A police search ensued and the two men were found in a vacant house, suspended from a curtain rod in a bedroom closet. They hanged themselves to death.

Earlier this spring a Rankin Inlet man was to appear in court to answer to charges of sexual assault on a young girl.

Police went looking for Willie Makayak and found him parked outside of town in his vehicle. He had suffered a fatal self-inflicted gunshot to his face.

For many, these sorts of deaths occur too often in the North.

If you ask Rankin Inlet's Cathy Towtongie why these deaths are taking place she'll say it's because people who break the law fear the repercussions of being dragged through the courts and later tossed in jail.

Towtongie, a strong supporter of community justice in the Keewatin said for people living in fear of the justice system, there's somewhere else they can turn, to their community justice committee who are always ready to offer guidance, understanding and possibly clear solutions to their problems.

"Community justice occurs when there's an offence and both the victim and the offender are there and the offender and his supporters talk about the offence. The offender takes responsibility for his or her actions while the victim is there talking about the emotional impact it had on them. The elders are there to give advice," said Towtongie.

"It's more effective because the community knows them, they know each other and everybody that has anything to say is there."

Community justice is not for everyone. It's usually for people charged with petty crimes, first offenders and some spousal assault offenders. If there is extreme violence surrounding an offence, the community justice committee, made up of elders, youths and other members of the community, will turn down the case.

Everything is at the request of the parties involved.

Community justice is distinctly different from criminal justice system.

Towtongie said community justice is more of a holistic approach to helping offenders. Canada's Criminal Code, on the other hand, is very specific in that it punishes offenders for a certain crime taking place at one moment in time.

"The criminal code is a flawed document that it deals with an offence and the criminal act at one time. With community justice you look at the overall picture, the situation and the circumstances. You don't just get one person acting at one time. In our culture we don't have a word for time. Time is not something you put into a box and say here," she said.

Different communities have different ways of promoting community justice.

In Rankin Inlet, Elder Mariano Aupilardjuk is building a sod house to offer parental counselling, spiritual healing, talks on the importance of traditional values and customs and he's also promoting community health.

In Arviat, residents are working on building an outpost camp where elders can take young people out on the land to teach them values and traditional beliefs. Coral Harbour's community wellness committee offers traditional land skill programs and they host regular healing circles.

"It doesn't help the community when they just remove the individual and after a few months and put him back in the community. Sometimes those individuals have learned crime in jail and when they get back in the community they fall back into crime again," Towtongie said.

For those who think that community justice is lenient on offenders, Towtongie would beg to differ.

"I've seen harsher, stronger words spoken by elders than judges. I've seen grown men cry and break down," she said.