Features

Communities around the NWT have, or are considering, a youth curfew to reduce the cases of arson and vandalism that have caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages and crippled education in Tulita.

It is easy to understand why municipal leaders would resort to such action. They conclude if kids stay home at night, crime will no longer be an issue on their streets. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

A lack of supervision and recreational opportunities for young people creates an environment for rebellion. However, with so few healthy and constructive options for youth to spend their time, does it make sense to lock them up at home? Have you ever seen a bear in a cage? Cages don't exactly make bears more tame.

We agree that for the most part, youth should be home late at night. But not all young people are out after what would be considered a decent hour to cause trouble.

Joanna Lehrer, director of the Inuvik Youth centre, said curfews, which are designed to protect the community from youth, fail to protect the young people from adults. Lehrer said sometimes youth need a safe place to go away from home. That could mean taking a late night walk to escape parents fighting. Without that outlet youth could themselves stuck in an emotionally or even physically violent situation.

She suggests that curfews should be accompanied by a safehouse program for youth.

We say a curfew should be only brought in with productive alternatives to walking the streets.

After-school programs, youth centre events, hobby groups and other activities geared towards youth could provide an outlet to vent the boredom and frustration that leads to criminal behaviour. Most communities do a commendable job providing sports programs to local youth, but not everyone is athletically-inclined. We shouldn't neglect extracurricular activities aimed at the arts or academics.

Schools and other groups should also find ways of getting youth involved in initiatives that benefit the community. Clean-up efforts, habitat for humanity projects or other volunteer initiatives that are designed to create a sense of ownership and inspire a sense of pride in their hometown.

Curfews are merely a band-aid solution that do nothing to treat the infected wound beneath, which requires direct treatment if it is to ever heal.

Maybe it's time for leaders to sit down with the youth of their communities and ask them what they believe is needed to help them lead more exciting and productive lives. We need to stop imposing punishments and laws upon young people when adults continue to fail to provide them with guidance and choices they need to be productive and healthy.

As you can read in this week's edition of News/North, seven women are the first graduates from the new mental health diploma program through Nunavut Arctic College.

This is the good news.

The bad news is that nearly half of the territory's mental health positions are vacant.

In a territory with a suicide rate that often stands at 10 times the national average, this is not just bad news, it's terribly unnerving.

Our territory has a poorly-kept dark "secret," one that many people know, but few willingly share. Dozens of Nunavummiut end their lives by their own hand every year.

Communities can go several months without a suicide, but it's rarely acknowledged, let alone celebrated.

Instead, people speak of the situation in hushed tones, as if not to jinx their good fortune. It's as if we're collectively holding our breath.

There is obviously, at times, a sense of desperation. Some of it is brought on by alcohol; some of it is rooted in the profound disruption of culture and language through the residential school experience.

And yet courageous acts by determined youth give us cause for hope -- youth like Kugluktuk's Shawn Kuliktana, Mahik Havioyak and Sherry Kadlun, as well as Arviat's Charlene Ukutak.

Kadlun, Havioyak and Kulik, members of the renowned Kugluktuk Grizzlies sports organization, recently spoke at a suicide conference, outlining how sports can literally be life and death. For some youth, the social aspects of sport as well as the structure and discipline involved, are one more reason to live, perhaps tipping the balance towards

In Arviat, Ukutak has been hosting teen dances to give her peers something to do rather than stay home bored or wander the streets. She says dancing is her "weapon to depression."

Sports and dance are not trivial, they are, among other things, outlets for youth who come from troubled homes.

These activities provide positive feedback for teens who are struggling to cope with the loss of friends or family to suicide.

As well, the Embrace Life Council has been formed to create anti-suicide approaches. The energy of youth and the wisdom of elders should be enlisted in our endeavour to save lives.

Yet, without question, we still require the help of additional mental health workers and counsellors. Nunavummiut are relying on the government to follow through on the Nunavut Addictions and Mental Health Strategy.

Essentially, we need every tool at our disposal in this long fight against a tormenting menace.

The NWT Housing Corporation should be commended for taking action recently in Fort Liard.

After years of complaints, back and forth bureaucratic wrangling and even a (months-old) official order requiring action, the corporation sent some workers to spend an afternoon patching a leaking sewage tank in one of their residents' basements.

Working with and managing housing in the North is and likely always will be a challenge, and those who take it on should be congratulated for taking on the task as much as they're criticized.

The need is high, building conditions are difficult and materials and manpower are expensive, assuming they're available in the first place.

But it shouldn't take three years, two housing ministers, two newspaper articles and an (admittedly) angry editorial to put a Bondo patch on a fibreglass tank in a basement in Fort Liard.

When soffits bend, spouts fall off and paint peels, it's not the end of the world. It's understandable how these things can drift away in what is likely an ocean of concerns, worries and complaints.

But a sewage leak is one of those "quality of life" concerns that's hard to ignore, particularly when this sewage is rotting floorboards in a basement.

Where is this delay coming from?

There's no doubt that the resident in this case, Jack Yeadon, is what some might call a "squeaky wheel," someone willing to make noise about his problems, who makes phone calls, writes letters and brings the newspaper into the mess when all else fails.

But is this why he has been all but stonewalled in his desire to have his housing problems addressed? Because he bugs the people in power?

It shouldn't take a rental office order to fix a sewage tank that seeps sewage onto the floor. Or to replace torn soffits. Or re-attach drain spouts.

Not everyone is willing to go public with their social housing problems in the North. One has to wonder why that is.

A few calls and local criticisms have taken stabs at Deh Cho Drum's coverage of housing problems in recent weeks, perhaps with good cause.

Often, it is easier to find the "bad news" stories in the North, rather than show the public all the good that goes on every day - the hard-working people who keep houses livable, keep the power on and keep the water running under difficult conditions.

There are always people behind the scenes who keep the cogs turning, and they should be thanked at every opportunity.

But these criticisms also portray a complacency with living conditions in the NWT; the old adage of "that's life in the North."

With unprecedented levels of public interest, outside money and political concern flowing into the NWT, "life in the North" is becoming a tired excuse for the state of things.

Inuvik is in the middle of a perfect storm of development.

Geographically speaking, we are sitting on valuable ground. Our economy is strong. Our aboriginal groups are gaining strength as well through joint partnerships and business mergers.

The Inuvialuit and Gwich'in peoples are becoming involved in the responsibilities of regulating our land and resources such as caribou.

Our community has always been a hub for territorial government activity in the delta, but we haven't had opportunities like this before.

Our own Floyd Roland is now premier of the Northwest Territories.

When the fat cats on Parliament Hill look North, it will be his face they see, his voice they hear.

We did well by choosing our MLAs, who in turn chose Roland to steer the ship.

On the far side of our legislative assembly is our other voice in the house, Robert McLeod. He's a good speaker and we should support him and Roland.

With such strong representation in our government, we should have the loudest voice.

Our strong voices extend beyond the confines of Inuvik and across Husky Lakes. I'm talking about our Northern neighbour, Tuktoyaktuk.

With their newly-elected MLA Jackie Jacobson already ruffling feathers in Yellowknife, we're sure to see a wealth of development in the future. I know David Krutko has the support of his people in his riding, so why not band together and make something of this next session?

I'm talking about getting an all-season access road built from here to the Beaufort Sea. At least give Tuk the much-needed access to their gravel site. We can work from there.

For whatever reason, back in the 1950s, the federal and territorial governments thought this region would be a good place to set up shop.

We had access to the waterways, we were close enough to the shores of the sea and we could be accessed by road as well.

For the last 30 years, nothing much has changed.

We have our highway that leads to the Yukon. We also have airport services.

But what I want is progression. We shouldn't have to wait another few decades for another route to the south.

Why can't we get a fair share of the transportation pie that Yellowknife is getting so fat from?

I know that our community leaders have been doing a lot and it shows. The community corporations work hard to keep things in control at ground level.

Now, Inuvik and the surrounding communities have a loud, clear voice in the legislative assembly.

There is no excuse for failure or delays.

The media outlets are all booming with talk about consensus government and our political system.

Roland says he supports the current system and wants to work within it for our benefit.

As a community, we need to hold him to his mandate and keep pushing for more.

The front-page news of a Rankin Inlet youth winning a Harry Potter contest was not warmly received by everyone in the Kivalliq region.

Let me say two things right up front.

First, thank you to the handful of people who took the time to let me know they did not appreciate me corrupting the region's youth by glorifying witchcraft and magic in such a manner.

The right to express your opinion is always welcome, no matter how off the wall I, personally, may feel that opinion is.

Second, let me also confess I am one of the biggest adult Harry Potter fans on the planet, having read every book (twice) and viewed every movie (can't put a number on that one) to date except the latest release.

I must also confess to being just a tiny bit jealous of the teenager's good fortune in getting to meet Potter author, J. K. Rowling (there, I said it).

Yes, even soon-to-be 50 (as in years of age) newspaper editors can have heroes and role models.

But I digress.

The only things evil about the Potter books are Lord Voldemort and his not-so-merry band of Death Eaters.

In fact, when all is said and done, the main message derived from the series is that no matter how tough the going may get, if your faith does not waiver and you continue to believe in yourself, good will always triumph over evil.

That's not exactly the type of message the modern Mephistopheles (the name itself derived from folklore) goes around delivering.

One could also point to Rowling's use of temptation in the Potter series and the misfortune that befalls those who succumb to the allure to the dark arts, a time-honoured trait among writers to further amplify the message of good triumphing over evil.

Deeper still are the limitations she placed upon the ability of the magic users.

Despite the grand feasts and wondrous aids they employed while utilizing their culinary skills, they could simply transport food. They could not create it.

For those who want to see the devil at work, real or imagined, the use of magic in itself is reason enough for a kerfuffle.

To them, Rowling's admission that Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore was, in fact, homosexual, is further proof of Satan's influence on the Potter series.

To the vast majority of people, however, Harry Potter is simply an amazing piece of modern fiction writing. No more. No less.

The seven volumes of the Potter series turned literally tens of millions of children into avid book readers.

Potter took them away from the video games, and the modern expectation of instant gratification, and reintroduced them to the power of their imaginations.

They were shown no matter where one may find themselves in the social or cultural order - underneath we're all very much the same, coping with our problems as we search for acceptance and the answers to many of the same questions.

Rowling showed them the strength that can come from love, friendship, loyalty, education and the courage to stand up for one's beliefs.

That, not wands and broomsticks, is the true magic of Harry Potter.

In the Monday, Oct. 29 article in News/North titled 'Arctic highlighted in throne speech', Arctic MP Dennis Bevington was taken out of context. His quote "That's something this government could do today and have immediate` results" was in regards to the Northern Tax Deduction.

Also in Antoine Mountain's page 4 column, Harold Glick should have been referenced, not Sam Glick.

The paper apologizes for any confusion this may have caused.