Vice news put out a short doc on drinking and crime rates in Nunavut. I wanted to start discussion on the topic.
I'm on a mobile device so this may be a little muddled, sorry about that. Some of these articles are a few years old but they seem to still be relevant since things don't seem to be changing too fast.
I wasn't really aware that crimes rates were so much higher in the territories compared with the rest of the country and I also wasnt aware about prohibition in many communities.
Crime has soared in Nunavut since the territory was founded 12 years ago, amid high hopes of restoring Inuit people's control of their destiny. It now has Canada's highest rates of homicide, suicide and substance abuse, as well as the nation's worst public health picture. Is Nunavut a failure in nation building? And if so, what must be done to heal history's scars?
Table 1 indicates crime rates by offence per 100,000 population for Canada, the NWT and Nunavut.[7] The rates for both the NWT and Nunavut are higher than for Canada as a whole. Crimes of violence (e.g., assault, sexual assault) are extremely high in the territories relative to Canada. Similarly, the rate of break and enter is substantially higher in the territories
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The Statistics Canada data included in Tables 1 and 2 demonstrate the relatively high level of violent offending by youth and adults in Nunavut, as well as the relatively high rates of property crime, particularly break and enter. Both RCMP and Nunavut Corrections personnel have suggested that these rates will likely continue to rise in view of the relatively young age of Nunavut's population. Key informants view the lack of community level programming for youth as an especially serious contributing factor in the rising crime rates.
4.4. Summary
Nunavut is characterized by a fast growing, young population. Its proportion of young people infancy to 14 years is almost twice that for Canada as a whole. The territory has a higher rate of violent personal crime, particularly domestic abuse and sexual assault, in comparison to Canada. Property crime, especially break and enter, are also proportionately high compared to the rest of Canada. Key informants are concerned that the incidence of criminal behavior will increase in the near future.
Crime rates in North still higher than in rest of Canada
N.W.T., Nunavut have rates about 4 times higher than national average
Jul 24, 2012 9:09 PM CT
CBC News
Crimes rates in the north are not declining like most of Canada.
Across Canada last year, the number of crimes reported to police was at a 40-year low in 2011, according to new numbers from Statistics Canada.
But in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, crime remains about four times the national average. In Yukon, the crime rate is about double the national average.
"There's a number of factors, educational issues, addictions issues, housing issues, employment issues. All sorts of things like that play into people's ability to keep themselves productive and out of trouble, out of distractions, which are created by such things as addictions issues," said RCMP Staff Sgt. Brad Kaeding.
Kaeding said the majority of crimes are related to alcohol, and to a lesser extent, drug use. He added that victims and perpetrators often know each other; very few crimes are random.
Maclean’s third annual crime surveys shows an epidemic of violence in the North. Forget Arctic sovereignty. This is the problem that needs attention.
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At the root of all this crime is “alcohol, alcohol, alcohol,” says Chief Supt. Steve McVarnock, head of the Nunavut RCMP. “When alcohol comes into the communities the majority of them will experience a spike in police-related activity.” Even places that have decided by plebiscite to prohibit alcohol are often sabotaged by bootleggers. Pangnirtung and Arviat are both “dry,” but they experienced an increase in crime in 2009 compared to one year earlier, says McVarnock. In March, he adds, officers arrested two individuals in Iqaluit who had ordered 2,800 60-ounce bottles of vodka, which sell for up to $500 each in smaller communities.
A Closer Look at Nunavut’s Notoriously High Murder Rate
December 5, 2014
by Peter Worden
My neighbor in Iqaluit tried to kill someone. We've shared cabs and we pass one another in the toiletry aisle, but it wasn't until her name was called in court this week that I made the connection. Even then, I just nodded as if to say, well, #### happens.
Life goes on in the territory. It has to—even after a suspicious death last week in Igloolik (pop. 1,454), a murder the week before in Rankin Inlet (pop. 2,266), and one before that on October 1 in Pond Inlet (pop. 1,549). In Nunavut (pop. 31,906), we're all neighbors to the most serious criminal offence: murder.
This week Statistics Canada released its Homicide Survey—an annual cobbling-together of data from police forces across the country. It boasts the fewest homicide victims in 40 years. That number is down in Nunavut too: four homicides in 2013 from five in 2012 and seven in 2011. It's a deceptive stat that, like so many national reports, paints Nunavut as an outlier in Canada.
If Nunavut were a city its homicide rate would be triple that of Regina, the Canadian metropolitan area with the highest per-capita murder rate. If it were a country its murder rate would be double that of the US and in the range of Nicaragua and Haiti.
I'll say what I said in my Sociology of Health paper which got me into an argument with the Prof in front of the whole class.
Canada is simply too big geographically with too small of a population to support far flung, sparsely populated areas and maintain a similar level of quality of life that we in the southern population belt get to enjoy. It's completely unrealistic to expect that all of these communities of a few hundred in the territories and the northern parts of any province are going to have the same hospitals, schools, police presence and community programs that the major population belt does. Especially since ALOT of these areas produce pretty much zero economic gain or value for the country.
Unfortunately, this issue gets messy really quick because these communities tend to be the land that native families have lived on for generations so they don't want to leave. It's a terrible cycle of wanting a better quality of life, not wanting to leave the land your family has lived on for ages and that land being pretty useless.
I watched a story on a man in a northern native reserve town that had kidney problems (most of the reserve has terrible health) and was flown to winnipeg every weekend on the governments dime to go on dialysis and he was outraged that the free plane rides were going to come to an end in a few months. Well tough luck in my opinion. The resources are there for you to take advantage of, but you're choosing to stay somewhere that simply cannot support any infrastructure investment.
The only way these people see a better life is a population boom in the rest of Canada, a resource boom on their lands or if they suck it up and leave. Unfortunately, only the last option is realistic and readily available.
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Not sure if serious, but don't think you could grow anything up there with how weak the sunlight is
Well a resource boom none the less. You'll still be able to farm more land though no? I'm sure the "Not enough sun to farm" line is north of the "Too frozen to farm" line?
Well a resource boom none the less. You'll still be able to farm more land though no? I'm sure the "Not enough sun to farm" line is north of the "Too frozen to farm" line?
Notice how there's no trees in that documentary? The sunlight is too weak for any kind of tree to grow up north, so I'm guessing that would impact most agriculture as well
Notice how there's no trees in that documentary? The sunlight is too weak for any kind of tree to grow up north, so I'm guessing that would impact most agriculture as well
I am guessing that 4 "" mean he knows he might be wrong........
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Once the tundra melts there should be a massive farming boom, no?
How you going to farm if you can't drive anywhere? Losing permafrost up north is a nightmare. Existing buildings, perma-roads and even pipelines will all sink and get wrecked.
Earth is a spinning rock that goes once around the big ball of fire once every year. Its spinning on a tilted access. Think about it. I'm talking to you Hemi-Cuda.
Last edited by blueski; 01-16-2015 at 10:42 AM.
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How you going to farm if you can't drive anywhere? Losing permafrost up north is a nightmare. Existing buildings, perma-roads and even pipelines will all sink and get wrecked.
Earth is a spinning rock that goes once around the big ball of fire once every year. Its spinning on a tilted access. Think about it. I'm talking to you Hemi-Cuda.
Then why does the boreal forest just stop in Nunavut?
I'm not talking about places with plenty of vegetation already like Alaska and the western territories. There's a pretty stark difference when you compare cities like Yellowknife and Iqaluit
Yeah, I find that Vice, which is touted as an alternative to the "mainstream media" has a bias as well.
I want to like Vice more than I do. I feel they decide to do stories about great things, unfortunately I don't feel that they execute those stories well enough. There's always a feeling of something missing. I rarely feel significantly more educated on a subject they cover. It's always just kind of skimming the surface and never really taking a bite into the topic.
I think their format really hurts their potential. Short 10-12 minute youtube style videos and 15 minute segments on their show.
It will take a long time before the soil conditions are naturally suited to large scale plant ecosystem systems though (or agriculture for that matter).
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It's really important to have discussion on our northern population on CP, imo. Those crime stats are astounding, I first saw the homicide rate in the Sun a few weeks ago and was taken aback. Life is pretty bleak up there.
Unfortunately, troutman's random question has turned this into a farming and vegetation discussion, but hopefully we can eventually get back to the topic.
This is a problem in Manitoba as well where many northern communities are only accessible by winter roads. Otherwise you have to fly in. Good luck helping them.
Nobody wants to move further south either, even if the government helps them relocate.
How much should be spend helping people that just literally want to sit there?
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Well, the cold hard truth is that the modern world simply does not accommodate hunter/gatherer nomadic people any more. Canada's northern aboriginal people have of course become settled for the most part but they have never completely accepted modern western culture. They are both alienated culturally from their historical roots and the modern world around them and that has to be depressing. A lot of things are simply inaccessible, but at the same time they seem unwilling to take the next step into the future. It's self-imposed alienation as much as it is institutional.
What they are going through is not unusual. Europe had many indigenous nomadic cultures that do not exist anymore because they were either settled or became assimilated (Roma being a notable exception, however you see similar types of social problems in their communities). No one sheds a tear for their loss because it was a natural part of how nations grow.
Also, let's face it but life up there does not offer the comforts that it does in other parts of the country which leads to more substance abuse. People feel ####ty about being stuck there so they drink, which of course leads to more crime. The only solution is to bring the comforts there, or to make them move and no one wants to do either.
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 01-16-2015 at 12:14 PM.
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Now, these are the REAL suburban subsidies we are talking about.
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The Territories: Canada's Shame
