'Alcohol brings out these things you don't normally do.'

KUGLUKTUK – Youthful offenders charged with alcohol-fueled theft and assaults streamed through court last week in Kugluktuk, receiving a combination of punishment and sympathetic advice from a judge and elder.

The first day of court, presided over by Justice Earl Johnson and elder Alice Ayalik, saw the appearance of several youth whose innocent looks were tarnished by the sad facts that landed them in court.

All of them pleaded guilty.

This past August, two intoxicated girls, 14 and 16, entered a man's house in search of booze one evening. They stole a bottle of vodka, a package of cigarette tubes and then took $2,700 in $20 bills from the sleeping man's wallet.

The two then handed $600 to a girlfriend, and the next day they went on a spending spree, which included the rental of all-terrain vehicles and junk food purchases.

Only about $670 of the money was recovered, thanks to the third girl's mother who alerted police to her daughter's wad of cash.

Before the judge handed down his sentence, Ayalik told the younger girl to respect other people's property, as the elders had always told her. Johnson then advised her to "learn the value of a dollar."

The other teen, a tiny girl with a jaunty ponytail, was also charged with stealing an ATV.

"Alcohol … brings out these things you don't normally do," Ayalik said.

Ayalik told the girl how she had stopped drinking after nearly freezing to death when she passed out on a snow bank one January.

Along with the stern warnings, the two girls received periods of probation along with orders to carry out community service work and write an apology to the victim of the break-and-enter.

Other offenders who pleaded guilty that day included:

• A 15-year old dropout with a habit of joyriding. Ayalik told him to stay in school, saying she has never been able to go to school herself and as a result could never work in an office. "Try not to get into trouble again so you don't end up in court again," Ayalik said, before Johnson handed the teen a probation order with community service hours.
• Another 15-year-old addicted to joyriding and who hasn't attended school for three years. His father accompanied him to court. "Listen to him and try to attend school," Ayalik told the teen. Johnson handed him a probation period as well as community service hours and a chance to work off those hours by attending school.
• A strapping 18-year old youth, who used a drill to pry open a house's boarded windows with some friends, who helped him steal some small items. He received a six-month conditional sentence, house arrest and an obligation to send a letter of apology to the victim. If he breaches those conditions, he'll go to jail, Johnson warned.
• A Grade 11 student who threw a phone at her common-law spouse in an intoxicated rage. She received a probation period, community service hours, advice to seek counselling and an order not to go home if she drinks. "Take this opportunity to turn your life around," Johnson told her.
• A burly 22-year old worker at Tahera, with a history of conjugal assault, who bit his girlfriend and mother of his child and dragged her down some stairs. "It tells me you're not getting the message, but I am reluctant to put an employed man in jail," Johnson told the youth, who received a six-month conditional sentence, 24-7 house arrest for three months with time off only to run errands or go to work, as well as an order to stay away from booze and seek counselling.
• A young mother who kicked her boyfriend. Johnson gave her a three-month conditional sentence followed by a probation period and a mandatory 24-hour "cooling off period" if she and her boyfriend argue. "I see you on the road and you take good care of your children," Ayalik said.

The only one sent to jail that day was 25-year-old Eric Hitkolak, who was three weeks into a nine-month-long conditional sentence for impaired driving causing bodily harm when he was found intoxicated while driving an ATV. He was sent to jail for three months and advised to seek counselling for problems related to the loss of a family member to suicide.

"The community has to believe conditional sentences mean something," Johnson told him.

Conditional sentences are like jail sentences, Johnson explained, although the offenders can do their time in the community if they obey the conditions.

"You didn't obey those conditions. These are the consequences," Johnson said.

"Try your best to change your life," Ayalik counselled Hitkolak.

Court moved quickly along in Kugluktuk, and most of the offenses on the docket dated back to this past summer.

Proceedings were helped along by the fact that nearly all the talk was in English: during the first day of court, only one young person was able to follow the advice of Ayalik in Inuinnaqtun without interpretation.

The court will return to Kugluktuk during the first week of February.

Probation officer Larry Whittaker said even if the future alcohol education committee has some impact on alcohol-related crime, the impact won't be felt on his heavy caseload for at least a year.