Crackdown on curfew eyed following criminal activity
Fort Simpson bylaw on the books hasn't been enforced
April Hudson
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 11, 2016
LIIDLII KUE/FORT SIMPSON
A curfew for children and youth may be re-enforced in Fort Simpson, if councillors decide it is the best way to combat a spate of youth crime in the community.
Around the back of the convenience store, another window was found smashed in the aftermath of an Aug. 1 break-in. - photo courtesy of RCMP
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The bylaw, requiring youth under the age of 16 to stay off the streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m., is already on the books and has been since Aug. 16, 2004, although it has not been enforced in recent years.
The bylaw stipulates a warning to parents or legal guardians for a first offence, followed by fines of $100, $200 and $300 for subsequent offences.
Discussion at the council level comes after three youth were arrested by Fort Simpson RCMP on Aug. 2 for two break-ins the day before.
Unity Convenience Store and Seven Spruce Golf Course - a popular target for thieves - were both broken into.
RCMP said the thieves stole an undetermined amount of cash and cigarettes from Unity, as well as liquor, food and golf cart keys from the golf course.
According to an RCMP news release, three suspects were captured on video surveillance.
Surveillance of Unity at the time of the break-in was widely circulated on social media.
Despite the fact the youth caught in the video were wearing gloves and were masked, RCMP arrested and charged suspects the following day.
"All have been released and are set to appear in court on Nov. 2, 2016, in Fort Simpson Territorial court," states the news release from RCMP regarding the incident.
On Aug. 2, Mayor Darlene Sibbeston suggested councillors contact Jackie Thompson, the organizer of Sober Sally/Sober Steve, an initiative for youth that usually runs into the late evening. Thompson has been personally running the youth nights, which sometimes include evening swims and often include games.
"I'm wondering if we can at least start something, using the recreation centre - if the village could sponsor a movie night for kids," she said.
"It doesn't have to be a movie - it could be something else, like a softball game or video games . It (should be) later in the evening."
Coun. Mike Rowe said when he was a youth, the recreation centre was often open until 11 p.m. on Friday evenings, allowing him and his fellow adolescents to play sports well into the evening.
"It was great when we were kids," he said.
But other councillors were skeptical evening events would help to solve the problem. Coun. Bob Hanna pointed out many of the break-ins occur in the early hours of the morning, around 4 a.m.
"The criminal element is there after dark . I'm saying, you've got a few bad apples in every basket," Hanna said.
"This 4 a.m. stuff is going to exist no matter what you do. It'll never change.
Coun. Muaz Hassan is the man responsible for running the Unity Convenience Store.
After the Aug. 2 council meeting, Hassan told Deh Cho Drum he wants to see the village throw its support behind some of the organizations that already exist in the community.
Months ago, Hassan was one councillor who spoke against charging rent to groups such as the Open Doors Society, which is devoted to offering programming for children and youth.
The rent charged by the village represents a significant portion of an organization's budget, he said, which could better be spent on developing activities for youth.
Rowe suggested the village work with RCMP to enforce its curfew bylaw.
"That will at least put some blame on the parents, and maybe if they get fined enough money they will start not letting their kids out. If their kids aren't out, they won't be breaking into stuff," Rowe said.
"I understand it's not all kids that are the problem . but this is something we can do."
Aside from a curfew, Rowe said he also wants to take a look at the possibility of excluding troublemakers from the community altogether.
"I'm kind of just gathering information at this point . In past times, people have been excluded from the communities or reserves if they're proven to have malicious intent," he said.
"That's definitely something we should take a long look at. Because if you get a couple bad apples in the batch, you throw those out and you've got a pretty good batch."
