Court cancellations draw mayor’s ire

Mary Pilurtuut, the mayor of Kangiqsujuaq, is fed up with Nunavik’s travelling court system.

Pilurtuut says the delays in the travelling court cost money and cause victims and witnesses to wait months before testifying while some charged with serious offenses remain in the community for months before they appear in court.

“On behalf of the council, the village and especially the victims of crime in Kangiqsujuaq, I am writing to express our disappointment and dissatisfaction with the court system here in Nunavik,” Pilurtuut said in a May 19 letter to Audrey Mercier, the new crown prosecutor in Kuujjuaq.

The lack of an easy access to court has prevented progress in criminal cases, Pilurtuut told Mercier.

Some youth in Kangiqsujuaq have been charged with stealing all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles, committing a series of break-and-enters including one at an elders’ home, as well as vandalizing several buildings in the community, she said.

“On the evening of April 28, these offenders were in youth custody again for another break-and-enter. The police requested a phone court but were refused. I spoke to one of the youths who informed me that, “they would be released in no time and that nothing was going to be done to them.” I realized that they are familiar with the system by now and how to successfully take advantage of it,” Pilurtuut said.

Since then, she has learned the young offenders won’t appear in court until next September.

“This means that they will be free all summer to continue to commit crimes against the local people, perhaps escalating in nature and severity. On Wednesday of last week, callers to the FM expressed their anger and frustration towards these youth, suggesting that they may resort to taking justice into their own hands. I fear for the safety of these offenders and implore you to grant our request for a special court appearance before it is too late,” Pilurtuut.

But court workers in Kuujjuaq told Nunatsiaq News that the traveling court has an exceptionally high number of youth court cases on the docket to hear — so many that Judge Daniel Bédard took the unusual step of hearing youth court cases on a Friday, during his last court session in Kuujjuaq.

Pilurtuut also complained to Mercier that the traveling court cancelled court its sessions in Kangiqsujuaq on at least five separate occasions because its chartered aircraft could not land in the community.

Pirlutuut told Mercier that the cancellations, attributed to mechanical problems or bad weather, occurred on days when other airlines such as Air Inuit landed.

With each cancellation, Pilurtuut said the justice process was delayed again.

She said the delays particularly hurt the victims of alleged crimes, causing them anxiety and delaying their healing process.

“We cannot measure the emotional toll cancellations must take on witnesses and their families when they are told that their cases have been remanded again,” she said,

As an example, Pilurtuut mentioned a court visit scheduled for last April 22 and 23. Court was cancelled for Quartaq and Kangiqsujuaq due to weather.

Environment Canada weather office recorded the weather of the morning of the 23rd as cloudy with a 40 per cent chance of flurries with wind up to 20 km/h.

People from Quartaq had been flown in by Air Inuit the previous day and stayed at the Kangiqsujuaq Inn at taxpayers’ expense, she said.

When court was cancelled in Kangiqsujuaq the next day, they were sent home, without ever appearing in court.

Pilurtuut received an answer from Mercier June 2, saying she would forward Pilurtuut’s letter to the Quebec justice office in Amos.

As for the cancellation of flights into Kangiqsujuaq, weather conditions led to the cancellation of at least two of the flights into the community, Gaétan Roby, the long-time director of logistics for northern Quebec’s traveling court in Amos, told the Nunatsiaq News.

Increasingly unpredictable weather conditions, perhaps due to climate change, have added more challenges overall to the traveling court’s busy schedule of planned community visits, he said.

And to complicate the situation in Kangiqsujuaq, its airport has no de-icing equipment available for the court’s charter aircraft,

Running the risk of being stuck in community is too expensive to bear, Roby explained, citing a recent two-day delay in Kangqisualujjuaq due to weather, which cost $32,000.

Communities like Kangiqsujuaq, which have no courthouses, usually receive only three visits of the traveling court every year.

But scheduling additional visits— even when one of those three is cancelled— can also be difficult, Roby said.

That’s because the traveling court already makes 41 trips to Nunavik every year, so the timing and the presence of all those involved are already booked months ahead of time.

One possibility under consideration is to bring anyone involved in a serious case to Kuujjuaraapik, Puvirnituq or Kuujjuaq where there are de-icing machines and court houses, Roby said.