Kerry McCluskey
Northern News Services

IQALUIT (Feb 15/99) - A group of children responsible for causing $8,000 damage to a public housing unit have been arrested.

According to Const. Craig Thur of the Iqaluit RCMP, several of the children that originally vandalized an Iqaluit Housing Authority residential unit returned to the same unit later in the week with the intention of causing more trouble.

"There wasn't really much left to vandalize though," said Thur, who had been working on the matter for the last two weeks.

During his investigation into the original complaint, he said he had learned that many of these children had been staying at the apartment for a period of time and were using drugs. He noted that when the group returned to the unit, it was likely that they had been drinking and they forced their way into the apartment.

"Another guy was staying there with the tenant and these kids came by and said let us in. He said no, that they couldn't come in and they knocked in the door and barged in. That's when he called us," said Thur.

He explained that because all seven of the children were over the age of 12, they were all charged with mischief under the Young Offender's Act.

Thur said it was unlikely however, that all of the cases would proceed to court.

"We haven't laid the informations at this time. So far, there are just notices to compel them to court."

While that date has been tentatively set for Feb. 22, Thur noted that Const. Lew Philip was looking into alternative forms of justice, including family group conferencing or the youth justice program.

"We'll have to talk to people and see because if there is no family support, family group conferencing won't do much good."