SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A government fund designed to help victims of violence and ensure convicted offenders take responsibility for their behaviour is once again helping a Yellowknife organization promote awareness of family violence in the North.

Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director of the Status of Women Council of the NWT, says the $11,300 the council received in funding will contribute towards costs for this year's Family Violence Awareness Week. - Terrence McEachern/NNSL photo

"It's very important that the money is used so the general public understands the issues victims face after a crime is committed, and we would not have the opportunity to do that if we did not have additional resources," said Lorraine Phaneuf, executive director of the Status of Women Council of the NWT, one of two recipients of funding from this year's Victims Assistance Fund.

The council was awarded $11,300 to help with its family violence public awareness and education campaign as well as contribute towards the costs of the media campaign promoting this year's Family Violence Awareness Week. The money will also be used to create a public awareness kit about family violence that is mailed out to communities in the NWT as well as to help with the council's small grants program to assist communities in local awareness and prevention work.

“It's a special purpose fund with revenue from territorial victims surcharges as well as federal victims surcharges, and those funds are used to support community-based projects and programs that support victims of crime,” explained Dawn McInnes, manager of victims services for the GNWT.

Revenue for the fund, established on April 1, 1989, with the enactment of the NWT Victims of Crime Act, is collected annually through a victims surcharge of 15 per cent imposed on each fine for a territorial offence, or, in cases where no fine is issued, then a $25 victims fine. With respect to Federal offences involving the Criminal Code of Canada and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, the surcharge is still 15 per cent of any fine imposed. If no fine is imposed, the judge can issue a $50 victim surcharge for each summary offence or $100 for each indictable offence.

Clearly these small fines and surcharges add up. Since 2002, the courts have collected $735,580.07 and funded 65 programs or projects in the North. Over this time, the Status of Women Council of the NWT have received $56,200 from the fund.

The judge may waive the fine at the request of defence counsel if the surcharge is believed to cause undue financial hardship on the offender. Also, unlike regular court ordered fines, the victim surcharge must be paid in full and cannot be worked off in a fine option program.

Victims themselves are not compensated directly from the fund. Rather, the amount collected is used to provide financial support to community based projects and programs that support victims of crime through training, direct services, increase public awareness and sometimes through research, said McInnes.

Funding applications are reviewed, assessed and recommended each year by a three-person Victims Assistance Committee, appointed by the GNWT minister of justice for a three-year term. Currently sitting on the committee are Bridget Larocque of Inuvik, Alexandra Smith of Hay River and Florence Barnaby, an elder residing in Fort Good Hope.

The final decisions for fund disbursements are made by the minister, with the results, including the amount collected and available for funding as well as the amount distributed to each successful applicant, published in an annual report.

The report is first tabled by the minister in the legislature for discussion, and then published on the GNWT Department of Justice's website for public viewing.

For the last fiscal year of April 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011, territorial and Federal victims surcharges collected amounted to $103,128.60. With a balance of $138,324 carried over from the previous year, that left $241,452.63 for funding proposals. Besides the Status of Women Council of the NWT, the other recipient this year was the Native Women's Association of the NWT receiving $86,912.

McInnes said having offenders pay a victim of crime surcharge is another way for them to be accountable to the victim for their criminal behaviour. From the victim's point of view, the surcharge as another form of validation. “It validates their experience, it validates their needs for service. And, I think it's also another validation for victims that they're not at fault for what's happened to them. So, philosophically, I think it's good for both the victim and the offender.”

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