‘High’ crimes and drunken misdemeanors

It was amusing to hear Iqaluit city councillors complain last week about how much time it’s taking the RCMP to lay charges against whoever set fire to Nakasuk and Inuksuk schools recently.

Because when you look at the context of ever-rising mayhem and low-level violence within which those crimes occurred, it’s a wonder those incidents were even noticed.

It’s all laid out in the Iqaluit RCMP detachment’s monthly statistical report, which city councillors had in front of them at last week’s meeting.

In it, they would have read that 907 incidents of property damage, or mischief, occurred by the end of October this year in Iqaluit. That’s up sharply from the 610 incidents of property damage recorded during the same period in 2002.

These incidents range from the minor smashing of doors and vehicle windshields, to recreational arson attempts and late evening rock-throwing parties. The “let’s-throw-the-rock-through-the-window” game is a particular favourite among those returning from an evening of cocktails at one of our glittering night-spots.

That probably explains why the Iqaluit Housing Authority goes through about 5,500 square feet of replacement window glass every year – at a cost of $9 a square foot. Some weeks it looks as if certain Iqaluit residents are determined to tear the city’s buildings down faster than they can be built.

In Nunavut’s boozed-up capital city, the rising property crime rate is just one part of the most reliable indicator we have for the amount of alcohol abuse in Iqaluit – the crime rate.

And in nearly all categories, the crime rate – Iqaluit’s most accurate drunk-o-meter – is rising sharply.

Here’s a few more examples:

* Disturbing the peace occurrences are up from 700 at the end of October 2002 to 942 at the end of October this year;
* Assaults are up from 418 at the end of October 2002 to 444 at the end of October this year;
* Sexual assaults are up from 45 at the end of October 2002 to 54 at the end of October this year;
* Impaired driving offences are up from 24 at the end of October 2002, to 57 this year.

And so it goes. Overall, the RCMP report 2,107 liquor-related occurrences in Iqaluit by October 2003. Remember, this is a community of less than 6,000 people.

All those numbers represent hundreds of broken lives, broken families and broken bodies. They represent months, and often years of jail time for scores of people. They represent many hundreds, if not thousands of hours worth of employee absences, and the costs imposed on government and private sector employers alike. They represent an incalculable loss of human potential.

To be fair, the people of Iqaluit have been struggling with alcohol abuse for at least three generations. But despite a lot of work by a lot of good people, it just gets worse.

It’s clear that all the growth in Iqaluit produced by the creation of Nunavut hasn’t helped, but it would be unfair to blame everything on that single event.

Over the past five years, the Government of Nunavut has put a lot of effort into combating another noxious substance that makes people sick and eventually kills them: tobacco.

But at the same time, alcohol abuse and alcohol-related crime has risen every year, especially in Iqaluit. Will the next Nunavut government devote the same attention to alcohol abuse? Only time will tell. JB