This week communities in the Deh Cho are working to create awareness to combat family violence. A number of events are planned in Fort Providence and Fort Simpson, including a Take Back the Night walk, a barbecue and a movie night, among other activities.

Events such as these are important but violence isn't a topic that should only be talked about one week a year. Discussions about violence should be ongoing.

Violence continues to be an issue across Canada. According to Statistics Canada, six per cent of Canadians reported being physically or sexually victimized by their spouse between 2004 and 2008. Also, between 2000 and 2009 there were 738 spousal homicides and 326 homicides committed by a family member against a child aged 0 to 17. Finally, during the same time frame there were 160 family-related homicides against seniors.

Residents in the Northwest Territories aren't immune to the issue and in fact it is a huge problem. In Statistic Canada's 2006 Measuring Against Women Statistical Trends it was reported that 12 per cent of adults in the territory have experienced spousal abuse, compared with seven per cent in other areas.

Meanwhile, in Fort Simpson, the RCMP laid 19 charges in relation to spousal abuse in the village during 2010.

The statistics paint a grim picture but this doesn't have to be the case. Communities can band together to fight family violence and individuals can choose to make a change to better their life and the lives of those around them. As children we are taught to use our words, not our fists, so why is it OK to use violence to solve our problems when we are older?

Residents who find themselves turning to violence should seek help. It may be frightening to admit your wrongs but be courageous.

On the other hand, if you're on the receiving end there are services available through Dehcho Health and Social Services, and the RCMP are always a phone call away.

No one deserves to be kicked, punched, slapped or hurt in any way – this includes emotional and psychological abuse. We all deserve respect and we should all demand respect from each other. Don't be afraid to reach out for a helping hand from a friend, parent, sibling, whoever. Have the courage to make a change for the better. You deserve it.

There are only so many hours in a day. Well, to be more exact, there are 24.

What do we do with that time? Obviously there are the basic necessities that take up time, like sleeping and eating. But where does all that extra time go? The time when you're not at work, school or running errands?

For a lot of people in this community it's spent volunteering for different causes. It can be coaching sports teams, helping with a course, walking dogs, organizing events and generally just making sure there's something for everyone.

It's nice to have those options. There's are so many activities in Inuvik that even with 30 hours in a day there wouldn't be time to try everything.

Inuvik is a giving community. It's evident in the number of organizations that are funded purely by donations and grants.

There's a lot of doom and gloom in the news about the uncertainty of energy prices. But even with the amount of bad news, this community doesn't pull back. If anything, it pours even more time and effort into continuing the same level of services and volunteer commitment to the various causes around town.

But it can be frustrating at times. For example, volunteers struggled to keep the food bank running, only to have it destroyed by vandals.

And now, residents are taking up the fight to further preserve the community as a safe, beautiful place to live and build a family.

A new volunteer group has started, Inuvik Citizens on Patrol, or ICOPS. The first meeting was filled with faces from all areas of Inuvik. These are people who are fed up with increasing vandalism and theft and want to do their best to protect their community, while working within the law.

It's one more organization that needs volunteer time from individuals. But it didn't stop anyone from signing up.

The new group is not about vigilante justice. The volunteers can't leave their vehicles or apprehend people. They're meant to be a support for the RCMP who can't possibly be everywhere at once.

They're also, intentionally or not, a support for the other volunteer groups in town.

By patrolling neighbourhoods and reporting anything suspicious, they're working to protect what the community has worked so hard to build up.

We hope when you see council candidates trudging door to door asking people to vote for them, you think of the sacrifices our municipal politicians make to represent us.

Unlike the mayor's job, which is full-time and properly paid, councillors are not well paid - they receive about $20,000 a year for bi-monthly public meetings and many more committee meetings.

They get a taste of the workload during the election.

Last week Yellowknifer asked the council candidates about their campaigns. It's obviously a lot of work, if not a lot of money, with between $1,000 and $8,000 being spent by each candidate. That may not all come out of their pockets but, as many fundraising parents know, sometimes it's easier to pay the money yourself than wring it out of your neighbours. It's all work.

Then there are signs to make and stick in the ground, only to be battered back down by stiff fall breezes and anti-democracy vandals.

There are volunteers to gather and organize, and a lot of thinking about how to get the best results out of scarce resources, which is what we want them to do when they get elected.

Almost all of the hopefuls for council and the mayor's seat have also chosen to go door to door - always a nervy task that can pay off in direct feedback from moody voters.

Outgoing councillor Shelagh Montgomery makes the point: "Councillors are really the decision-makers at the city." That's because the mayor only votes if there is a tie among the eight councillors, which rarely happens.

If you want to know more about their platforms, visit their individual websites or go to nnsl.com/yellowknifer to see all of them in video interviews and recapping their stances on issues in writing.

Democracy is a serious business and it's all based on us having the good fortune to choose among 12 willing council candidates.

It's encouraging to see a move by our health system to improve how we deal with mental illness in the North.

Last week, Yellowknifer reported that Stanton Territorial Health Authority is teaming up with Dalhousie University to bring more expertise into the management and development of mental health services in the NWT.

They will have their work cut out for them. The territorial government laid out the critical problems in a report released this summer, entitled A Shared Path Towards Wellness: Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan.

Among all the positive messages and heartfelt calls to action, pages 13 and 14 lay out the "service gaps."

Topping the list is a need for a medical detoxification program.

This is the clinical term for drying out, getting off the booze, and it's required before people can enter the rehabilitation program at the Nats'ejee K'eh Treatment Centre in Hay River.

For hard evidence of the need for a detox centre in Yk, one can simply walk the streets downtown. The GNWT's figures put the number of people hospitalized for substance related disorders at just shy of 60 per cent of all mental illness admissions.

Clearly, not having a detox centre is going to undermine any attempts to improve the overall results.

Dr. Peter Croxall, assistant professor at the Dalhousie University department of psychiatry, told Yellowknifer housing conditions, social programs and mental health education are crucial to mental health treatment.

That's all true, but how can people takes the first steps down these paths when they are actively addicted and staggering in the streets?

There's no doubt we have a problem in the Kivalliq with youths involved in senseless destruction.

Vandalism is rising in a number of communities, and it's behaviour that frustrates many for numerous reasons.

In almost every case, it's destruction simply for destruction's sake.

There's no potential personal gain from smashing a bike, pulling a urinal from a wall, trashing an office, driving a Zamboni over exposed coolant pipes, or stealing any form of vehicle for the sole intent of destroying it.

Frustration grows accordingly when a group of disenfranchised youth destroy something that exists for the benefit of their peers.

Funding is getting increasingly hard to find for communities to have the 'privilege' of offering more constructive recreational activities for youths to enjoy.

Another frustrating aspect to wanton destruction is the fact it paints a distorted picture of our youth.

If people were to judge solely by media reports and information heard in the community on such behaviour, they'd think the majority of our youth are juvenile delinquents - and nothing could be further from the truth.

The vast majority of our youth are good honest kids who may make the odd bad judgement call, but how many of us didn't make the same mistake in our younger days?

The vast majority of the damage is being perpetrated by a small percentage of kids that make all our teens and pre-teens look bad.

There's no magic bullet to address this and no one youth-orientated program to cure all ills.

However, I hear time after time from people in communities able to host them about two programs that do seem to make a difference - first, the Junior Canadian Rangers, and second, the cadet program.

There's no doubt the Junior Rangers appeal to a number of youths on varying levels, not the least of which are land activities and learning to properly maintain and fire a weapon under supervision.

Ditto with cadets, plus the added attraction of being able to travel to various locations if you really apply yourself and start to excel at an activity.

But there's another reason the two programs have a positive influence on youths.

They are born of military tradition and built around personal discipline and organizational pride.

While the promise of personal gain certainly exists, equally important is the sense of accountability one develops towards their fellow Junior Rangers or cadets.

And, for the most part, instructors - civilian or otherwise - will only put up with so much bad behaviour before you're asked not to let the door hit you on the way out.

Being involved with team sports can build the same type of sensibilities, but, as we hear all the time, not every kid is interested in sports.

The Junior Rangers and the cadets offer an alternative to sports with many of the same benefits and, in most cases, an argument can made they're more culturally relevant.

Any way you look at it, they're the types of youth programs - when properly implemented and delivered - that hold the promise of making life in our communities better for everyone.

That may not be magic, but it's certainly progress.

The Arctic Winter Games International Committee's decision to award the 2016 games to Nuuk, Greenland, at the cost of five sporting events, one hockey division and more than 300 international athletes is a mistake wreaking of politics.

Prior to the 2006 Arctic Winter Games on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula, the international committee announced it was axing peewee hockey from the Games' lineup in an effort to make the event more manageable and less costly. At the time, committee members also said it was the beginning of an effort to pare down the Games.

However, since then, not a single division has been left out of a Games, save for alpine skiing and downhill snowboarding events that are omitted when the Games rotate to Yellowknife due to a conspicuous lack of mountains. There are also no plans to reduce the number of athletes for the Fairbanks, Alaska, Games in 2014.

Ironically, despite the reduction in the number of athletes, the Kenai Games - split among three communities - were the most expensive in the past decade at $7.1 million.

Between 1970 and 2002 the Arctic Winter Games were held exclusively in North America. Greenland has been a permanent member of the international committee since about 1994 and was wedged into the hosting rotation when it held the Games in co-operation with Iqaluit in 2002.

Following the creation of Nunavut in 1999 two things happened. One, the Games added a new contingent to the mix. More athletes in Nunavut, formerly competing against a greater number of athletes from what is now the NWT, were now advancing to the Games.

Second, it created difficulty in terms of the hosting rotation. Iqaluit, the largest Nunavut community, at the time did not have the capacity or the facilities to host a full games.

Combining the 2002 Games with Greenland was an excellent compromise. No sports were lost, no athletes were left behind and after adding 10 years worth of inflation the cost was roughly on par with the 2008 Games in Yellowknife.

So why is the Games budget reaching the $7-million mark?

Trying to determine what sports to cut is not the solution to reducing the cost of the Games as the past indicates. Saying split games will no longer be considered but allowing hockey to be hosted in a separate community - Iqaluit will be home to that sport while everything else is in Greenland in 2016 - is also contradictory.

The real question is what is the money being spent on? Is it focusing on creating the best Games experience possible for the athletes? Is too much money being earmarked for celebratory events, outside of the opening and closing ceremonies?

According to the Arctic Winter Games website, the focus of the Games is "to involve as many athletes as possible either in the Games themselves or in team trials and to provide a forum of competition for those other than elite athletes with competitive opportunities in the south."

The 2016 Games is failing to meet that mandate. As with any international committee member, Greenland does deserve the benefits of hosting the Games. But a region's economic gain should not trump the intent of the Games themselves. When the international committee realized Nuuk's bid would mean such a significant reduction in events, it should have found a solution. Since it was already willing to move hockey to Iqaluit, co-hosting the Games similar to what was done in 2002 seems reasonable.

Athletes across the North train hard for a chance to be involved in the AWG. It is a venue to showcase athletic talent and it's a launching pad to a higher level of competition.

Plans for the 2016 Games are an outrage and should be met with protest. It will do nothing but hurt the tradition and future of this longstanding and important event.

Nunavut is taking another big step to becoming a strong, resource-based economy with the green light the Nunavut Impact Review Board gave to Baffinland's iron ore project.

The rigourous regulatory process for the proposed Mary River mine, located 160 km south of Pond Inlet, will come to an end with a decision from Aboriginal and Northern Development Minister John Duncan. Approval is expected.

Baffinland is aiming to begin construction of the massive mine, with its port and 150 km of railway, next year. Construction could wrap up by 2016. It is likely Nunavummiut in nearby communities - especially the nearby point-of-hire communities of Arctic Bay, Clyde River, Hall Beach, Iglulik, Pond Inlet and Iqaluit - will start seeing businesses and municipal governments prepare for growth.

Over in Rankin Inlet, hoteliers are already expanding to serve the needs of Agnico-Eagle Mines Inc.'s Meliadine gold project, which hasn't yet jumped through all the regulatory hoops.

Rankin Inlet businesses are facing some of the biggest contracts they've seen, and that's just with construction of a road linking the community with the Meliadine site.

Similar growth is to be expected, especially in Iqaluit. With its movie theatre, swimming pool, choice of schools, services and shopping opportunities, it's likely that the non-Nunavummiut who decide to move north to work at the mine will congregate primarily in the capital. It's also possible, as noted in the review board's final report, that Nunavummiut from around the territory may choose Iqaluit as their home when they return from a work rotation.

The growth communities encounter will be a good thing in many ways: an expanded tax base for the municipalities and, in turn, services for residents will broaden and employment opportunities both directly and indirectly related to the mine will grow.

For Nunavummiut, jobs and training will be paramount. Training opportunities for residents may be transferable to other projects to come in the territory and others around Canada. It will open the door to a career for those who choose to work in mining.

It won't all be positive. Pressure for housing will likely increase and supply will surely struggle to keep up. More disposable income among a young population will lead to even more alcohol and substance abuse. Even with modern precautions, there are environmental risks from contaminants.

The mine is projected to be in operation for 21 years.

If commodity prices fall further, that could shorten. If they nosedive soon, the project might even get shelved. The resource industry is a fickle beast. It is, however, where Nunavut's greatest economic potential lies.

This project, if it happens, will spur growth and will help the governments and Inuit organizations fine-tune how they can take advantage of the industry in Nunavut.

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