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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A city council candidate's platform to send convicts released from the North Slave Correctional Centre to their home communities illustrates the need for society to be more sensitive for its troubled citizens, according to the John Howard Society.

Lydia Bardak, executive director of the John Howard Society, said council candidate Beaton MacKenzie's platform on transporting released convicts to their home community brings an important conversation to the forefront. - Katherine Hudson/NNSL photo

Executive director Lydia Bardak said council candidate Beaton MacKenzie's platform might be founded in safety concerns, however this is not an ex-offender issue, but a situation where society needs to be more sensitive and find more effective solutions for those suffering from mental illnesses and addictions.

Currently, under the NWT Corrections Act, the warden provides transportation for inmates to where they were convicted, and the director of corrections with the Department of Justice must approve applications from inmates if they seek to go somewhere else.

In 2011, according to the warden of Yellowknife's correctional centre, about one per cent – or less than five – of releases from the centre were offenders from other communities requesting to stay in Yellowknife.

Bardak, who has been working in the disability field for about 30 years, said people on the streets of the city – some of whom are homeless – are where they are for a multitude of reasons: being child victims of molestation or violence, falling victim to substance abuse, suffering from untreated mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia.

People are attracted to Yellowknife because it is much bigger than the territory's other communities and offers opportunities for medical help, counselling or treatment, jobs, or to pursue a relationship, said Bardak. The support systems of family and community are no longer close at hand in the city.

"They may not have the best of behaviours. They may have lost the support of their family because with the mental illnesses that are out there, the family might just be worn out and unable to manage looking after somebody," said Bardak. "Or somebody may have caused harm and not be welcome back home or not feel welcome back home. We need some really meaningful reintegration programs if we're to overcome that."

Bardak said through working at the John Howard Society, she has met many people who have had conflict with the law because of the mandate of the society: to support and assist individuals to find the help they need.

"With the absence of mental health institutions, all of those folks out there with mental illness, their matters keep balling up and balling up until they end up at the courthouse. The police cannot refuse a call. They must respond. There's no one else you can call when someone is having a psychotic break or having some kind of issues with severe depression – but those are not criminal matters, those are mental health matters," said Bardak.

She said through MacKenzie's election platform comes a conversation that is sorely needed. It's not the police alone who can ensure the streets are safe, or the politicians who can solve this; everyone needs to come together to understand what the issues really are, said Bardak.

"When it's a lack of housing, well then let's address that. If it's a lack of supported housing, let's address that. If it's a lack of training opportunities and job opportunities, we have to identify what's the real problem because when we don't know it, then we can't find the right solution.

"We have to be aware that people do come from a lot of different places and we do have freedom of mobility in this country."

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