GN seeks input on Nunavut’s proposed anti-dope and bootleg law

Steve Shaddock, a lawyer with the Government of Nunavut’s justice department, and Archie Angnakak, a senior policy analyst, at an October consultation in Cambridge Bay on the GN’s proposed new civil forfeiture law. (FILE PHOTO)

If you live in Pangnirtung, Pond Inlet or Iqaluit and want to weigh in on a new Nunavut law aimed at fighting bootlegging and drug dealing, here’s your chance.

The Government of Nunavut plans to hold its final consultations on its proposed civil forfeiture legislation in these three Baffin communities.

The future legislation’s goal: to quash one of Nunavut’s most lucrative industries — the estimated $10-million-a-year market in bootlegging and the similarly valuable market for drugs so “crime does not pay” and people think twice before breaking the law, a Department of Justice lawyer Steve Shaddock told those at a consultation, held last month in Cambridge Bay.

The GN wants to target the big guys, the “kingpins” of alcohol and drugs, not the small “go-fers,” Shaddock said.

The proposed law will do this by using the civil court system to confiscate property that has been illegally gained, like cash, a vehicle and building, or used to commit illegal acts.

The idea is that Nunavummiut who get property illegally or use it to commit illegal acts, in Nunavut or another jurisdiction, should not be allowed to keep that property.

Civil forfeiture would allow the GN to seize that property through a civil court order and use that property to help prevent illegal activities or to help victims of crime.

Forfeiture orders through the criminal court system have already taken place in Nunavut: in 1999, Iqaluit resident Claude Caza, a convicted hash dealer and arson fraudster, was ordered to forfeit $400,000 in real estate he owned in Apex and Iqaluit to the Crown because he used drug trafficking profits and proceeds from an insurance fraud to invest in his restaurant business and other properties.

Forensic accounting found Caza had about $400,000 in unexplained income. But due to federal proceeds of crime legislation, Caza wasn’t allowed to keep the money.

You can share your thoughts on the proposed new law in:

• Pangnirtung, Nov. 17, at the community centre at 7 p.m.

• Pond Inlet, Nov. 26, at the community hall at 7 p.m.

• Iqaluit on Dec. 2, at the Anglican Parish hall at 7 p.m.

Refreshments will be provided, and participants will have the chance to win prizes.

For more information about the upcoming consultation, you can contact the Department of Justice’s policy division, your regional community justice specialist, or your local community justice outreach worker.

Consultations on the forfeiture law have already taken place in Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Baker Lake.