Iqaluit city council meeting centres on public safety concerns
“How long do our citizens of Iqaluit have to wait to begin to feel safe? We need action.”
A red dress hangs in front of Coun. Joanasie Akumalik’s desk during Tuesday night’s Iqaluit city council meeting. (Photo by Dustin Patar)
The subject of public safety dominated Tuesday night’s Iqaluit city council meeting, following two violent incidents that have jolted the city.
Last week, on Feb. 7, Iqaluit RCMP charged a man with second-degree murder, after a 43-year-old woman was found dead in a Nunavut Arctic College housing unit.
Then, over the weekend, police asked the public for help finding Mosesee Nakashook, 50, who was later charged on Tuesday for the attempted murder of a 37-year-old woman.
“Those persons deemed responsible for those offences are in custody and I’d like to just reiterate our thanks to the public for the support,” said Staff Sgt. Garfield Elliott, who was on hand to present the city’s final 2019 crime statistics.
Last year, total calls for service rose by 834, from 8,651 calls in 2018 to 9,485 in 2019. That’s an increase of 9.6 per cent.
“Over the last three years actual files rose [to] 3,100 files, about 1,000 files a year on average, so that is a significant increase,” said Elliott.
The number of people taken into custody and held in cells at the RCMP detachment also rose in 2019, from 2,925 the year before to 3,164. That’s an increase of eight per cent.
When Elliott last addressed the council at the end of November, he reported that with staffing additions they had been able to respond to the growing number of calls.
Starting in December, Elliott said that additional staff have also allowed them to conduct walkthroughs of establishments serving alcohol.
In addition to “beverage room drop-ins,” Elliott also spoke about increased RCMP enforcement of court order conditions.
“We have a list of people that are on conditions and we assign—each watch—people to be accountable to go and check and so they go based off of our priorities and make the checks,” said Elliott.
“If it’s a really busy night for calls, then we’re probably not going to get the door knocks in but on quieter nights we’ll do door knocks and check for curfew or alcohol compliance.”
“That’s reassuring to hear,” said Coun. Sheila Flaherty.
Mayor Kenny Bell agreed. “I’m personally glad to hear that you started in December checking on people because almost every single news release that is released by the RCMP the accused is breaking a condition of alcohol or curfew.”
“If we can get to them before they do the violent crimes or the second violent crime—I’m not sure what they’re on conditions for—that will definitely help the situation. I was going to bring that up tonight, so I’m glad that you said that.”
“My duty to speak whenever possible”
Afterwards, Coun. Janet Brewster made an impassioned member’s statement on the subject of violence against women.
“As an advocate for missing and murdered women and someone who has felt this tragic loss of life and the impacts on our family firsthand, I feel it is my duty to speak whenever possible,” said Brewster.
“Losing my aunt Sylvia, Sylvia Ann Lyall here in this city has never left me emotionally well.
Advocating for her has led me to gain an even more intimate knowledge of violence beyond my own lived experience as a child and as a woman. Yesterday was also Sylvia’s birthday.”
“When we grieve a loved one that has been taken from us in such a horrific way, or feel the pain of a loved one that is injured in senseless and selfish acts of violence, it takes an emotional toll. Not only are we affected by the loss, or the pain, we are affected by every woman we know or don’t know, that has endured some type, or continues to endure, some type of violence or loss of life,” said Brewster.
“I ask that we let down our fear, that we make sacrifices, invest in change, and advocate our government, our Inuit organizations, all our city councillors including myself, our schools, our media, and in our social spheres, and with all stakeholders to make a real effort that has real impact, to bring these senseless acts to a halt. There must be a more organized approach.”
Brewster called on the Government of Nunavut to implement its crime prevention strategy.
“How long do our citizens of Iqaluit have to wait to begin to feel safe?” she asked. “We need action.”
“Today, I call upon the territorial government to reinstate the Ilagiitsiarniq working group on family violence, as the work is far from over. The calls to action and implementation of that action must be informed by those that have the greatest influence on potential action from the front line community groups and upwards.”
“I want to ensure that these ideas or perhaps better, strategies, turn swiftly into action,” said Brewster.
“Let’s take this step together, for the safety of Iqalungmiut, to end violence and increase awareness of the causes and consequences of violence and build capacity of partners to prevent and respond to violence.”
Brewster shared her entire statement on twitter.
“Systemic issues that are affecting our community”
Coun. Joanasie Akumalik also spoke on the events of the past week.
“I don’t even know how to deal with this,” he said.
“We lost a resident last week and on behalf of her I have this red dress in front of me.”
Akumalik asked residents to be more aware and more vigilant.
“These things are happening in our very own community. Why? Because there’s a lot of issues going on, the beer and wine, drugs, the community population growth,” Akumalik said.
“I’m glad that we have the public safety committee on the agenda.”
Later in the evening, Bell spoke to that: “I’d like to restart the public safety committee the city used to run, I’m not exactly sure when it stopped but I’d like to start it again.”
Sheppard proposed the motion and Akumalik seconded.
“I believe I was the last chair of the public safety committee, I would like to see and review some new terms of reference for that committee,” said Sheppard.
“Do we want this to be a committee that points out a missing sign for a crosswalk? Or do we want to look at systemic issues that are affecting our community?”
The consensus was that the focus should be broad systemic issues.
The motion passed unanimously, with a small amendment that the terms of reference will be revisited and brought to the council for approval.
Part of the problem that we are not allowed to discuss is that criminals are treated fairly lightly by the criminal justice system in Nunavut, which when sentencing indigenous offenders is obliged to account for “Gladue principles”. Which is really to say we will give you a lighter sentence on account of your identity. Were is the conversation, ever, about the rights and safety of the victims? Easy, the offenders are the only ones recognized as victims so, wrap it all up into one big broad category, assuage whatever guilt we are supposed to feel about it, and imagine that by using kid gloves everyone will magically heal. This is the false reality we are asked to live in.
Trauma affects people of all races, creeds, genders, etc… The Gladue principle has turned into an immunity card or privilege. A Rwandan refugee who saw his entire family gunned down in genocide would not be entitled to the same privilege. A trans adult who spent his entire childhood ridiculed for his behaviour would not be entitled to the same privilege. Generational trauma could be extended to Japanese-Canadians who were abused on the railroad several decades ago, or even French-Canadian who were not allowed to speak French under English rule. The time for Nunavut to reject the Gladue principle and meaningful consequences be applied to those guilty of rape, murder, child abuse, etc, need not apply. For the victims, there is currently no justice.
Apparently you have never read the relevant section of the Criminal Code of Canada’s sentencing principles in section 718.2 which states “…a sentence should be increased or reduced to account for *any relevant aggravating or mitigating circumstances* relating to the offence or the offender…”
The covers your traumatized Rwandan refugee or traumatized Japanese descendant of detainees, or any other person in Canada. The courts take this kind of experience into account all the time, on the basis that every offender is unique and the personal circumstances of every offender must be taken into account.
The Gladue decision is not a get out of jail free card. It just means judges should try harder to look at alternatives to incarceration for Indigenous offenders. This usually occurs for minor offences. For serious violent offences, the Gladue decision doesn’t usually make much of a difference, usually because the aggravating factors and the need for deterrence and denunciation outweigh everything else.
It’s also not true that Nunavut offenders are treated fairly lightly. This is a false myth spread by ignorant coffee shop blowhards.
There you go Johnny, some morning reading for the coffee shop
https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/nunavut-judge-tosses-jp-imposed-sentence-on-assault-conviction/
I guess you think sexual assault is a minor offence. Gladue can be applied to any charge and that’s the problem. Maybe people wouldn’t be so upset if it was only applied to minor offences but that’s not the case.
Violence against women runs rapid in the north from the top to the bottom. Mayor Bell knows! you hear stories about men punching women all the time. sometimes they go public.