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Better psychiatric care needed
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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A Dettah man waited an outrageous eight months in jail for a court-ordered psychiatric assessment.

It's just been within the past week - following 23 court appearances and three previous court attempts to get the man a bed at an Alberta health facility - that the accused was finally sent to Edmonton for a 30-day assessment.

At this point the Crown prosecutor on the case admits the man has been in jail longer than the Crown was seeking to have him serve.

Surely there must be better alternatives available for this man, and others like him, who are languishing in jail when they need services from a psychiatric hospital.

Inmates in the NWT who are sent for a psychiatric assessment must wait until a bed becomes available in an Alberta hospital. There are other provinces with appropriate facilities and medical professionals. The government should not view Alberta as the only option when justice and fairness is at stake.

Inmates could be sent to hospitals in Saskatchewan or British Columbia as well. With more hospitals to choose from it would cut down on wait times, which can clearly become excessive.

Another option would be for the GNWT to hire a psychiatrist on contract to come to the territory and give assessments on an as-needed basis.

Something needs to change. Leaving potentially innocent people with possible mental illness to spend lengthy stretches in jail is despicable. Having victims wonder if the person charged in crimes against them will ever come to trial isn't acceptable.

It's a problem that the territorial government must address.

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Power corp's crumbling reputation
Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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The NWT Power Corporation should have known it had major work to do when it purchased the Bluefish Hydro facility from Miramar Con Mine in 2003.

Built in 1942, the facility's timber dam, by the corporation's own admission, had a lifespan of 40 years. Earlier this month, 67 years after the construction of the dam, the power corp threatened the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board with court action unless it was given immediate permission to build a new dam without the usual regulatory scrutiny. That permission was granted.

Normally, any new construction in waterways around Yellowknife requires approval from the land and water board and may necessitate an environmental impact assessment. The approval process commonly takes at least a year to complete. Instead, the power corporation is riding roughshod over a legal process established by our government in its haste to have a new $17 million dam built.

The power corp should have known from the moment it purchased the facility in 2003 that the dam had to be replaced very soon. "Upgrades" carried out by the owners of Con Mine in 1973 and 1983, and a third carried out by the power corp in 2007 were clearly not enough to extend its life expectancy beyond 60 years.

The power corp obviously needs to improve its inspection process. Critical pieces of infrastructure can't be neglected to the point of crumbling.

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Ruling sparks more questions than answers
Editorial Comment
Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, October 28, 2009

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The decision to have the sentence of a Rankin Inlet youth challenged in the Nunavut Court of Appeal has sparked a flurry of debate in the youth's home community.

The youth, who cannot be named, was given 11 months after being convicted of committing 17 break and enters in Rankin over nine months.

The youth's lawyer, Scott Wheildon, wants to know if a young person should be punished for living in an impoverished remote community?

The reasoning behind that sentence was the lack of treatment or counselling to help the youth instead of jail time.

We would be remiss if we did not say there was no violence involved in any of the break-ins and the youth had no previous criminal history.

The Crown also supported the appeal.

We accept the no previous criminal history argument, but the no violence angle, quite conceivably, came about by pure luck.

Any cop can tell you the dangers of fight or flight, which grips criminals of any age when caught in the act.

Had the youth been confronted or stumbled upon by an elder during one of the crimes, this saga could have ended much worse.

Let's not forget people were hurt by these actions in a number of ways.

People lose their confidence and comfort when their private space, whether at work or home, is invaded.

They get angry when stolen from, or when things they've worked hard for are destroyed. And rightly so.

We won't discuss the belief of the majority of Canadians: that laws today are too soft on young offenders. They are what they are.

And we certainly aren't giving up on a person still in their teenage years, especially in a culture where granting a second chance is the rule and not the exception.

But does that mean we should also buy into the idea that failure to understand the difference between right and wrong should not be punished, whether there's an addiction involved or not?

When standing in front of a judge, many offenders, no matter what their age, come up with a reason or an excuse – real or fabricated – to explain their actions in hopes of leniency.

The decision, or, more to the point, the reasons behind the decision to grant an appeal, have people questioning the court's confidence in community justice programs and elder counselling.

Are we to understand from the impoverished community and lack of treatment remarks that the courts, and lawyers on both sides, look at such Northern initiatives as completely ineffective?

Is Iqaluit's young offender's facility really the only place in Nunavut where some of our troubled youth can get the help they need to turn their lives around? And, if so, why?

Is the public wrong to wonder why punishment for a crime seems to always be unacceptable in the face of counselling? Can the two not work together effectively?

In her ruling, Appeal Court Justice Constance Hunt said the case deals with broader issues relating to youth justice.

We certainly give full marks for that one, as the ruling seems to have provided far more questions than answers.

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Nothing but a sham
NWT News/North - Monday, October 26, 2009

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The conflict of interest inquiry into Premier Floyd Roland's affair with former committee clerk Patricia Russell was a travesty.

Even though his recommendation has yet to be made, it's safe to say adjudicator Ted Hughes failed the public and the assembly by not steadfastly pursuing the truth and ensuring total accountability.

After determining that Roland was in a conflict of interest, Gerald Gerrand, the conflict of interest commissioner called an inquiry to determine the severity of the premier's actions. Unfortunately Hughes did not gather enough information to accurately make that judgment.

Throughout the inquiry it appeared that Hughes and Glenn Tait, the adjudicator's lawyer, were more interested in a speedy conclusion than actually ensuring a just outcome.

Roland, Russell and their lawyer Kathy Peterson breezed through the proceedings. Too many statements made in support of the premier and his girlfriend's innocence went unchallenged.

First Peterson told the adjudicator of an unnamed MLA who her clients claimed was actually responsible for leaking committee information to the premier. The intent was to take Russell off the hook as the suspected informant, during the months when she and Roland were quietly involved in a secret affair.

Later, Roland and Russell brought forward information - which they described as precedent-setting - regarding a relationship between former premier Joe Handley's executive assistant and a former clerk of committees.

In both instances, neither Tait nor Hughes chose to challenge Roland or Russell on their statements. In fact, Hughes went so far as to state he was not interested in knowing who the mystery MLA informant was.

Obviously, he was also not interested in knowing whether Russell's and Roland's assertion that a previous relationship in the halls of the legislature was similar enough to be considered a precedent and would excuse their actions.

David Inch, the former committee clerk that Russell and Roland were referring to, wrote a letter disputing that his relationship with Handley's assistant was in any way similar to Roland's and Russell's affair. But Inch was ignored.

At no time was any effort made to ensure the accuracy of statements made by the premier or Russell.

Tait and Hughes took a kid gloves approach to the inquiry, comparable to a criminal lawyer accepting at face value that a witness had an alibi.

Opponents who called the inquiry a waste of time and money were right, but for the wrong reasons. Both Hughes and Tait wasted taxpayers dollars by failing to ask the hard questions and by not challenging the premier to actually prove he did not compromise the integrity of the legislative assembly.

Instead, they provided Roland and Russell a forum to freely assert their innocence and deflect blame.

Did Hughes and Tait make up their minds prior to the start of proceedings? Were they trying to save Roland and Russell the embarrassment of a thorough cross-examination?

Either way, the inquiry failed to shed any light on how severe Roland's breach of public trust was, begging the question: Why were public tax dollars wasted to simply reiterate what was already widely known?

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Giving birth at home
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 26, 2009

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Given Nunavut's birth rate - the highest in the country - opening birth centres close to home makes logistical and financial sense.

Many have questioned the practice of sending expectant mothers to hospitals outside their communities a few weeks before their due dates. They lodge with other outpatients in a strange city and give birth among strangers, sometimes without family present, and then fly home a few days later.

In addition, non-Inuit Nunavummiut are expected to find their own lodging and pay out of pocket for those weeks away from home for a hospital birth.

Giving birth is dangerous - often the most risky medical event in a woman's life - which is why pregnancy comes with a long list of precautions to minimize risks for the mother and child.

Midwives receive extensive training in pregnancy care, childbirth and post-natal care, and they can handle uncomplicated deliveries. They are also trained in identifying high risk pregnancies and deliveries and refer these to hospital care.

It's possible expectant mothers will get more continuous care and establish better rapport with a community-based team of midwives than they can bouncing from community health centre to flight nurse to big-city hospital to obstetrician-on-call.

Nunavut mothers need and deserve better maternal care. The territory has high rates of low birth weight babies and fetal alcohol syndrome. Many of its mothers are young and need medical staff who can spend more time with them, giving advice, guidance and reassurance.

If implemented properly, with enough staff and funding, midwife-staffed birthing centres may provide the best maternal care possible in Northern communities.

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Prospects look good
Nunavut News/North - Monday, October 26, 2009

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If there's one thing Nunavut has a lot of, it's rocks.

So learning to identify types of rocks and their mineral compositions is a handy skill to have for anyone who spends time on the land.

Fossils and meteorites are valuable for scientific research, and Nunavut is also rich in mineral resources.

Few of these resources have been explored, making it a prime area for prospecting.

The lure of prospecting is that a chance find could lead to a windfall of profit for the lucky man or woman who uncovers it.

Many outsiders come North to prospect for minerals and have no stake in the territory or its communities, other than as a source of labour.

Nunavummiut should take advantage of prospecting training because they know and respect the land and they have the greatest stake in our territory's future.

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Dial 911 for stupidity
Yellowknifer - Friday, October 23, 2009

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Frame Lake MLA Wendy Bisaro blames the territorial government's reluctance to adopt a 911 emergency phone service on its bias against Yellowknife.

Based on what was said in the legislative assembly last week by Municipal and Community Affairs Minister Robert McLeod, however, it would seem the bias extends much farther than our fair city.

In fact, it would seem to include any community in the territory that has more than a few homes and a school.

"We have to also ensure that this service or any basic service is available to a lot of remote communities we have out there," McLeod said Oct. 15.

We have to ask what the minister means by basic services because if the GNWT intends to play the great equalizer role it has a lot of catching up to do. It's been a couple years since the GNWT of Bureau of Statistics has updated its community infrastructure profiles, but we doubt the situation on the ground has changed a whole lot since then.

In 2003, only 20 NWT communities had so much as a nursing station, five didn't have recreational facilities, and 17 are without all-weather roads.

Despite these deficiencies, the NWT Association of Communities - representing 27 out of 33 NWT communities - were gracious enough to pass a resolution in 2007 calling on the territorial government to begin setting up 911, even if it had to be phased in to larger communities first, such as Yellowknife, Hay River, and Inuvik. The association has reaffirmed this resolution twice since then.

Not only that, but the former chief coroner of the NWT recommended 911 service after a life was lost in a snowmobile accident on Prosperous Lake in 2000. Almost 10 years has passed with no real progress. For shame.

Implementing 911 would cost $1 million to start up and $1.2 million annually to maintain. It can be done in the territory's seven largest communities, representing 77 per cent of the territory's population. That was the conclusion reached in a reported funded jointly by Yellowknife and the GNWT.

It seems like a small price to pay to ensure three-quarters of the territory's residents have an easy-to-remember number to call when their lives are in danger.

But for some unfathomable reason, the territorial government won't go there.

It might be tempting to label this as just another crass, political decision by MLAs to beat up Yellowknife while currying favour with folks back in their home ridings, but since both McLeod and Premier Floyd Roland are from Inuvik, where residents could benefit from 911 immediately, we'll just have to settle for calling it reckless, and stupid.

Another item of curiosity - how long do Yellowknife's two MLAs on cabinet - Bob McLeod and Sandy Lee - intend to sit in silence, collecting their rich cabinet salaries while letting this nonsense continue?

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Shiny new promises
Editorial Comment
Roxanna Thompson
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, October 22, 2009

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There are wins at the polls and then there are landslide wins.

What voters in Fort Simpson handed Sean Whelly on Oct. 19 was a landslide. With 269 votes Whelly had more than three times the number of votes garnered by incumbent Duncan Canvin.

Speaking with the Deh Cho Drum on Tuesday evening, Whelly said the results of the mayoral race demonstrated voters wanted a change. There is little room to argue with that.

More interesting is to examine what sort of a change residents want. While Whelly was elected decisively, the rest of the council remained virtually unchanged. All but two of the eight councillors are back in the seats they have occupied for at least one previous term.

It seems that voters saw fit to keep the collective experience of the council but change the person steering the ship. Based on Whelly's electoral platform, it appears one thing residents want is more open avenues of communication with village leadership.

Whelly has promised to respectfully listen to all residents' concerns and is making plans for town hall-style meetings to give residents the chance to voice their opinions on proposed plans for the village.

Like every other meeting of this sort, it will probably be hard to get people to actually attend but the fact they have the opportunity to speak their minds is what really matters. While members of the previous council often raised issues their constituents brought forward, there were very few cases over the past three years where dedicated meetings were held to gather public opinion on village matters.

Also tempting is Whelly's promise to focus on the "small things" as much as the larger issues. Often referred to as dogs, ditches and dumps - it is the basic services the village is responsible for and ones residents notice the most, Whelly correctly acknowledged.

The test will be to see how much change the new council will be able to bring about in the delivery of these services. While the campaign promise of painting the crosswalks should be relatively simple to accomplish, solving the safety issue posed by loose dogs is a matter that has bedeviled every council.

One of Whelly's other plans is to create both one-year and three-year action plans for the council to outline its mandate. Whelly said he wants the village to be in a position where it can be proactive and address issues before they've reached emergency proportions.

Given the trouble the previous council had with the sewage treatment plant, the housing of the John Tsetso Memorial Library and other issues, it's no surprise voters like the idea of having potential trouble spots identified and dealt with far in advance.

Days after the election, however, all of these items are still just election promises. Residents of Fort Simpson voted with a clear voice for a new mayor to lead the village. Now community members must see to it that Whelley lives up to the challenge.

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A fresh slate
Editorial Comment
Andrew Rankin
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, October 22, 2009

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In my brief career as a reporter I've had the opportunity to report on a couple of elections. But I didn't have the opportunity to watch the last election I covered in Nova Scotia unfold vote by vote in a polling station.

I sat at the Midnight Sun Complex polling station on Saturday for more than four and a half hours, right up until the last ballot was counted. By times it was a trying experience watching the painfully slow process of vote tallying unfold. But I was impressed with how focused and good humoured the ballot counters and scrutineers remained throughout, even well past midnight.

I got a little insight into just how much work goes into preparing for an election and carrying out one for that matter.

But that effort was complemented by the number of people who actually came out to exercise their most fundamental right. Almost 200 more mayoral votes were cast in Monday's election, which drew 956 voters, compared to the last town election in 2006, which saw a total of only 777 votes staked - that's a pretty impressive increase. With a new mayor elected along with four new councillors it looks like residents here are seeking for a bit of a change. And a change they got.

Most surprising for me was the victory Denny Rodgers scored over Derek Lindsay for the mayoral seat.

Everyone who I talked to figured it would be a much tighter race. Both candidates brought a different, but interesting skill set to the table. That can also be said of the new council, which is impressive in its diversity.

Above an abundance of business experience and a pretty impressive educational background, the mix of new councillors bring with them proven passion and commitment for Inuvik.

It will be intriguing to see how Rodgers is able to work with the newly elected council, since he has promised that ensuring members gel as a team will be one of his main priorities. One of his other campaign promises is to ensure the lines of communication between the town and community will remain open. Soon he plans to host a meeting with local business owners to find ways to stimulate the economy. That's a good start.

Inuvik probably needs more public forums to discuss any number of issues affecting the town, excluding council meetings.

I've always thought that people should be more interested in political discourse no matter on what level. I also think the foundation lies at grass roots politics. But it also falls on councillors to make people care about getting involved. There's always plenty of work to be done in that area.

It will be interesting to see how council approaches that challenge, to make itself more relevant in the lives of Inuvik's residents over the next three years.