An issue for many smaller municipalities and urban areas
throughout North America is whether or not to impose a curfew on
youth. This is certainly a live issue in the Northwest Territories.
Municipal leaders may find themselves facing the issue of how to
fairly manage a youth population with long hours of summer
daylight, who may not necessarily have enough activities to
fill their time which, on occasion, unfortunately leads to
mischief.
While this issue is by no means unique to the Northwest
Territories, territorial and municipal leaders have at times taken
a legislative approach to attempt to deal with it. From 1953 until
2013, the Curfew Act gave municipal councils and
unincorporated communities the power to establish “curfew
districts.” In such a district, children of a specified age
were not allowed to be outdoors after a specified hour, unless
accompanied by an adult.2 The most recent version
of the Curfew Act allowed such curfew districts to
