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Kivalliq weighs in on curfews
No community in the region is currently enforcing the restriction, some are pondering it

Cody Punter
Northern News Services
Wednesday, July 13, 2016

KIVALLIQ
Like most adults who grew up in the Kivalliq, Peter Adjuk remembers the distinct sound of a siren going off around 10 p.m., signaling to Whale Cove's youth that it was time to go home.

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Recently Rankin Inlet's hamlet council said it was considering implementing a curfew following as a result of a recent spate of vandalism and youth making noise late at night. This week Kivalliq News reached out to several communities across the Kivalliq to see if they were facing similar problems. This photo shows windows of trucks that were smashed at Huka Services in Rankin Inlet last month. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

But somewhere along the line the siren disappeared and the hamlet stopped enforcing the bylaw. A similar story seems to have repeated itself across all the hamlets in the region as communities have stopped the practice at some point over the last decade.

Now there is a growing number of people from Adjuk's generation that are saying they would like to see the curfews brought back to keep youth from getting into trouble.

"It's been a problem for the past few years now," said Adjuk, a father of three who was born in Whale Cove but now lives in Arviat. "I think it would be great to have a curfew."

Last month, Rankin Inlet's hamlet council pondered bringing back a bylaw that would keep youth off the streets late at night, after thousands of dollars worth of damage was done in a single night.

Following the discussion, Kivalliq News reached out to all the hamlets and found that none are currently enforcing a curfew. But a quick scan though the communal Facebook pages of a handful of communities across the region as well as interviews with community members revealed a common thread - complaints about children being out late at night and property being vandalized.

"It's not just in Rankin," said Sam Tutanuak, regional director of counselling and support services for the Kivalliq, who is based in Rankin. "Rules and regulations have become way too lax. There's a whole new generation of kids that have no idea what curfews are."

Last month in Baker Lake the windows of one of the schools were smashed. A mother with two teenagers from the community, who asked not be named out of fear that she might become a target, told Kivalliq News that youth in her community are sometimes staying out as late as 6 a.m. In most instances they are just being loud, but she said she has heard people complaining about vandalism.

"Kids have no respect for anyone," she said. "They need a curfew. That's what we need and that's what the kids need."

Whale Cove Mayor Stanley Adjuk said the hamlet had been using a siren to signal curfew up until about eight or 10 years ago, at which point the practice was stopped.

"One of our problems was when we did the curfew there was the siren. Some elders living to close to the siren were complaining and we didn't (want) to wake them up," he said. "You have to respect your elders."

Naujaat was enforcing a bylaw that created a curfew up until a year and a half ago when the hamlet's bylaw officer quit over low pay. They have yet to hire a new one and the siren has not gone off since.

Solomon Maliki, the hamlet's mayor, said when it was in effect the bylaw stipulated that youth under the age of 16 had to be indoors by 10:30 p.m. He said there was no specific punishment handed down to those who broke curfew.

"When we had bylaw officers they followed that rule," he said.

Maliki said the community had been relatively calm since the siren stopped going off, although the hamlet is looking to hire a new bylaw officer once it can find the funding to do so.

He added however that the curfew was not enforced during the summer so it wouldn't be in place right now, regardless.

Even when the curfew was in place, Maliki said it was paramount for parents to take the initiative with their children.

"When (the bylaw officer) is working there's always a blind spot. There's always a vandal. I don't think that will ever change," he said. "If the child is doing something bad, us adults need to tell them (to) not vandalize property. That's everybody's responsibility."

Those sentiments were echoed by Tutanuak, adding that if a curfew was in place parents could be fined when their children disobey it. According to Tutanuak, parents in Whale Cove used to be liable for $25 if their children broke curfew.

"If that was implemented maybe there would be a little more co-operation with the public," he said.

Tutanuak and the mayors also emphasized the need to create more programs to give young people something to do.

"(A curfew) alone won't fix the issue of young people staying out. There has to be a whole bunch of things in place," Tutanuak said.

"If there was more stuff to get the kids tired - that they're so tired they don't want to go out, then there wouldn't be any problems. But if they're out drinking energy drinks and pops and chips, they're just getting hyped up to do more things,"

"We have to keep the kids busy to keep them from getting bored and doing vandalism," added Adjuk.

According to Adjuk, one thing that has made a huge difference in Whale Cove is the fact that RCMP officers have taken a very active role in the community.

He said they have garnered the respect of a lot of the youth, and the population in general, by taking part in everything from hockey games and penny sales to simply being friendly and chatting with people.

"They interact with everyone -young, old, middle-aged people. When they do that for the locals that's what they respect. The more respect there is the less problems there are," he said.

Maliki said the decision of whether or not to implement a curfew should be left up to each individual hamlet. For Naujaat, that means trying to find some funding to hire a new bylaw officer. "It's not going to please everybody but it will be good for the community," he said.

Adjuk, meanwhile, did not foresee Whale Cove implementing a curfew anytime soon.

"It's pretty good right now," he said. "There may be some vandalism that we don't know about but usually when there's a lot of that going on we're the first ones to hear."

As for Tutanuak, he said it is unfortunate to have to punish the innocent for the deeds of a "few bad apples" but ultimately he is in favour of keeping younger children from being out late at night in Rankin.

"Just like anything else it would take time to get used to," he said.

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