Trashing of Elders Palace was ‘last straw,’ Cambridge Bay CAO says
Hamlet holds public meeting to tackle ongoing vandalism issue
The Cambridge Bay Elders Palace was trashed in July. At the time, chief administrative officer Marla Limousin said vandalism “sets you back emotionally” and that “we as a community need to deal with it.” (Screenshot courtesy of the Hamlet of Cambridge Bay/Facebook)
Cambridge Bay’s chief administrative officer says the hamlet has taken its first step towards addressing vandalism a month after the community’s gathering place for elders was trashed by vandals.
The hamlet held a public meeting at the community hall Tuesday evening for residents to give their input on what vandalism is, why it’s happening in the community and how they can solve it.
“[The Elders Palace] was kind of the last straw,” said CAO Marla Limousin. “We needed to have a community conversation because we thought, as a community problem — a growing community problem — [that by] having that conversation, we could come up with a community solution.”
Around 35 people showed up, Limousin said. Organizers split the participants up into groups of seven, asked them a series of questions and had the answers written down on stickers and placed them on a sheet of paper on the wall.
Limousin said she doesn’t want to share the findings from the workshop just yet, as the hamlet is planning on hosting a forum with its youth advisory council in about three weeks.
But some organizations and volunteers have already stepped up by offering more activities and clubs for youth and parenting programs.
The ideas of youth will be especially important because most of the vandalism in the community is caused by minors, she said.
Cambridge Bay has had recent problems with people damaging property. That includes vandals trying to break into the art studio and a gazebo that was built for residential school survivors, and, last year, trashing an elder’s camp.
The hamlet will produce a report on the findings when the consultations are done and share it with a coalition of businesses, community organizations and government branches that want to help curb the issue.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” she said. “It’s a community problem.”
There is and has been a doctrine of more is better. If I have more stuff then life is better, and if I have more than others then life is great. I do not and wiser ones do not live with this way. We are social beings and a healthy community is a sharing community, wanting more without thinking of your neighbor is a sure way to trouble both personal and collective trouble.
Interesting thought, but how is it related to any of this?
It’s obviously a (thinly) veiled critique of what is perceived to be the social pathologies that flow from capitalism, which are to be juxtaposed against the superior ethical values of communalism (notice the moniker ‘che’ is used). However when the author says “I do not live this way” I suspect they are probably lying to themselves for the most part.
“It’s not just a municipal problem,” she said. “It’s a community problem.” said it right on just 35 people showed up to try and fix the problem 🙁
35/2000=0.0175
0.0175×8000=140
If 140 people in Iqaluit showed up to a community meeting, would you consider it enough of a sample size?
Cameras, you need Cameras. Arrest the jerks that are destroying public property. Where is the respect for the elders?
Kids can get a lot by burning down buildings and trashing places! New schools, new activities, new clubs… and community meetings to discuss how to thwart bad behaviour through by giving out more and more.
We should find the kids who DON’T vandalize and reward them instead. We’re doing this a bit backwards.