Categories: Canada

Canada's shame

Maclean’s third annual crime surveys shows an epidemic of violence in the North. Forget Arctic sovereignty. This is the problem that needs attention.

by Cathy Gulli with Patricia Treble on Thursday, October 14, 2010 3:30pm - 0 Comments
Canada's shame

Chris Windeyer/Nunatsiaq News

Talk to people living in the North about why the violent crime rate is so high compared to the rest of Canada and you’ll hear about the “complex” or “unique” problems “up here.” But it’s not until you listen to Peter J. Harte, a lawyer in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, tell the unimaginable story of a young woman he knows that you can begin to understand what that means.

At 13, the girl was sexually abused by her brother. This only came to the attention of police when they questioned her about why she was trying to put her little sister into hiding. Her brother wound up in jail, and the teen was placed with a foster family in another community.

Almost immediately, the foster father began sexually abusing her, too—which police learned about this time when they encountered the girl running down the street naked. The man was convicted, but just before sentencing he hung himself. With no place else to go, the girl returned to her home community, where her brother, now free, nearly beat her to death.

“That,” says Harte, “is the first five years of her teenage life. Now she’s got a four-page criminal record, which is mind-boggling for a woman.” Maybe not surprisingly, adds Harte, who is the senior criminal counsel for the Nunavut legal services board, “it includes convictions for hooking to get drugs or alcohol to dull the pain.”

This young woman’s heart-wrenching situation speaks to some of the factors that experts say have caused the epidemic of violent crime in Nunavut, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon: the trauma of sexual and physical abuse, the frequency of suicide, the pervasiveness of addiction, the geographic isolation, the lack of social services. The desperation or rage that drives people to do things they might never otherwise consider.

Taken together, these issues help explain why in 2009 the North had the nation’s highest—that is, the worst—score on Statistics Canada’s Crime Severity Index (CSI). In this, our third annual “Most Dangerous Cities” report, Maclean’s is using the CSI for the first time as the basis for our reporting. It’s a number developed by Statistics Canada using police reports to determine the seriousness of crime in a given area, and it allots more weight to the worst offences such as homicide or sexual assault. As in past years, Maclean’s also tracked trends by commissioning from StatsCan a run of six indicator crime statistics—homicide, sexual assault, aggravated assault, robbery, breaking and entering and auto theft.

Almost invariably, the North turned up as the most dangerous part of the country. Nunavut, the N.W.T. and the Yukon took the top three spots respectively in the CSI ranking of Canadian territories and provinces. They also had the highest rates of sexual and aggravated assault.

Nunavut and the Yukon had the first- and second-highest homicide rate, followed by the N.W.T. in fourth. And Nunavut and the N.W.T. also had the first- and second- highest rates of breaking and entering, and auto theft in the country—with the Yukon still above the national rate. Admittedly, the national CSI score has dropped 22 per cent since 1999. But in Nunavut, the N.W.T. (and Newfoundland to a far lesser degree), crime scores have risen in that time.

Although the North has been a political magnet of late—with much attention paid to Canada’s claim to sovereignty, to resource development and fears of Russian planes flying overhead—the reality of rampant crime has often been overlooked. For the people who live in the three territories, though, it may be the most pressing issue they face—one that will have an indelible impact on their very future.

The crime problem is only made more troubling by the fact that it’s occurring in a country like Canada, says Scott Clark, a professor at Ryerson University’s department of criminology in Toronto. Having worked for more than 30 years in the North as a consultant and in government, including in Nunavut’s Department of Justice as assistant deputy minister, Clark doesn’t mince words: “We really should be ashamed,” he says. “We pride ourselves as Canadians on having a good country and a fair country, and we prize equality and helping our neighbours, but when you see what’s happening it just makes you want to hang your head.”

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  • Gwich'in Guy

    I've worked in the north for many years and concur that historical suffering and modern-day insufficiencies are at the root. A once proud people have been dragged so low, I doubt many communities will survive. Inter-famly and/or clan fighting, fights over limited numbers of jobs and houses continue to tear communities apart. Small town populations are dropping as people move to territorial capitals, or further south. And who can blame them? I would not want my children raised in these conditions. While the culture is stronger in small towns, the lack of jobs, housing, medical care — and hope — means the brightest are leaving to find jobs or social assistance elsewhere. It makes me want to cry. Until the 1970s men could earn a good living trapping. But the fur trade has collapsed (for the best, I guess), and those who lobbied against fur did nothing to support the people whose lives they destroyed. Shame on them. I could go on …

    • Guest

      "But the fur trade has collapsed (for the best, I guess), and those who lobbied against fur did nothing to support the people whose lives they destroyed. Shame on them."

      Funny how those same people want everyone to be "green", but don't spend much time protesting against factory farms. I wonder how many of them wear leather? I would love to see how any of them would survive going 'back to the land' – which is the ultimate in living green – without eating meat. There is nothing "greener" or more renewable than wearing fur; it has been done for all of human history – until recently. Rather than banning "green" products such as fur altogether I really don't understand why those same people haven't instead put their energy into ensuring that trapping and hunting and farming and fishing are done humanely and sustainably. Surely that would be a better use of their energy?

      • Gwich'in Guy

        "Rather than banning "green" products such as fur altogether I really don't understand why those same people haven't instead put their energy into ensuring that trapping and hunting and farming and fishing are done humanely and sustainably. Surely that would be a better use of their energy?"

        Agreed.

        Years ago, an old Dene Chief told me: "We didn't mind when you white men sent the fur traders to our country. They bought guns, axes, knives and medicine, and that was good for our people because it made our lives easier. We didn't mind when you sent the priests into our country because they taught us how to read and write, and their God was similar to our God. But I cannot forgive you for sending the social workers north, who told my children that they were owed a living and bought welfare cheques. That was the beginning of the end for my people." This guy complained he couldn't get his lazy sons to hunt or even help him pull in his fish nets. Years ago, they would have fished, hunted, farmed (yes, even in the north there are good farming spots), and trapped to take care of their family and community. Sigh. The violence, addictions and loss of hope are symptoms of people who have lost their way.

  • Guest

    Sorry – the above comment was for the main article. Re: this article I concur with everything Gwich'in Guy said above.

    I would also add that the "left's" tendancy to "baby" those with serious problems, rather than giving them:
    a) justice, and
    b) skills to get back on their feet (and that includes giving them resources so that they can get 'recover' the skills they had in their own communities that were lost via the residential schools process), and
    c) empowerment so that they can use those skills to become autonomous independant beings
    contributes significantly (and ironically) to keeping those communities in the situations we say we want to help them escape.

  • Guest

    Are there organizations to which Canadians can donate to help provide resources to help our fellow citizens? I looked online but oddly, I can't find any charitable organizations that help people in the north.

  • Guest

    I wholeheartedly agree with your comment on criminalizing violence/neglect against children. Maybe if more importance was placed in saving these children from the dangerous environment, these children wouldn't grow up to become criminals.
    Sadly, abuse (whether it be sexual, physical or emotional) is passed down through one hurt generation to the next. Why don't we do more to protect the defenseless children before they grow up to become the perpetrators of these violent crimes?

  • sadfg

    probably because something brings them outdoors instead of inside. and maybe their population gets too large because of the cold.

  • Colin

    There are no problems in Nunavut, not even in Cape Dorset, that have not been solved elsewhere in the world. First, alcohol, and its abuse, is absolutely not, of itself, the cause of the problems. It’s a symptom. Nor is pitifully weak Inuit leadership. That too is a symptom.

    Where problems have been most severe, as they once were in Harlem, New York, the school system has been able to do the heavy lifting. On the evidence, a successful school system can also turn around the parents in a seriously dysfunctional society. Without a successful school system, leadership for change practically never emerges within a community like most in Nunavut.or, if it does, the benefits tend to be small and temporary.

  • Colin

    For decades, Nunavut has needed a root-and-branch revamping of education and skills training. That must include a longer school day, including supervised in-school homework, and a longer school year. A successful program also requires vigorous participation by all students in sports, recreation and hobbies. The mostly great cadets program on the Hobbema Reserve near Calgary (largely sponsored by the RCVP) shows, however, that partial or voluntary participation often has the practical effect of leaving out those most in need.

    A Canadian success story showing what can be done is the Athol Murray College of Notre Dame, in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. It’s a Catholic, co-educational, boarding school for students in grades 9 to 12. It has enrolled many Indian students and has produced many famous hockey players. Another now sadly defunct success story was the Inuvik ski program which produced Canadian members of our Olympic cross-country ski team three years in a row.

  • Colin

    Nunavut also needs extensive prenatal and early-years social counseling. Problems with health such as FSA start in the womb. Hawaii’s Healthy Start program exemplifies how this can work.

    As far back as 1925, almost a century ago, the great Canadian anthropologist Diamond Jenness foresaw the challenges facing Inuit, and he also advocated the kind of solutions I propose­-education and skills training for the real jobs in their own land and not, as mostly now, just putting bums on seats.

    Too bad that Thomas Berger had his feet planted so firmly in the clouds when it was his job to find out and then say what needed to be done.

  • KivalliqKid

    Myths of sea goddies. The myths of little people were told long ago to be forgotten. Instead believe in
    the Jesus myths and the jealous hateful God myth.

    The Arctic did and is extreamly religious. To the point if you didn't get the H1N1 shot, it was implied you were the devil. Ex Nunavut politicinans tells the people which airline Jesus wants you to fly. While NTI president miss- uses company credit cards at a crack of 50 thousand plus dollars. Wasn't charged and keeps job – asks for forgiveness.

    The after life is a big thing at all funerals and church services. It's better, no suffering. Peaceful. So to many of us it isn't surprising to see high suicide numbers.

    Arctic is strangely living more in the after life than living well today. Eerily simular to the Muslim faith where reaching the after life is the main goal. Afghanistan and the Arctic both are very simular – primitive with next to no infrastructure and many un-educated people without work. There is now a Mosque in the Arctic. Along with a new influx of (USA) Baptist Churches and a 3 million plus Anglican church being built in Iqaluit.

    It's long past time Nunavut kicks the myths of christian religion out, greatly better itself and reducing crime. As I doudt if there is an Athiests in a Nunavut jail, but instead a pile of god fearing Roman Catholics, Baptists and Anglicans.

  • C. Ross

    The crime statistics for the North are skewed because they are based on populations of 100,000. Therefore, any one crime will impact the rate much more so than in an area of a much larger population. This is why the larger the area, the lower the Crime Severity Index rating. Saying that, when a crime does happen in the north, it can have more of an impact in the North because of the small population.

  • Taqulik

    This is not a new problem and the court system has been unable to deal with violence for decades. It is because of a mix of colonial approach with flying courts and disregard for Inuit or Dene cultures. Governments have known that for decades but, instead of trying to restore local social control, they increased the number of judges and lawyers and what did they get? The same results.

    Greenland has understood that local social control is important and that to be relevant, a "court system" (or conflict resolution processes) must be relevant to the population – they have had their own system for almost 60 years now. In Nunavut, the court system is basically irrelevant and those offenders that end up being convicted (many aren't), are sent to jail where they just "spend time" and they come back in their community much worse than they were when they were sentenced. To build on what is already dysfunctional is ridiculous and people of the north will not see the end of violence in that context. Governments are still thinking in a colonial way and for them, it seems repression and punishment is the only way to deal with a massive social problem.

    Unfortunately, the victims of this violence are paying the price of this ill-advised approach to the North.

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