Daniel MacIsaac
Northern News Services

Inuvik (Apr 28/00) - The question of community service dominated discussions at the first-ever Inuvik Justice Committee evaluation meeting.

The focus of meeting was to gather feedback on the committee's performance and allow the public to offer suggestions for improvement.

While the vast majority of the 22 people who attended last Wednesday's meeting at the Centennial Library represented various organizations linked to justice, several private citizens also turned out.

Originally set up in May 1992, the committee became a society in December 1996, and has been hailed as among the most progressive of the 19 justice committees around the territory.

"The purpose has been not to determine guilt but to find solutions," said co-ordinator John Nash, who opened the meeting. "The focus is to heal damaged relations and to restore healing."

Duties of the committee include operating an alternative-measures "diversion" program for individuals guilty of relatively minor crimes.

From Aug. 23 to the end of last month, 24 offenders (14 adult and 10 youth) were diverted to the committee and ordered to perform a variety of activities: apologize to the victim, write papers on alcohol, drug abuse, violence and on their own futures, pay restitution, receive counselling, stay in school, adhere to a curfew, design posters, and avoid contact with co-offenders, said Nash.

The committee also assigns its own community service hours for diversion cases or administers hours assigned by the courts for convicted offenders. But enforcing that service, particularly court-ordered time, has proved difficult, he added.

"My opinion is that many don't have enough responsibility to complete them, many just don't show up and, in the cases of youths, the parents aren't always co-operative," he said. "So I'm looking at what we can do as a community to help solve that problem."

Many people at the meeting, including territorial probation officer Tracy MacPherson, said court-assigned sentences -- up to 240 hours of community service -- can prove daunting to offenders, who feel they many never complete them and see little use in trying.

"The concern is when they don't show up it's a breech of court and they may have to spend a couple months in custody," said MacPherson. "But when they get out on probation those hours are still there; they don't go away."

Justice committee chair Alana Mero said that in the cases of some youth, administering community hours has meant bringing in their family to explain the situation.

"In one case we had to have the family back three times to explain what had to be done," she said. "Kids can create barriers between themselves and their parents."

Mero said another difficulty has been how those service hours are performed. While she said there is no shortage of non-profit groups in Inuvik willing to accommodate the committee, many offenders don't want to be seen performing their service.

"There's a fine line between embarrassment and accountability," she said. "My feeling is that many of them have gone through a lifetime of humiliation and don't want any more."

Solutions to these problems -- which involved board members like Charles Hunter, RCMP Cpl. Brian Pinder, legal aid lawyers Andrew Fox and John MacFarlane -- were discussed and included the incentive of consulting with the courts and cutting service hours based on performance, more involvement from the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit leadership, more involvement from elders and even a mentoring program.

"As a defence lawyer I see kids in trouble that don't have a lot of support at home," said MacFarlane. "Maybe if there's a mentor to put in time with them it would again make it seem more like a community issue than a court-imposed penalty. And we'll see a turnaround."

While suggestions will be investigated, there was a feeling progress had been made.

Shirley Kemeys Jones, director of community justice with the Department of Justice in Yellowknife, said she liked what she saw.

"This is undoubtedly one of the most organized of the justice committees in the territory and one of the most progressive in its approach to involving the community," she said.