Residents evicted from suspected Whitehorse drug den
A suspected drug den in Whitehorse has been shut down.
The house is on Hanna Crescent in the McIntyre subdivision.
A community safety order on the property, issued last week by the Yukon Supreme Court, took effect at midnight on May 11. It is only the second such order to be posted in Whitehorse and the first on Yukon First Nations land.
The shutdown of 23A Hanna Crescent follows years of complaints made to police and the Kwanlin Dün First Nation which owns the house.
"The sense that I get, our citizens are relieved this is happening," says Kwanlin Dün Chief Doris Bill. "This issue has been the number one concern of our citizens."
A petition made by Yukon's Director of Public Safety & Investigations under the Department of Justice describes a history of trafficking and drug use at the house.
The petition mentions cocaine, Oxycodone, ecstasy and morphine as well as a steady stream of people coming and going at all hours.
Under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act the property was put under surveillance between December 2014 and April 2015.
The Kwanlin Dün First Nation has supported attempts to shut down the house and says it is co-operating with the SCAN office.
"I think it's just another step in dealing with a larger problem," says chief Bill. "Our citizens have spoken loud and clear that they want a safer community."
The property is two blocks from an elementary school and four blocks from a daycare.
It will be fenced off for 90 days before the keys go back to the Kwanlin Dün First Nation.
Chief Bill says the evicted tenant now has other accommodations.
A community safety order is just one tool available under SCAN legislation. The last one was issued in 2012 for a house in Porter Creek. SCAN legislation has also been used to evict tenants from other residences, after repeated accusations of drug use and illegal activity.
The Yukon government's Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit says it investigated 55 complaints in 2014 about illegal activities such as drug trafficking and bootlegging.
