Blacklist, interdiction orders needed in Liquor Act reform: Iqaluit MLA
Adam Arreak Lightstone calls for stricter measures to prevent people from buying alcohol while under court orders to abstain
Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak Lightstone is calling for Liquor Act reform and better collaboration with various GN departments and the RCMP to reduce alcohol-related crime. (Photo by Jeff Pelletier)
Iqaluit-Manirajak MLA Adam Arreak Lightstone wants Nunavut’s Liquor Act reformed to make it harder for people convicted of violent crimes to access alcohol.
Lightstone rose several times during the spring legislative sitting to press Justice Minister Pamela Gross and Finance Minister Lorne Kusugak on the issue.
Iqaluit-Sinaa MLA Janet Pitsiulaaq Brewster and Uqqummiut MLA Mary Killiktee also posed similar questions.
“I believe all convictions of violent crimes while intoxicated should be accompanied by a court order to abstain from the consumption of alcohol,” Lightstone said in an interview.
“I believe, even stronger, that severe convictions such as murder, sexual abuse or child abuse while intoxicated, should be accompanied with those interdiction orders.”
The Liquor Act has a provision allowing judges to place someone under an interdiction order, which prohibits people and businesses from serving or providing alcohol to them.
However, since 1999 only one person has been placed under such an order, Kusugak said.
Both Kusugak and Gross questioned the effectiveness and practicality of interdiction orders.
“There are other tools in the Liquor Act that can restrict alcohol use, such as decisions by a local alcohol education committee or automatic restrictions for certain liquor offences,” Gross said in a response May 29.
She said judges can also restrict alcohol consumption as part of bail and probation conditions.
Updating or reviewing the Liquor Act “will be up to the next government,” Kusugak said in a May 22 response. Territorial elections are scheduled for Oct. 27.
Lightstone said he was “disappointed” by the ministers’ answers.
He noted larger communities like Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet don’t have alcohol education committees, which in some smaller hamlets control the local sale of alcohol. In those smaller communities, people must apply to buy alcohol and be approved by the committee.
Lightstone suggested a different type of committee approach.
“Everybody would be assumed to have access to alcohol, and it would only be individuals referred to this alcohol committee by officials like the RCMP or mental health staff or social workers” who would have their name on a “blacklist.”
Theoretically, he said, Iqaluit and Rankin Inlet could be included in that system.
Lightstone also called for more collaboration between RCMP and staff from the Justice, Family Services and Health departments. He suggested people from those departments should visit the RCMP holding cells to speak with people detained there.
“These individuals that are likely self-medicating or have other substance abuse issues, they need to know what options are available to them should they be ready to make that healthy life choice, to start going down the path of self-healing.”
There is no reason someone should be allowed to legally buy 120 mickeys at once either, where the only clear motive in doing so is bootlegging. Purchase limits should apply to all communities in Nunavut, not only those that are Restricted.
There are permit limits on what you can order in from outside Nunavut. Only allowed one import permit per day up to a certain amount and can’t stack your permits to be able to order in bulk. Before they changed this rule, there were no limits on what you could order in.
Yes, you saying it well, but the problem is way deeper and lifted in denial. Policing the situation seems to be the way things go, because the denial makes it so. Bootlegging is unique to the north, people in free society don’t need a historical Al Capone way of life, that was in desperate times. The real problem , and the reason for bootlegging in the north is because alcohol can’t be freely sold due to the trouble beyond this world. The north will most likely continue bootlegging, no freedom , no choice but crime. People should be made aware of that fact. Teach it to the kids.
In smaller communities where alcohol is new, limit the buying of alcohol to young people too. I hate to see young people going into alcohol than committee should watch out for constant buyers like young adults.
Lightstone and Brewster need to spend some time on the front lines of the criminal justice system to understand the reality of substance abuse and violent crime so that they can be insightful and intelligent when talking about it. If you impose a condition on a violent alcoholic that he is prohibited from consuming alcohol, he will ignore that condition to satisfy his addiction and you’re just setting him up for another charge of violating that prohibition.
This bad policy promoted by Lightstone and others will not prevent violence and will not deter violence. It will just lead to another small meaningless charge on a list of other way more serious charges that the system should be focussed on. My advice to Lightstone and Brewster is: Spend some time on the front lines of the system that deals with the violent drinkers and get input from people who deal with these cases daily. If you do, good ideas may follow….
Best thought out comment I’ve read on here in a long time! Well said. A lot of the times we look at ‘band-aid’ solutions to conceal the issue as opposed to looking at the root cause. Let’s work towards solving the problems and helping the offender instead of putting a Band-Aid over it and hope the problem goes away!
Best thought out comment? All it says is, “this won’t solve the problem”, while not actually giving a potential alternative.
“[Y]ou’re just setting him up for another charge of violating that prohibition”. Good. These people that are committing violent crimes, especially murder, sexual abuse or child abuse, need a longer list of charges. Maybe one of them will eventually get past Gladue.
Imagine basing all laws on that same concept.
“Hey, this is the 3rd time you’ve been caught drunk driving. We’re not going to take your license or impound your car cause then you’ll just steal someone else’s car”
Perhaps you have missed what has happened with those repeatedly charged with theft or assault. They get charged, they get released, they offend again.
What makes you think charging over and over them will actually fix anything?
You’re right. The cycle needs to be broken. The easiest fix is to stop releasing repeat offenders unless it can be proven that they’ve been rehabilitated.
Yes sir , I believe in lock and key, a pleasure to see them peeking out.
The reality that two city slickers that did not mature in Nunavut. As much as they say they understand really don’t get it. Almost like southerners that came up to solve the Inuit problem.
Where are the reports from the AEC in the communities that show how much alcohol is approved in the community in a year and how often requests are denied?
I dont think the AEC ever says no to anyone.
That’s going to be a long blacklist in some communities
And it should be
So true Joe. Allow the good Inuit to have their peace back in their lives. Why allow good people to suffer , just because people feel an equal privilege to drink like sensible people when in fact all history shows that they can’t. Inuit life like no other culture on the planet considering the strength, the peace and the harmony has been destroyed from people not drinking alcohol! But not handling alcohol, with going off their heads and bothering every family member and community member over and over, and the smart intelligent government is still in denial.
Pathetic, any society having that kind of discussion about alcohol, should be made to have total alcohol band , from the federal government if their own local government can’t agreed. Totally unacceptable in today’s world.
People are at slavery to a way of life with alcohol in north of canada. Yes you can have some alcohol but not as much as the free Canadian world to the south? Only if people can answer the question of why theres no freedom in the north like the south with alcohol, will there be any insight. Its no wonder , like i see in Nunavik as well, people are ecstatically delighted to go south where freedom and all the goodness of life is, compared to the restrictions in the north. Its getting worse for northerners because the growth and development is stuck in a limited version of living. Next time you in around Ottawa ir Montreal or Winnipeg just observe the happiness amongst free inuit living a good life away from their restricted northern life.
The Court has a list of people restricted from having alcohol.
The Beer & Wine Store asks everyone for ID.
You have to think that these two lists should be linked.
One of the key benefits of our traditional justice system used to be that there was an element of shame and ostracism placed on the person who had done wrong. Not only was there a consequence for their actions, what they did had effected their relationship with everyone they knew or interacted with. This social pressure was very helpful in ensuring that people acted within social norms.
This appears to be missing from our modern English Common Law justice system, especially for crimes that are so common that they do not make the news. This is especially true now we have much larger communities and individuals tend to fade into the background of community life. Honestly, who takes the time to go to court when it is in session to find out who is convicted of what if you are not directly involved?
One of the founding ideas behind English Common Law used to be that not only should justice be done, it should be seen to be done.
For someone who is a perpetual drunk, who continually acts up while drunk, their treatment within our justice system today does little to effect their standing in the community. It is easy for them to keep their misdeeds semi-private for most of the community.
What I have seen with other indigenous communities is that they post the results of court on their local TV channel. I think we should be considering that or something similar here in Nunavut. It needs to be very common knowledge who cannot, as examples, be trusted to be let into a house party, who has been bootlegging, who cannot use a vehicle, and who has assaulted someone while drunk.
Doing this would improve public safety, restore some faith in the courts, and provide for a social and community based consequence for the abuse of alcohol. This may even help people hit rock bottom faster, where they actually recognize they have a problem and need to change.
Pushing people to be “socially normal” is often what causes these behaviours. Not being accepted in society for being different.
I don’t agree with a blacklist, it will cause more
problems and oppression.
I agree with a black list. Alcohol belongs to only those who can handle it. It’s a dangerous fluid in the wrong blood. It’s an enjoyable social thing, even though, no one needs to drink. But if one does consume alcohol and don’t have the sense or have issues to cause harm to society, then lawfully black list is the right thing to do. Think about the environment of murder and abuse, and think about the ones using alcohol as a catalyst for fueling that crazy situation. No brainer says only mature responsible people only, should have a right to drink.
For anyone who isn’t allowed to consume/purchase alcohol, they should have their computer system to red flag them soon as their name gets put into it.
I agree that those causing tantrums with a few drinks shoukd have their names in lights and banned from buying it at least. It won’t stop them from getting it, but it will set a precedent over time. We sensible, drinkers are sick and tired of the boys club that has to dance and jump on every person around them when they have a few. Even their partners run away to the men’s club together be with the men, while the boys do their tramp in the jail cells. They, need to be out casted those getting their hands on the mans drink.
In Nunavik you got men losing their ladies to the drug dealers, drug dealers are manipulating them for love play as well. And the men that’s losing their ladies men of the boys club most of them , are reluctantly standup to the drug dealers, but that’s about it, standup and shooting give me my lady back. It’s sad to see vulnerable people getting trapped into the drug dealers love circle, but the growing men , or old boys are doing literally nothing but shooting don’t do it.