Gloria Galloway
Ottawa— From Saturday's Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 8:32PM EDT
Last updated Friday, Oct. 15, 2010 9:27PM EDT
A spate of armed standoffs in the tiny Nunavut community of Cape Dorset began months before it was decided that the four RCMP officers stationed there had to be pulled out this week for what their commander says is “advanced health intervention.”
There were two homicides in the past month alone in the hamlet of 1,200 that is a world-renowned Inuit art colony. The most recent occurred on Sunday when a 19-year-old man is alleged to have fatally shot his 23-year-old brother.
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In that particular volley of gunfire, one round – either by accident or design – was shot through the wall of an RCMP officer’s home and lodged itself in his bathtub while he and his wife and two small children were attending a Thanksgiving celebration elsewhere.
The force decided at that time that the four Cape Dorset Mounties had to be removed to deal with the trauma, “because of the threat, and risk that they were exposed to,” Chief Superintendent Steve McVarnock told a news conference in Iqaluit on Friday. The plan was to fly them out to Iqaluit on Wednesday.
But in the wee hours of the morning before they were to leave, two 15-year-olds fired shots in a residential street. Three of the officers responded and one of the youths took a shot to his side. An external team of officers is now in Cape Dorset to investigate allegations that the bullet came from an RCMP gun.
The young man will recover from his wound, for which Chief Supt. McVarnock said he and his officers are grateful. The injured teen’s friend is in custody and another team of officers investigating whether the boys should be charged.
Meanwhile, a third team is still working on the Sunday homicide.
In total, there are now 17 officers in the town, five of whom will stay to replace the four who were taken out.
It’s not easy being part of a four-man force in one Canada’s remote northern communities.
“They have had more of their share in the past four months,” said Chief Supt. McVarnock. “And this recent incident this weekend when a round actually went through the house ... I guess I would ask you to put yourself and your spouse, and your family in that situation,”
An investigation into another unrelated killing that occurred Sept. 19 has yet to be completed, though an 18-year-old has been charged with second-degree murder. Police say alcohol was a factor in that death – as it has been in much of the mayhem in the community over the years.
But there was none consumed prior to shootings this week, officials say. And, in some ways, that is even more frightening because there is no demon to blame.
Mayor Cary Merritt called town leaders to a meeting on Thursday night to come up with ways to handle the crisis. They will meet again over the weekend and present solutions next week.
Fred Schell, the local MPP, was at the Thursday gathering. The first resolution, he said, was that the many guns lying loose in homes in the community of hunters must be locked away. “One suggestion, of course, was to get cabinets or trigger locks,” said Mr. Schell, “which I have volunteered to supply if anybody can’t afford it.”
Mr. Schell said he knows all of the young men involved in the shootings this week. Like so many others in Cape Dorset, they are all sculptors.
“In general they are good kids and good people. It’s just that they made a wrong decision, something sparked it and they got into an argument or something, and this happened,” he said. “I think it would help if, definitely, the guns were locked up.”
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