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New push for Rankin curfew Nicole Veerman Northern News Services Published Wednesday, August 24, 2011
After watching a young girl, no older than nine, get harassed and bullied by a group of about 15 kids at the school playground one night, Pelagie Sharp turned to Facebook. She posted on the story on the Hamlet of Rankin Inlet's page, along with a suggestion that the solution to protecting youth and reducing crime enacted by youth in the community is to have a 10 p.m. siren indicating it's time for children to go home. The idea isn't new. A curfew and siren were just reinstated in Whale Cove, and when Sharp was growing up there was one in Rankin Inlet. "We had the siren and as soon as the siren went you would see kids all over town scattering home, rushing home because we used to have 'Billy Bylaw' and he used be on top of it. He sent kids home. And it worked," she said last week. The siren was removed in the mid-1980s. Sharp said she can't recall why. "If the hamlet had something in place... it would take a while to get used to the siren again, but eventually I think all parents would realize this is something that we need to do and I think the community just needs that extra bit of push by something enforced by the hamlet." Sharp's Facebook post attracted 53 responses and nearly 40 "likes." "I knew using Facebook to bring this up would get the word out that most of these kids should be at home with their parents and the parents need to take responsibility for their kids' actions," she said. Hamlet councillor Kyle Sheppard agrees that this issue comes down to the parents. "Is it appropriate to have really young children, sometimes five, six years old, running the streets until two o'clock in the morning, absolutely not. It's the parents' responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen. But if those parents aren't being responsible, what's the solution?" Sheppard said a curfew would, in his opinion, violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms specifically sections pertaining to freedom of association. Instead, he suggested that there be an optional curfew where a siren goes off suggesting kids should go home. "You know, during the summer months when it is broad daylight out, young children aren't necessarily wearing a watch, (so) that might help." But there is a lot more to this issue than getting kids off the street. Sheppard noted that being out until all hours of the night can be safer for some kids. "If some of these children are coming from a troubled home, where there's alcohol abuse, maybe drug abuse or abusive parents, picking them up off the street and bringing them home is actually putting them in more danger than having them out on the street." Because of that, if something is to be done, a curfew or otherwise, to stop children from running wild all night long, social services will have to play a big role "because they're going to bear the brunt of what happens," Sheppard said.
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