A New Day forced to reject donation
Members of fundraising group 100 Men Who Give A Damn told they cannot give to healing program
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One of the co-founders of the Yellowknife group 100 Men Who Give a Damn says he is disappointed his group can't make a donation to a government-funded healing program.
Paul Shearme told Yellowknifer the Department of Justice turned down a donation of between $11,000 and $13,000 to A New Day, a program that helps men and women deal with domestic violence issues. Fellow co-founder Garrett Hinchey learned through the department that it could approve the donation going to the A New Day Healing Program.
In an e-mail to Yellowknifer, deputy minister of Justice Martin Goldney stated why the program could not accept the money.
"As with other public governments in Canada, the GNWT has rules restricting gifts in order to maintain the confidence of the public," he stated. "Donations to the GNWT must be free of any conditions and therefore cannot be directed to a specific purpose or program."
Shearme said the government's decision is disappointing.
"It's a very good group and they are doing great things," he said.
"Our group was very much in support of the program and is still very much in support of the program. It's just unfortunate," Shearme said.
He said the group will find another worthy cause for the money adding the beneficiary won't likely be decided until the group's next meeting in late February.
The Department of Justice's decision not to accept the donation comes roughly a month after it decided to extend funding to A New Day.
The program, funded by the GNWT, is mostly for men over 18 who have been violent in relationships. It offers individual and group counselling and includes visits to men held in remand at the North Slave Correctional Centre.
It's a program aimed at reducing the toll of violence in the territory. A 2013 report by the Coalition Against Family Violence NWT notes the rate of reported spousal assaults in the NWT is one of the highest in the country, second only to Nunavut.
Its funding was set to end on Dec. 31 of this year but MLAs passed a motion during the fall sitting of legislative assembly to extend the program by one year. Cabinet announced in response the program would be extended by six months. The motion was introduced by Deh Cho MLA Michael Nadli, who used the program after he was convicted of assaulting his wife.
Laura Boileau, co-ordinator of A New Day, addressed the audience at a community feast for A New Day at the Tree of Peace Friendship Centre on Dec. 13.
"We found that when men are offered the opportunity to take responsibility for their behaviour, they do. And then they keep coming in," Boileau said.
The program has served 322 men and 60 women, she said.
"We're really only talking about just over two years and then a nine-month gap and another year," she said. "It just tells you the great need in the territory."
Program co-ordinator William Greenland agrees.
"We've worked extremely hard, we've worked with a lot of men, we've seen results. We've seen a lot of good things," he said.
- with files from Kirsten Fenn
