Andrew Raven
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 16/05) - In the wake of a drive-by-shooting in downtown Yellowknife, Justice Minister Brendan Bell is welcoming a federal plan to raise sentences for gun-related crimes.

"We have got to denounce these kind of things," Bell said after meeting with provincial and territorial justice ministers in Whitehorse last week.

Prime Minister Paul Martin announced his government would bring forward stiffer penalties for firearms offences - like smuggling - and focus on getting handguns off the streets.

The plan follows a bloody year on Toronto streets where more than 40 people were shot dead. While gun-related crimes are not common in the Northwest Territories, an apparent drive-by shooting last week in Yellowknife has shocked the capital.

Police charged a 19-year-old Alberta man with two counts of attempted murder after shots were fired Sunday from an SUV driving on 50th Street. Investigators said the shooting - believed to be the first of its kind in Yellowknife - was drug-related.

"It is always a shock when something like that happens in a smaller community," Bell said.

Following their meeting, the justice ministers urged Ottawa to get tougher on lower-level gun crimes - especially smuggling - in an effort to prevent future shootings.

"We want to target smuggling before it results in a murder," Bell said.

While police statistics on all gun-related crime in Yellowknife were not immediately available, one person has been shot to death during the last three years. (That number does not include suicides.)

The justice ministers also discussed placing restrictions on the chemicals used to create crystal meth. The drug, which has become popular in southern Canada and appears to be creeping toward Yellowknife, can be mass-produced using common household ingredients.

"We would be naive to think it would not come here," Bell said. "If we do not act soon... we could be in big trouble."

There is no timetable on when the restrictions would be in place, but Bell said the provinces and territories were working closely with Ottawa to have a plan in place as soon as possible. Long-term financing for legal aid and the over-representation of aboriginals behind bars were two other issues addressed by the justice ministers, Bell said.