Passing judgment on lack of resources

Justice Robert Kilpatrick made the following statement in circuit court in Kugluktuk on Feb. 8:

“Every community in the Kitikmeot region struggles with serious problems of domestic violence. Special programming is needed to deal not only with the consequences of victimization but also with the offenders. Absent specialized training in the programs designed to address those issues, there will be many, many more victims.

“If the Nunavut Government takes seriously its commitment for healthy families and healthy homes, it will put in place the funding necessary to ensure that the communities who struggle with these problems have the resources to deal with them. Jail is not a simple fix-all for these types of special problems. It requires, as indicated by the mental health supervisor, specialized programs and services.

“The court is extremely disappointed to hear that we do not have any means of addressing this type of issue because this issue occupies a substantial amount of the court’s time. Sending offenders packing to jail in some cases is absolutely necessary, but the tendency is for their anger to simply increase. They come out angry and they come out bitter, and the chances of a repeat offence are enhanced, not reduced, by sentences of incarceration without adequate programming in the community to help the offender overcome issues of his past.

“I trust that the communities will, at some point, mobilize and bring this urgent need to the Government of Nunavut’s attention.

“There is nothing, it appears, that I can do for you, sir, except to encourage you to seek help from traditional counseling through the elders because it seems that the Government of Nunavut has no other answer except to suggest perhaps jail for offenders who have anger issues.”

From a transcript by court reporter Linda Kimball.