THE CANADIAN PRESS
IQALUIT, Nunavut - An Arctic community is angry over photos of two young boys sleeping on a sidewalk, curled up fast asleep in the early morning among cigarette butts and garbage cans outside a grocery store.
"There's an outcry," says Elisapee Sheutiapik, the mayor of the Nunavut capital, Iqaluit. "No grown person would want to see something like that."
The photographs were taken by a woman at about 6:30 a.m. on July 26 as she happened to see the two preteen boys, who haven't been identified. One has his hands tucked between his legs for warmth, the other is wearing shorts and sandals.
After the woman took the photos, she called RCMP. By the time officers responded, one of the boys had left and the other was then taken home.
Sources have told The Canadian Press that the boys were sleeping rough out of fear because adults in their homes were drinking. The disturbing images are focusing new attention on Nunavut's social problems and have led to calls for some sort of youth emergency shelter in the city of about 7,200.
"The home is supposed to be a haven for the children, where they're supposed to feel safe," said Sheutiapik.
Statistics show Nunavut has some of the highest rates of violence in the home in Canada.
A 2006 study by the Inuit women's group Pauktuutit said the territory's rate of spousal violence is 6.5 times the national average, and only about one-third of such assaults are reported to police. The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics found that 20 per cent of all violent incidents reported to police in Nunavut involved spousal assault. Although Iqaluit has a shelter for abused women and a men's shelter, it has no place for children to turn in an emergency.
"If we had some sort of community centre or something where they go or where there's an adult there, at least they could have a place to stay and sleep at night," said Deenah Kelly of the Iqaluit Housing Authority, which manages the community's social housing.
"This is tragic, that kids are sleeping on the street like this. God knows what could have happened to them."
"Everyone that I've spoken with has been outraged. Just outraged."
Some, however say the photos shouldn't have been released and it's the parents, not the RCMP or the social services system, who are at fault.
"People told me, 'How dare you blame the RCMP, how dare you blame social services,' " said Evie Eegeesiak, who released the photos to the news media and whose daughter took them. "People wanted me to ignore it."
Lorne MacLeod of Nunavut's Social Services Department said Iqaluit doesn't need a youth shelter. The community's network of foster homes and on-call social workers is adequate, he said.
"We have always been able to locate a safe place for children to spend the night," he said. "I don't think a safe shelter would make any difference."
He said his department gets calls about children sleeping outside in Iqaluit about three or four times a year.
- By Bob Weber in Edmonton
