu family at the mouth of the Moisie River (Québec). The sole differences are that the victims were traveling aboard a canoe (instead of a kayak), and the assailant at Moisie is a white shark. In both cases, the father sacrifices his youngest child without any apparent hesitation, which may be a reflection of a prejudiced and fictitious view of the indigenous peoples of Canada that is characteristic of the writings of many European explorers of the time. (2) The only shark likely to attack a kayak in the Arctic Ocean, and the only shark known to inhabit Nunavut is the Greenland shark, which is not known to attack moving targets at the surface. (3) A Greenland shark would be physically impeded from attacking a shallow draft kayak unless it were swimming upside down and biting from underneath. It is thus our determination that both reported incidents (Moisie and Nunavut) are almost certainly fabricated folk tales or distorted versions of other stories.

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References:
¹ Van Grevelynghe G., Diringer A. et Séret B. (1999). Tous les requins du monde. Collection Les encyclopédies du naturaliste, Delachaux et Niestlé, Lausanne (Suisse). 336 p.
² Ballantyne, R. M. (1848). Hudson’s Bay, or Every-Day Life in the Wilds of North America. William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London. 353 p.