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IQALUIT
Circumpolar police chiefs learned they have many law enforcement issues in common - maybe even more than they thought - during a two-day meeting in Iqaluit.

High-ranking enforcement officials from Nunavut, Saskatchewan, Alaska, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Greenland and Newfoundland met in Iqaluit Sept. 20 and 21 to discuss common policing and public safety issues.

Drugs - including alcohol, prescription and non-prescription substances - and community intervention at a local and individual level were discussed in hopes of preventing people from going down the wrong path.

Host RCMP Chief Supt. Steve McVarnock, the commanding officer of V division, said he hopes each participant took a couple of ideas they could apply back home.

"I think, historically, it's been well-known that across the Arctic there are a lot of similarities and that came out loud and clear during the last two days," he said. "We've all talked extensively about the high levels of domestic violence. We talked about sexual abuse. We talked about alcohol abuse, alcohol is driving a lot of the issues we were discussing. Every one of us is faced with similar stories, similar tragedies and pressures in terms of how we address it."

Happy to be invited, Greenland Chief Commissioner Bjorn Bay said the meeting was a great opportunity to learn how some of the same challenges were solved.

Bay said during the conference he discovered many similarities between the issues in Greenland and those in Nunavut, the rest of Canada and Alaska. He added, Greenland has more in common with Nunavut than it does with Denmark. Talking about alcohol abuse and domestic violence, I think I've got some pretty good ideas to bring with me back home."

The meeting was described as a unique opportunity by Alaska State Police Commissioner Joe Masters, mentioning this was the first time a representative from Alaska law enforcement had come this far east in the Canadian Arctic to look at issues of public safety. He said of all the Northern jurisdictions, Nunavut is probably the most similar in terms of issues and challenges faced.

"It's most similar in the diverse locations we police in, similar in the remoteness of the communities, the community make-up. It's also very similar in the specific types of problems with sexual assaults, domestic violence but also the graduation and drop-out rates, suicide issues," he said. "It was very obvious from the first day when we started talking, even on the flights coming in with our colleagues, we had way more in common."

Prince Albert (Sask.) Police Service Chief Dale McFee explained his organization is piloting a program where many agencies, such as health, social services, housing, bylaw and police, meet twice-weekly to discuss various issues such as domestic violence or alcohol-related problems. The goal is to intervene before the potential crisis becomes a larger one. In the first seven months of implementation, he said they have seen "some real positive results."

"We're getting help when that immediate situation can use something right now rather than wait," he said.

An initiative McVarnock hopes to eventually establish is an inter-agency model, similar to what is done in Prince Albert.

"It's very difficult for one agency to drive the bus in any issue we all face collectively here in Nunavut," he said. "We're trying to get on the bus together but doing so through a structured process or a structured model."

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