How safe do RCMP think you are in the Northwest Territories?

“Up here, you’re safe.”

The view of NWT RCMP’s commanding officer is simple. Chief Superintendent Dyson Smith says anyone living in the south has more to worry about than someone in the North.

In the second part of a series, we asked Smith to talk about drugs and safety in the NWT. (The first part looked at how RCMP are trying to address a 25-percent vacancy rate in the force here. In a later report, we’ll look at the issue of bail.)

Local leaders and healthcare workers in places like Hay River, Fort McPherson and other small NWT communities have reported deep concern about the effect of drugs on residents and neighbourhoods.

People who live in those communities have reported what they say is a significant increase in crime associated with the drug trade. In some cases, vigilante action against perceived drug dealers has been the outcome.

Smith acknowledged one change in the drug trade that is having a specific effect on small communities, but said northerners need to take “a realistic, hard look at what is actually going on here.”

“People would say all the time they don’t feel safe,” he said, recalling meetings with residents in Yellowknife. “And I would stop them and be like, ‘What did you just say?’ You don’t ‘feel’ safe. That’s the key.”

“Statistically speaking, we are extremely safe up here,” Smith continued. “Random crime on strangers is extremely rare here, not like you’re seeing down south. There’s a huge difference between feeling safe and being safe. And up here, you are safe.”

Smith’s argument is that the vast majority of crime in the NWT related to the drug trade is targeted.

“It’s not like what you’re seeing down south where strangers are coming in and stealing from people. These are targeted attacks. These are people who are engaged with the drug trade in some way or bootlegging in some way. Maybe they’re actively drug dealing and it’s competition, or they owe money for drugs and these people are going to collect,” he said.

“I don’t believe, in the last six years, I’ve seen a single stranger attack where somebody out of the blue had their door kicked in and was robbed at gunpoint.

“If you’re not in that world, the likelihood is you’re not going to be exposed to the violence of that world. I think that’s something everybody really should be appreciative of up here.”

Expansion into communities

Asked about shifts in drug-related crime, Smith said drugs have long been an issue across the territory – but the form that drug dealing takes is changing.

“Drug dealers have been here a long time in different forms. What has really changed is we don’t have established gangs here. We don’t have a clubhouse down on 50 Street that we can kick the door in and the drug problem is over,” he said.

Ten years ago, for example, a BC-based gang was described as having “moved into Yellowknife” en masse. More than a dozen people believed to be connected to the gang were reportedly arrested in the space of three months.

Now, Smith said, “the organized crime groups are all established down south. They’re sending their people up to conduct business here and then funnel the money back down south.”

“There’s always been the ability to ship drugs into communities through the various charter companies or Canada Post,” he added.

“What we are seeing is an expansion into some of the smaller communities where the drug runners are setting up shop. They’re taking over houses in certain locations. That is different.”

Stays, witnesses and safety

RCMP have taken to issuing news releases that more closely document efforts to combat drug-related crime, paying particular attention to where people come from and whether they’ve been arrested before.

This year, seven RCMP news releases have mentioned charges related to people with Ontario addresses. Eleven refer to people charged who had a connection to Alberta.

But not all of those charges stick.

In some recent instances where RCMP used news releases to declare progress against drug-related crime, the cases later fell apart.

In November last year, for example, three people – including two from BC – were charged in connection with drug trafficking in Inuvik. By March this year, charges against all three had been withdrawn.

In February, police said they had seized drugs in Norman Wells, three people had been arrested and charges related to trafficking were pending. By July, the charges against all three had been stayed. (A stay means the prosecution is paused. While technically the prosecution could resume at a later date, stays usually mean the end of the case.)

An Inuvik arrest in March resulted in a stay a month later. In Hay River, a 27-year-old charged in April no longer had a case to answer by October. In Fort McPherson, two men charged in 2023 with vehicle theft and drug trafficking – men that some residents ended up assaulting, according to reports at the time – ultimately had the charges against them stayed.

The reasons for charges being withdrawn or stayed vary. A withdrawal or stay means the people involved were ultimately not found guilty of any crime in connection with those charges.

Stays and withdrawals are almost never publicized and their discovery usually requires reporters checking in on dozens of active cases at the courthouse.

“When we have stays or the withdrawal of charges, we always seek to find out why. Is it something we did? Is it something we missed? Was there someone we didn’t speak to that we should have, or is it just luck of the draw?” Smith said.

“What I mean by that is, nine times out of 10, the police are not the witnesses to events. We’re the ones you call after it’s happened or while it’s going on, and we show up and we rely on other people to give us that evidence.”

That means witnesses, and Smith said witnesses who “recant or aren’t cooperative” account for “quite a number of the stays up here.”

Smith rejected the suggestion that a lack of cooperation from witnesses might be traced back to RCMP’s ability to keep them safe.

“The police cannot protect everybody from life’s situations. It’s just an unrealistic expectation. We only have so many police officers, so many hours in a day,” he said.

Smith said any “bona fide threat” against a witness will be examined, adding: “What I mean by that is we will actually look into it and investigate and see: is there validity to this, or is it just somebody spouting off because they they’re frustrated that they got caught and they’re going to court?”

He also noted that there were “lots of cases” where RCMP did not seek a prosecution because they feared for the safety of witnesses.

“It’s not worth running a case if we know that a witness is going to be identified and could be in jeopardy,” he said.

“We have had cases where there have been bona fide threats to life and we have relocated people. It’s a rare occasion, especially up here, and it’s not something that I want people to think is going to be offered all the time.”

He concluded: “There is an onus on people to take their own safety into regard and to not put themselves in situations that would put them in harm’s way.”

Emily Blake contributed reporting.