John Howard Society of the Northwest Territories

is seeking community-minded volunteers interested in the Yellowknife Community Justice Committee
Community Justice is an alternative measure to the usual court procedures for first time and young offenders who are not involved in serious or violent crimes

Orientation is on March 20, 2010

A police record check is required

For more information contact

Lydia Bardak at 920-4276

Community Justice Committees are made up of local volunteers who are interested in justice issues in their community and have a want to help youth and adult offenders take responsibility for their actions, making the community a safer place to live. Members of the Justice Committee are appointed under the NWT Youth Justice Act and communities have a paid coordinator in place to assist in the administration of committee functions. You can read more on the appointment process here.

Restorative justice in the NWT is achieved by using alternative measures. By using alternative measures, criminal matters are diverted by the Police or Crown away from the traditional court system and are handled in the community by the Justice Committee. The offender does not get a criminal record by this process. Restorative justice can be defined as: “a process to involve, to the extent possible, those who have a stake in a specific offence and to collectively identify and address harms, needs, and obligations, in order to heal and put things as right as possible” (Howard Zehr).

The following documents will explain in detail what alternative measures are and how a case goes through the alternative measures/restorative justice process.

• Restorative Justice Information Pamphlet
• Restorative Justice Powerpoint Presentation
• Extra-Judicial Measures in the NWT

This time I was at a Francophone Arts, Culture and Education forum at Northern United Place,  a multistory concrete and steel building used as a church/apartment/college building with about 30 other folks. I thought for a moment it was snow falling off a roof… because that is what it sounded/felt like… rejected the idea because of the building type… then thought nothing of it until the Google alert from http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/recent_eq/2009/20091114.1808/index-eng.php came in… then I realized that it had been an earthquake!

The first one I felt in the NWT was several years ago in Inuvik late one night when I was living in a three story stick-built apartment building. More than that… it was built on telephone pole sized pilings. I was on the Internet and suddenly felt drunk… when I stood up I noticed that a pot of water on the stove (and not heating) was rippling… so I did a search and found the http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca site and discovered that Inuvik was in an earthquake zone… That building would have been destroyed in an instant had the quake been any larger. Then i tried to find out if, as in other earthquake zones, the gas connections to all those buildings in Inuvik had automatic, quake sensitive, shut-off valves to stop gas from causing earthquake damaged buildings from blowing up… asked a guy installing the pipes.. he didn’t know anything about it. I still don’t know.

The first time I ever felt an earthquake was at my parents house in the Laurentians north of Montreal… also an earthquake zone…

Ever since the one in Inuvik I’ve been trying to get the local media to report on the state of earthquake preparedness in the Territory by sending reports to them when I see them.   (There is none that I’ve eaver heard of)  It should be interesting to see the what the local media reports on it this week as the epicentre was only a few clicks from Yellowknife.

I’d hate to hear of deaths in the territory caused by lack of planning for the aftermath of an earthquake because back when I was in Inuvik I found out that even local media did not have any plans in case of an earthquake. Hello CBC are you listening? And that’s not hard… see  EARTHQUAKE PREPAREDNESS CHECKLIST FOR MEDIA http://www.johnmartin.com/earthquakes/EQGUIDES/eqgui_4401.htm

When will we see / hear something on earthquake preparedness fron the GNWT?

Think there’s nothing to worry about?

Read this

Rock and Roll in the N.W.T.:  The 1985 Nahanni Earthquakes

“…A remarkable and unprecedented sequence of earthquakes is shaking the mountains west of Fort Simpson in the Northwest Territories. A magnitude 6.6 earthquake on October 5, 1985, and an even larger magnitude 6.9 event on December 23, 1985 disturbed the beautiful and mysterious Nahanni region of the Mackenzie Mountains. Between these earthquakes, and still continuing today, a long succession of aftershocks rumble and jolt the area.

The earthquake sequence amazed both the general public and the earth science community. People in the Northwest Territories, the Yukon, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and southeastern Alaska were startled by the vibrations. Local radio stations, newspapers and police departments were swamped with callers asking for details of the tremor. Seismologists were astonished by the size of the events. All across Canada their seismographs recorded strong ground motions….”

Read more at http://earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/histor/20th-eme/nahanni/nahanni85-eng.php

“…

See “Before an earthquake: Home preparedness checklist”

http://www.getprepared.gc.ca/knw/ris/eq-eng.aspx#a3

Google in Yellowknife

Google Street Car 2 on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.