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A much needed discussion
Northwest Territories/News North - Monday, March 16, 2015

There is no magic bullet that will solve the deep-rooted socio-economic causes that have claimed the lives of more than 1,200 indigenous women in Canada over the past 30 years.

Many have pushed for an inquiry, but others have countered such a measure would be expensive and would only result in piles of even more expensive recommendations with no guarantee of follow through. Others, such as Toronto illustrator Evan Munday, simply want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to acknowledge there is a problem.

After Harper admitted during his annual sit-down with CBC’s Peter Mansbridge last December that the issue "isn’t really that high on (his) radar, to be honest," Munday started sending him illustrations of these women daily via Twitter. He explained the project was intended to "adjust his radar."

Grassroots calls for action like these have culminated in a recent national roundtable discussion in Ottawa, led by Premier Bob McLeod. No concrete plans for action came out of the day-long, closed-door meeting, but that doesn’t mean nothing happened.

Just the fact that two federal cabinet ministers, all 13 premiers, indigenous leaders and families of victims met in one room to talk about missing and murdered indigenous women is unprecedented.

Throughout the day more than 100 family members who have lost loved ones, such as Yellowknife’s Kathy Meyer, shared their stories with these leaders.

Meyer lost her daughter, Angela five years ago. While home on a weekend pass from Stanton Territorial Hospital’s psychiatric unit, she stepped out onto the porch for a cigarette and hasn’t been seen since. She was battling schizophrenia.

Last August in Whitehorse, Harper bared his ignorance toward the issue in dazzling display by saying the fact that indigenous women are three times more likely to go missing or be murdered is not a sociological phenomenon. Instead, he said it’s an issue for the police to solve.

So maybe aiming so high as to expect the federal government to lead an inquiry into a problem it doesn’t even come close to understanding is a fool’s game. Instead, perhaps we need to have conversations such as the roundtable in Ottawa, where bureaucrats listened to families describe how mental illness, addictions, unemployment and the legacy of the residential school system lead to vulnerabilities in indigenous communities.

As McLeod so aptly said to the Toronto Star after the roundtable, "those of us who are aboriginal, that have attended residential schools, that have lived in smaller communities, isolated communities, where you see the effects of poverty, poor housing … and very low educational opportunities and very little opportunities for jobs, I think you certainly get a different perspective."

Whether it’s through an inquiry, a series of roundtables or people using the all-powerful tool of social media to force our leaders’ attention, a good first step is to open the federal government’s ears to these differing perspectives.


Corrections in critical condition
Nunavut/News North - Monday, March 16, 2015

There is added incentive for Nunavummiut to be of good behaviour, keep the peace and, beyond all other considerations, avoid being arrested for a crime so serious that a court official orders the accused be held in custody awaiting trial.

If the time spent in custody is remand in Iqaluit, that means time in the Baffin Correctional Centre, which has not only a long history of deplorable conditions but now has a healthy dose of official criticism from the auditor general. It is so bad, in fact, that a person awaiting a court appearance would be justified to fear for their life.

To paraphrase some of the highlights from Michael Ferguson's damning report, the place is a firetrap. There have been three fires in the past and, to make things worse, there are no regular fire drills or evacuation exercises because of a shortage of staff. In the event of another fire, who knows if all the inmates would be able to escape.

If an inmate does not die in a fire, there is a good chance they could be assaulted by another inmate or staff member, as demonstrated by the auditor general, who said there were 185 incidents of assault in 2012-13.

Also to be considered are the dangers posed by contraband, which is regularly smuggled into the jail and includes drugs and weapons. There are eight incidents of contraband discovered monthly and likely many more that aren't discovered.

What is the greatest crime is that all these deficiencies and many more are known by the Department of Justice and have been known for a long time, without significant action taken at the Baffin Correctional Centre to remedy the situation so that inmates and staff are not at risk. The territorial government has an obligation to not only keep inmates safe and secure, but also offer programs toward rehabilitation with an eye to reintegrating inmates back into society. It must be noted that a majority of inmates are serving sentences of less than two years, or are on remand awaiting trial. Those with longer sentences are transferred to federal facilities in the south.

That the auditor general's report is damning is no surprise. The Department of Justice has known for two decades that corrections facilities are critical. A consultant in 2002 charged hundreds of thousands of dollars to recommend the facility be replaced. A former justice minister, after an arson-set fire in 2011, reminded legislators about his 2009 request for $300,000 to improve conditions at BCC. He was told that spending on education and health was more important.

There has been $850,000 earmarked for renovations at BCC, to start when inmates are moved to the recently opened Makigiarvik minimum-security facility next door.

Outside observers suggest construction of a new full-sized facility is needed.

Justice Minister Paul Okalik said last week he will table a response to the report in the legislative assembly.

Urgent action is required before tragedy happens to someone being held in the custody of the territorial government.


Public safety is co-operation
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 13, 2015

Police are notoriously tight-lipped when it comes to ongoing criminal investigations.

The reasons are often valid. Too much public information may alert potential suspects and compromise evidence for future use in court.

What must be made public is information that might keep people safe. That didn't happen in the case of Bobby Zoe, a repeat sex offender charged last month for two break and enter and sexual assaults; one on Feb. 1 and another on Feb. 15.

He was convicted for a home invasion in October 2013 after being let out of jail early following his conviction for a vicious sexual assault on a stranger walking alone downtown in January 2011.

The police didn't issue a news release until after the Feb. 15 incident even though the Feb. 1 attack involved a similar break-in and sexual assault where the occupant was at home.

As it turns out, police didn't even know Zoe was back on the streets. This doesn't absolve RCMP of its failure to alert the public following the Feb. 1 incident but does point to a lack of communication between corrections officials and police.

Both organizations have since pledged better co-operation in the future. A draft policy is now in place that would ensure whenever a high-risk inmate is about to be let out of jail, the information will be shared with the police within 15 days of the person's release. A summary of police reports from each day will also be forwarded to managing officers with the RCMP to help ensure any information that would help keep people safe is identified and released early enough to be useful to them.

This is welcome news although it's extremely unfortunate it took two reported sexual assaults and the ensuing public outcry for the police and Department of Justice to act. The public's right to know ought to trump the right to privacy for dangerous offenders with a history of sexual predation.

These latest incidents highlight why co-operation between police and corrections officials is not just a matter of mere professional courtesy. They have a duty to the public to co-operate.


Sport For Life Centre an absolute necessity
Weekend Yellowknifer - Friday, March 13, 2015

The words spoken by Mario DesForges, head coach of the NWT Judo Association, following Brent Betsina's silver medal at the Canada Winter Games were rather pointed: "Give me the resources and I can do more."

He couldn't have been more right.

The resources for our athletes need to be there when the time comes to head to big competitions, such as the Canada Games. One of those resources is the proposed NWT Sport For Life Centre, which Sport North president Maureen Miller spoke about during the Games in Prince George, B.C.

Such a centre is paramount if we want our athletes to succeed at the highest level. The Canada Games is the biggest competition out there for us; the next step up from that is either the Olympics or the professional ranks.

We can talk about setting personal bests, building skills, trying our best and making new friends all we want but those ideals have been drilled into athletes' heads for far too long. There comes a time where winning has to be a priority and that's where the Sport For Life Centre comes in.

Centralizing it in a large community would be ideal and Yellowknife would be the natural place to have it. Yellowknife has most of what an athlete needs in order to succeed. Sure, it isn't Inuvik or Norman Wells or Fort Simpson but it isn't a southern locale, where most of our elite athletes end up going if they want to be successful. Northern athletes would train and live in the NWT.

With the Canada Winter Games potentially coming to Yellowknife in 2023, the time to start thinking about this was yesterday because there would be nothing more embarrassing than hosting the Games and not having at least one NWT athlete on the podium.


Dehcho Process needs mediator
Deh Cho Drum - Thursday, March 12, 2015

It's unfortunate that stalled talks among Dehcho First Nations and the GNWT have resulted in sparring in the media and potentially in a courtroom.

After about 15 years of negotiations Grand Chief Herb Norwegian is standing firm with a position on the amount of land DFN should get through the Dehcho Process.

He rightfully wants the best possible deal for the people he represents.

However, it's an amount of land the government doesn't want to meet.

Premier Bob McLeod has said the GNWT has put its best possible offer on the table.

Though a GNWT spokesman has said the government wants to continue negotiations, a letter from the premier says they should agree talks have failed if DFN won't take the latest offer.

McLeod, replying to a question in the legislative assembly, said there's still hope for negotiations.

While that may be the case in Yellowknife, that hope seems to be fading with the grand chief as his statements increasingly point to a breakdown in relations.

Norwegian had gone to Yellowknife last month with other DFN leaders to try to move past the dispute and keep talks going.

The short meeting with the premier didn't get the sides back to the table.

Norwegian argues that outside help is needed to bring the two sides to an agreement.

We agree.

The framework agreement the two sides signed in 2001 that laid out the path toward self-governance allows for a mediator should the sides reach an impasse.

With several thousand kilometres separating the parties, it's time a mediator be brought to the table to help resolve the logjam in Dehcho land claim negotiations.

Settling the Dehcho and bringing self-government to the region is in the best interests of both sides, as the government has acknowledged.

The two sides shouldn't have to bring this into a courtroom to come to a resolution.

Hopefully the legal threats are just a tactic to get both sides back to the table with or without a mediator.

There has been a lot of work put in by people on both sides so far. Adding a legal challenge to the mix will just draw out the process even more.

That's why we support the grand chief's request for mediation.


Many helping hands in aftermath of flood
Inuvik Drum - Thursday, March 12, 2015

If not for some excellent community support and awareness, the flooding situation at the Children First Centre could have been so much worse on March 1.

During the windstorm that ripped through town that morning with temperatures hovering near -30 C before the windchill was factored in, the centre was doused with water up to two inches deep in some sections of the building, according to Patricia Davison, the executive director of the centre.

The damage was caused by a single malfunctioning sprinkler head that was somehow triggered during the storm, although it's not yet clear if the two events were related.

Insurance adjusters were on hand beginning March 4 to determine the cause and to put a dollar value on the damage, which is extensive to the kitchen and west wing.

Insurance in invaluable after a problem like this, but as most people know, it also takes time to kick the process into gear. In the meantime, the centre is leaning on community connections to keep going.

The first hint of the flooding was spotted by a passerby who spotted water gushing from the building and ice forming underneath, and alerted town staff at the rec centre.

A call was promptly placed to the town public works department.

When Davison arrived on the scene a short time later, she hadn't yet been notified of the situation. Nevertheless, the water to the building had been shut off by then, and initial damage assessments were being done.

Davison said she was very thankful for that assistance and the community awareness that led to minimizing the damage to the building, which is quite extensive.

That's particularly crucial, since the Children First Centre is a crucial part of child care in Inuvik.

When it opened approximately 18 months ago, all of the other formal childcare facilities closed down to consolidate childcare in one spot.

While there are other daycare operations in town, there is no single space capable of accommodating the children and families the Children First Centre serves.

It didn't take long for the community to start to come together, with the Inuvik Youth Centre offering its space to host some of the Children First Centre's programming, and community members pitching in with donations and offers to help.

That's the spirit so often shown by Inuvik residents, and is likely never more welcome than right now.


Jailhouse shock
Yellowknifer - Wednesday, March 11, 2015

There is a great injustice taking place in NWT correctional facilities but the perpetrators are not convicted criminals.

The guilty party in this case is an apathetic corrections system tethered to GNWT policies that appear to care little about actually rehabilitating the parade of people who wind up in jail – many of them repeat offenders.

The GNWT's Department of Justice received a drubbing at the hands of the Auditor General of Canada last week when it released a scathing report highlighting the failures of NWT correctional institutions on a wide range of issues.

At the top of the list was the lack of mental health and addictions counselling available to inmates in both the North Slave and Fort Smith correctional facilities.

According to the report, which studied the treatment of 48 inmates over a two-year period, the territory's jails do not have any dedicated resources for rehabilitation programs. The report points out that North Slave Correctional Centre has just one psychologist to tend to the needs of approximately 140 inmates. Even more troubling is the revelation that wait times to see the psychologist were as long 120 days.

In the department's defence, Sylvia Haener, the deputy minister of justice, rightly pointed out that "not everyone is willing to take the programming that is already offered."

While inmates cannot be forced to seek treatment, the fact is 87 per cent of inmates serving sentences longer than 120 days accessed general rehabilitation programs. Meanwhile, only 36 per cent of inmates with sentences less than 120 days sought help.

It seems a little too convenient for the department to suggest the reason inmates are not seeking help is because they lack willpower, instead of acknowledging that unreasonable wait times might have a role to play. Indeed, the report notes the department did not have a a strategy to guide inmates serving sentences of less that 120 days, despite the fact that they make up more than 50 per cent of the inmate population.

If inmates are unable to get the help they need while in jail – however short their stay might be – what hope can there be that they will be able to get it once they are back on the streets?

The report also revealed that the North Slave facility in particular failed to adhere to its own standards when it comes to the practice of segregating inmates. Out of of 38 reported incidences of segregation there were at least eight cases where no justification was provided for the decision. In 20 of those cases, authorization from the warden, which is required as per the department's standards, was not granted.

Monty Bourke, the NWT director of corrections, tried to brush off the findings of the report by explaining that segregation procedures at the territory's jails had already been improved, and the time period highlighted in the report is "now history."

Contrast Bourke's response to Justice Minister David Ramsay who met the findings of the report with an almost baffled sense of concern. Ramsay said he has told staff in his department that "we need to do something about this" on numerous occasions. In light of this most recent report, this can only mean either Ramsay has been giving his bureaucrats poor directions or his concerns have been falling on deaf ears.

One thing for certain is that the department complied with only one recommendation from a 2008 audit outlining a list of concerns that are now repeated in the current report. The enacted recommendation called for the development of inmate profiles.

Like a criminal who has been caught red-handed, the Department of Justice would do well to offer up a mea culpa and accept the charges brought against it by the auditor general so it can get on with helping inmates get the services they need and hopefully not re-offend once out of jail.

A reasonable judge would expect nothing less and there's no reason why government should not be held to the same high standards the criminals are.


Money taking toll on pro game
Editorial Comment by Darrell Greer
Kivalliq News - Wednesday, March 11, 2015

With the Stanley Cup playoffs looming just around the corner, one can't help but notice the sudden silence of all the pundits who were advocating the latest round of changes to the pro game in the interests of increased scoring and player safety.

Player injuries of all sorts, especially concussion-like syndromes, are off the chart and, as for the offence, well, the NHL is currently on pace to equal the scoring of the 1954-55 season.

It should be interesting to see what comes next in the way of changes, driven mostly by pressure from the media, medical profession, and a collective group of bean counters, the vast majority of whom have little experience on the ice in high-level competition.

So why have the rule changes of the past decade done nothing to change the aspects of the game they were intended to?

The answer is one simple word: money!

Today's players are bigger, stronger and faster than they've ever been.

The changes made to "open up the game" have done nothing but increase the number of unguarded hits delivered at a higher rate of speed.

The result has been, of course, more injuries.

Of all the rules removed to open up the game, the most stupid remains the removal of a player's ability to shield his teammate from a blind-side hit by running a pick on an oncoming forechecker.

Almost as damaging has been the removal of a defenceman's ability to slow up forecheckers by briefly taking away their skating lane at the blue line to give their partner more time to ready for the pressure.

They're not about to reverse the rules, and they're not about to put in a bigger ice surface at the cost of revenue-generating seats, so the injuries are here to stay.

Most true hockey fanatics who understand the game will tell you the rules brought in to increase scoring have mostly been a joke.

Scoring is down for one simple reason – the amount of money players earn today and the introduction of the salary cap.

The better teams in the league now have two or three stud players, two or three high-end second-tier players, a solid No. 1 goalie, and a group of various parts to keep them under the salary cap.

No easy task with a minimum league salary of $550,000, and an average salary of more than $2.5 million for a 20-man roster.

Oh, and those studs I mentioned. They come in at $7.53 million to $9.53 million for a forward, $5.8 million to $8.5 million for a top No. 1 goalie and $6.5 million to $9 million for a stud D-man.

Starting to get the picture?

A team like Pittsburgh, with superstar centres such as Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, continually look for diamond-in-the-rough or entry-level wingers who can play alongside the two.

But, such is the nature of the game that all the playmaking skill in the world can't turn a hockey frog into a prince of scoring.

Money has created its own version of a "dead puck era," and it isn't going to change any time soon.

The days of 200-point and 70-goal scorers are gone forever.

That is, until the day hockey nets more closely resemble those of soccer.

Stay tuned.

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