In the six years since he has been here, the courts have seen a decline in their caseloads in part because people, especially youth, are being diverted to community justice committees. Kilpatrick would like to see the committees -- and communities -- go even further to grapple with the North's problems, alcohol being first and foremost.

Much of the crime he prosecutes he characterizes as unsophisticated crimes, committed by people under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Kilpatrick thinks communities should play a greater role in solving their own problems.

"We have a terrible tragedy when instead of parents addressing problems in their children, they look to social workers and police and prosecutors instead," he said in an interview last week.

"We've lost our ability to solve problems and we look to the police and courts to solve simple problems like smashed windows and kicked-in doors."

The English legal tradition is based on punishment and revenge and prison rarely rehabilitates a criminal, he said. Unfortunately, as there are no local treatment centres for sex offenders, alcoholic youths or abusive spouses, the courts can only impose jail time.

The only other option, and it is used for less serious crimes such as damage to property, are the kind of community justice hearings that bring an offender together with his or her victims. There, a solution is worked out to repair the damage caused by the person and where the offender can apologize, something that rarely happens in the courts.

"(In community justice) an offender has to speak, it's his duty to speak. He does not have the right to remain silent. He has to be involved to solve the problem."

Kilpatrick draws comparisons with the traditional "shame feasts" of the Haida Indians, where the family of an offender has to hold a feast for the community at their own expense where both face up to the problems caused by their family.

"The problem is we have created a system of liberal social values based on rights. Gone is the sense of collective responsibility."

He cautions, though, that some community justice committees are already beginning to act like courts, and not the mediators that he says they should be.

"Unfortunately, some justice committees' way of resolving disputes tends to be more a form of court, often without consultation of victims...their role is not to impose sanctions but to work together for solutions."

He wants to see community justice enhanced to the point where everyone in the community plays a role in it, and said the difficulty is tapping into the local resources, rather than looking to the governments for expert help.

"There are things that friends and neighbors can do for an offender that no government agency can ever do."