• Research Areas
• Publications
• New Releases
• Research Reports
• by Subject
• by Title
• Advanced Search
• JustResearch
• Fact Sheets
• Site Map
• Contact Us

Previous Page | Table of Content | Next Page

5.0 CONCLUSION 

This research process has increased the clarity around the situation and circumstances of victimized people in Canada’s three northern territories. It has provided insight into the dynamics of victimization and provided a wide variety of culturally appropriate and potentially effective options for increasing the safety, protection and recovery possibilities for victims of crime.

The basic building block of this research, extensive consultation in each territorial community, has indicated that service providers are universally aware of the levels, the dynamics and the results of victimization in their community and territory. They report that virtually no community member is untouched by violence of one type or another. And, they have been very clear about the types of programs, supports, funds and legislation needed to address this serious situation.

These service providers in each territory and every community are the key to rectifying this situation of endemic victimization. Every possible type of support must be extended to them. This is by far the major recommendation of this paper. These supports are outlined in detail in each chapter of this paper, and although the circumstances in each territory are unique, in general they include:

• extensive training and concrete support, in a wide variety of areas, for all service providers dealing with victims of crime;
• focused and ongoing public awareness and education campaigns;
• the ongoing creation of supportive, advocacy networks, coalitions and inter-agency committees (composed of service providers, funders, governments and citizens) throughout each territory, across the north, and in each community;
• the creation of victim-centred programs at the community level which employ a community development approach, and work in partnership with existing service providers;
• the creation of a variety of regional and territorial trauma recovery programs; and
• the passing of legislation in each territory which increases the safety, protection, rights and recovery possibilities of victims of crime.

These initiatives are the first step towards creating community and territorial social norms that are less trauma-based and more life-affirming. In the final analysis, Northern communities themselves need to develop short- and long-term strategies which focus on the creation of an equalitarian, life-affirming environment for all community members. However, that stage of community development, wherein the community honestly ‘owns’ its problems and solutions, is something that must be consciously and carefully worked towards over time. It definitely will not happen unless the community’s service capacity and self-sufficiency is advanced to the point where the level of awareness, honesty, empathy and courage necessary for recovery is at least partially established. At that point, a critical mass of recovered and informed people are in a position to assist the community face its communal problems head on.^[155]

The service providers in the North are working within cultures whose traditions and worldview are based on a deep appreciation for the interdependence of life. Their job, as the title of this paper infers, is to find a way to assist the community in the creation of a conscious, flexible and stable framework within which individuals and communities will heal, which in turn will slowly but surely harness and employ the inherent, life-affirming wisdom which is the heritage of each and every Northern individual and community.

^[155]    For an extensive exploration of the factors involved in community recovery, please read Mapping the Healing Journey. Funded and produced by the Solicitor General Canada and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, copies of this report are available at Aboriginal Corrections Policy Unit, Solicitor General Canada, 340 Laurier Ave. West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0P8, or at www.sgc.gc.ca., Cat. # JS42-105/200E and ISBN # 0-662-32088-3.

Previous Page | Table of Content | Next Page