Burden of justice system can’t all fall to police: Nunavik chief

Kativik Regional Police Force says the travelling court can put a strain on its services when it visits Puvirnituq, the judicial hub of Nunavik’s Hudson coast. (FILE PHOTO)

Nunavik’s police chief says that holding cells in the region can get crowded — but it’s not the norm, and the region has approached Quebec for help.

A report released Feb. 18 by Quebec’s Ombudsman delivered a harsh image of detention conditions in the region’s holding cells, describing them as inhumane — among other shortfalls of Nunavik’s justice system.

With no correctional facility of its own, Nunavik’s police stations are used to hold inmates until they can be sent to southern detention centres.

Michel Martin, chief of the Kativik Regional Police Force, acknowledges that the region suffers from many problems managing its offenders, but he maintains it’s not a matter of neglect.

“During normal police activity, there’s no overcrowding,” he said. “The problem comes with the travelling court; they come in with 20 inmates and they’re using the police facilities to keep the inmates.”

“We understand, you can’t put these people out on the streets. But here we don’t have running water like in the city; here, you need a truck to bring running water and then another truck to take away [sewage],” he said.

“So if the system is providing for 10 people and then suddenly, you have 25, it’s going to cause a problem for sure. It’s sad, and nobody wants that, but it’s a reality we see here.”

KRPF stations around the region are roughly 20 years old, and they’re not in poor condition. But there are simply not enough cells to deal with peak periods.

In Puvirnituq, for example, the local station has six cells. So while the court is sitting in that community, and additional inmates arrive to appear in court, they all have to fit into that space. And women cannot be placed in the same cells as men, Martin noted.

Overcrowding is less of an issue in Kuujjuaq, where the KRPF station has eight cells, plus the adjoining Justice Québec facility that has another six cells.

Kuujjuaq is also the only KRPF station that has a secure outdoor area between its building and the adjoining justice building, but Martin said it’s not used for giving inmates outdoor time.

Martin said he and officials from the Kativik Regional Government have had conversations with Quebec’s justice officials about overcrowding and other issues, requesting funding to increase cell capacity in the region’s police stations.

“I don’t want to put this on the government, but the funding never came,” he said. “We’re caught in the middle of this and we’re doing the best we can.”

Overcrowded cells is one of an array of issues Nunavimmiut have raised about the travelling court system in recent years: detainees, victims and their families alike grapple with delays, communication issues and a lack of facilities to host the court.

For those reasons and more, Martin welcomes the idea of a dedicated air link between Nunavik and Amos, in southern Quebec, to help cut down on the lengthy travel times between courts and correction facilities across the province, one of a number of recommendations to come from the ombudman’s report.

That report noted that 14 days can elapse between the arrest of a person in Nunavik until their bail hearing in Amos.

If someone is arrested in Salluit, for example, and needs to attend a bail hearing in Amos, the detainee is escorted by a police officer to Kuujjuaq, then another officer from there to Montreal, where he or she is processed at St. Jerome detention centre and driven north to Amos.

“I’d rather keep my police officers in the communities, rather than putting them on planes,” Martin said.

Jobie Tukkiapik, president of Makivik Corp., said the report comes at a good time, while the region is working to develop its own alternatives to traditional justice.

“[W]e need more culturally adapted programs for Nunavik Inuit detainees if we want them to be better equipped when they reintegrate into our communities,” Tukkiapik said in a Feb. 18 release, echoing another of the report’s recommendations.

“Makivik will continue to push towards improving the socio-judicial development of Nunavik,” he added. “The justice committees program is one major initiative that we undertook that can bring more tangible results is sufficient resources are devoted to it.

“The implementation of the Saqijuq project for the reconstruction of the social regulation in our communities is also a priority for our region.”