Nunavut government seeking proposals for victims programs

The Government of Nunavut is currently seeking funding proposals for community programs geared toward helping victims of crime.

The Victims Assistance Committee of Nunavut manages the Victims Assistance Fund, a pot of money that comes from victims surcharges — fines levied against every person found guilty of a criminal offence.

That money collected from guilty parties is then used to pay for community programs, approved by committee members, which are intended to help victims deal with trauma and other impacts of crime.

The surcharge amounts to $200 for each indictable offence, $100 for each non-indictable, or lesser, offence, or 30 per cent of a fine imposed by a judge.

But those fines have become controversial.

Judges used to be able to waive the victim surcharges in certain circumstances if they determined the extra fines were excessive.

But in October 2013, the federal government passed an amendment making those surcharges mandatory.

Several lawyers from across the country have argued in court that forcing a judge’s hand in this way is unconstitutional.

Some Nunavut lawyers have said the surcharges amount to undue punishment for impoverished families of convicted criminals who often are left covering the debt.

In August, the lawyer for a homeless Ottawa man named Shaun Michael successfully argued that the $900 his client owed in victims surcharges was not only excessive but violated his Charter right, “not to be subjected to cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.”

Michael’s lawyer, Stuart Konyer, said the Crown has recently appealed the decision handed down by Ontario Court Justice David Paciocco. No date has been set for those proceedings.

The Nunavut Victims Assistance Committee annual report from 2009-2010, showed that as of March 31, 2010, the committee had amassed $309,206 and had made $19,998 in disbursements leaving $289,208 in the fund.

According to that annual report, those disbursements went to four organizations:

• $5,000 to Ugjirusuktittiniq (Making People Aware), an Iqaluit-based organization which planned to research the “needs and concerns of victims of crime”;

• $4,998 to Inuit Communication System Ltd., an Iqaluit-based organization that purported to research the needs of victims and recommend “major communication initiatives” in Inuktitut;

• $5,000 to Baffin Regional Agvvik Society, which runs the Iqaluit women’s shelter, to train workers and educators on how to interact with shelter children “who often pattern their behaviour after the abuse they have witnessed”; and,

• $5,000 to the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay to recruit and train caregivers and other individuals in the community who help victims of crime.

The deadline to submit proposals for this round of victim program funding in Nunavut is Oct. 24 at 5 p.m., according to an Oct. 6 news release.

Individuals, organizations and institutions interested in applying can find more details by calling Rebecca Jones at 867-975-6308 or emailing her at rjones1@gov.nu.ca.