A suspected crack house in the McIntyre subdivision will be shut down for 90 days pursuant to a community safety order issued by a Yukon Supreme Court judge this week.

The order comes after a five-month investigation by the territory’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) unit.

A lawyer for the director of public safety and investigations, who heads the SCAN team, was in court Wednesday to present the investigation’s results and seek an order that would shut down the Hanna Crescent duplex and evict two female residents.

Tracy-Anne McPhee spoke of people with known criminal histories of violence, intimidation and firearms offences visiting the house for very short periods at all hours of the day and night.

She also spoke of drug paraphernalia such as used needles lying on the property, partying, and several complaints from community members who feared retaliation for speaking up.

“There is overwhelming evidence that this home has been used as a crack house for some time,” said Justice Randall Wong.

He agreed to issue the 90-day order, which will come into effect at midnight Monday.

This is only the second time a community safety order has been granted since SCAN legislation was introduced in the Yukon in 2006, and the first time that such an order has been issued on a First Nation’s traditional territory.

Under the law, other options available to the SCAN unit include written warnings, evictions or informal agreements between Jeff Ford, the director of public safety and investigations, the property owner and the tenant.

McPhee said the order has the support of the Kwanlin Dun First Nation.

Its current residents are not the home’s proper leaser, said McPhee.

The mother of one of the women living there rents the home from the Kwanlin Dun First Nation, though she herself lives outside the city.

As criminal charges have not been laid against the female residents, the Star is not publishing their names.

SCAN legislation provides a civil remedy for illegal or suspicious activities taking place in a community. The unit is separate from the RCMP, and focuses solely on the property, not the people using it.

“Actions contemplated under the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods Act when working in concert with a community and other supports can not only disrupt and stigmatize illegal activity on a property, but lead to positive and durable change in the community,” said Justice department spokesman Tyler Plaunt.

The SCAN unit has to meet a lower standard of proof than the RCMP.

Investigators must show on a balance of probabilities that illegal activities are occurring, while police lay charges when there’s reasonable grounds to believe an offence has been committed, said Whitehorse RCMP Cpl. Natasha Dunmall.

“Police can arrest a specific individual but the illegal activities taking place at the residence or the property can continue,” she said.

“That revolving door is still going to move, while SCAN can essentially stop the door from moving all around. They displace the people and take the residence down.”

RCMP are assisting in this investigation, Dunmall said.

To grant a community safety order under the SCAN Act, a judge must be satisfied that goings-on at the property “give rise to a reasonable inference” that it’s being habitually used for illegal activity, and that the community is being adversely affected.

In this case, McPhee presented a three-year history of neighbourhood residents’ complaints and concerns.

They refer to constant visitors at the house, partying, impaired minors, an unrestrained pitbull and drug use and sales.

A Kwanlin Dun employee who entered the home in 2013 to clean the stove and chimney was pierced by a used hypodermic needle, McPhee said.

A young child also found a crack pipe on the property.

One person wrote to Kwanlin Dun about being threatened – “You are messing with the wrong people,” the person was told.

In a close-knit neighbourhood where many yards are littered with children’s toys and bicycles, with an elementary school and daycare just blocks away, the behaviour of the home’s residents and the ongoing activity there have made many people fearful.

A family living on the other side of the duplex also has young children.

When Kwanlin Dun staff went door-to-door after Brandy Vittrekwa’s violent death last December (see news brief below) to talk about community safety, four people complained of drug activity at the home.

“It’s commonly known as a crack house,” said McPhee. “They are scared of the illegal activity and other unsolved crimes in the neighbourhood.”

Drug dealing tends to lead to other types of crimes, she said, like impaired driving, violence and threats.

Kwanlin Dun and SCAN have issued several warnings to the residents since 2012.

When SCAN officers approached one of the residents at the home, she was belligerent and verbally abusive, McPhee said.

SCAN began investigating that year, but could not gather enough evidence that the home was being habitually used for drug-dealing.

McPhee said the residents had just been warned by Kwanlin Dun, so it’s possible activity quieted down temporarily.

SCAN began a new investigation in December 2014. Staff recorded 150 hours of video surveillance that showed 62 suspicious visits to the house, and 29 hours of live surveillance that documented 40 visits.

All were very short, often less than a minute, and at all hours of the day and night.

“A visit to your door for two minutes at 4 a.m. is probably not your friend coming over for a chat,” said McPhee.

One of the residents requested that Kwanlin Dun install a peephole in a wood-chute door at the back of the house. It’s a small door, not for human entry.

“Which begs the question why would someone need a peephole in that door?” McPhee asked. The woman’s request was denied.

McPhee highlighted some of the difficulties the SCAN team faced in conducting an investigation on a quiet crescent where many people know each other.

Surveillance cameras were stolen, and a vehicle left in the area by investigators was burned, McPhee said.

Although no representative from Kwanlin Dun was present at Wednesday’s hearing, McPhee said the First Nation supports the application.

“The Kwanlin Dun First Nation is co-operating with the Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods unit to do its work in the community,” KDFN spokeswoman Marie-Louise Boylan said in an email this morning.

“Kwanlin Dun and SCAN share a common interest in creating a safer community.”

The 90-day order will be in effect until Aug. 3. A copy of it will be posted on the residence.