|
In the Courts
June
13, 2003
Window of opportunity
Simeonie Tookalook, 22,
of Sanikiluaq was sentenced to 17 months for break and enter, assault and failure
to comply with a probation order.
Tookalook and a friend
broke into Sanikiluaq’s RCMP exhibit room and stole a “large”
amount of marijuana, four 40-oz bottles of vodka and some magic mushrooms on
April 27, the court heard.
The men entered the building
through an open window.
The break and enter was
a violation of a probation order from a previous unrelated charge.
The assault charge was
in relation to a separate incident. Earlier this year, Tookalook walked up to
a man in Sanikiluaq and “without provocation” punched the man in the
side head.
June 13, 2003
Beach fire under investigation
Iqaluit RCMP are asking
for the public’s assistance after a fire damaged a boat and outboard motor
near the Coast Guard building in lower base on the morning of June 6.
Anyone with information
is asked to call Const. Graham Boswall at 975-4473.
The fire is being treated
as arson.
June 13, 2003
Accused cop killer
heads to trial in January
Salamonie Goo Jaw, the
man accused of killing Const. Jurgen Seewald more than two years ago, will be
tried for first-degree murder in Cape Dorset beginning Jan. 27, 2004.
Lawyers for Crown and defence
agreed to the date during a court appearance last Thursday. The trial is expected
to last three weeks. Justice John Vertes of Yellowknife will hear the case.
Seewald, 47, was gunned
down in Cape Dorset while responding to a domestic dispute on March 5, 2001.
He is the only RCMP V division officer to die in the line of duty since the
creation of Nunavut.
Jaw, 49, has been in custody
at Baffin Correctional Centre since the shooting.
June 13, 2003
Voices told him to
stab sibling
Casey Nargyak, 19, of Gjoa
Haven is not criminally responsible for the aggravated assault he unleashed
on his older brother because of his mental disorder, Justice Beverley Browne
ruled last week.
Browne’s finding was
based on a recent psychiatric assessment. Discussion of the assessment in court
did not disclose Nargyak’s specific diagnosis.
Nargyak stabbed his sleeping
brother with a kitchen knife on March 23. The man survived the attack.
Nargyak heard voices the
night he attacked his sibling, the court heard. He believed spirits had overtaken
his brother and that the spirits wanted to hurt him.
The Nunavut Review Board
– made up of a psychiatrist, a mental health worker and medical doctor
– will determine which psychiatric hospital Nargyak will be sent to. The
Ontario-based team is scheduled to hold a hearing in the next two months.
Review boards typically
meet within 45 days of a person being deemed not criminally responsible.
“It may take longer,”
Browne speculated.
In the meantime, Nargyak
is being held at BCC awaiting the board’s recommendation, said lawyer Andy
Mahar.
June 13, 2003
Judged by one’s
peers
The Inuksuk High School Youth Justice panel assisted Justice Beverley Browne
with youth court last week.
Members of the panel attend
court throughout the school year and provide peer-based input. The grade 10
and 12 volunteers recommend probation conditions for youths charged with criminal
but non-violent crimes.
• Two 15-year-old
boys who broke into the youth centre at the Arctic Winter Games arena in Iqaluit
in September 2002 received conditional discharges after pleading guilty to theft
and break and enter. They were placed on probation for six months and ordered
to perform 50 hours of community service work.
The youths, who cannot
be named under the Young Offenders Act, gained entry to the locked room through
the ceiling. They ransacked a vending machine and stole money from the cash
box, the court heard.
One boy took $117. The
other boy made off with $140 and chocolate bars.
A third youth who took
$190 and six chocolate bars also faces charges. His case is still before the
courts.
• A 16-year-old boy
was sentenced to six months probation and ordered to perform 100 hours of community
service for stealing $420 from a Snack restaurant delivery car.
The boy pinched the driver’s
money pouch from the well-marked vehicle.
“It was all spent
very quickly,” said defence lawyer Andy Mahar when asked if the money was
returned. “[The theft] was purely opportunistic. He gave in to temptation.”
The panel recommended the
youth apologize to the driver.
• An Iqaluit youth
who stole a polar bear carving from an Iqaluit home received a conditional discharge.
He was sentenced to 12 months probation and ordered to complete 20 hours of
community service work.
The carving has not been
returned to the owner.
June 13, 2003
More a grab than a
choke, lawyer says
A 21-year-old man with an “astoundingly” long criminal record for
his age was sentenced to nine months in jail after pleading guilty to three
counts of assault.
Jimmy Evic of Pangnirtung assaulted the same woman three times between April
12 and May 1. Each time, he punched, slapped or kicked the woman. In one attack,
the woman woke up to find Evic’s hands around her neck, Crown lawyer Ken
Kehler said.
“It was more of a grab than a choke,” defence lawyer Andy Mahar countered.
Evic’s record includes six prior assault charges, six threatening charges
and 11 breeches of probation and undertakings.
Kehler called the record “astounding.”
June 13, 2003
$100,000 drug bust
tips the scales
Two Iqaluit men were charged
with drug trafficking after police seized five pounds of marijuana from an Iqaluit
business on May 15.
Cpl. Ken Goodine wouldn’t
name the business. He said the drugs are worth an estimated $100,000. The bust
was made after police received a tip from the public.
“It’s not the
largest [seizure] since I’ve been here but it’s likely the biggest
this year,” Goodine said.
Francois Stephane Gauthier,
28, and Jonathan Kaiser, 24, were arrested and released under conditions they
remain in Iqaluit and report to the RCMP weekly.
Their next court date is
July 7.
June 13, 2003
Taloyoak man presumed
dead
Robert Marqniq of Taloyoak
is missing and presumed to have drowned after the snowmobile he was driving
disappeared through an ice crack on June 6.
The 41-year-old was returning
to the Windy Lake mining camp 136 kilometres southwest of Cambridge Bay when
he and his machine fell through a two-metre-wide hole in the sea ice. The crack
was hidden by a pressure ride, police say.
Marqniq and a friend were
returning to Windy Lake after a day of ice fishing.
Cambridge Bay RCMP and
the Nunavut Emergency Measures Organization were called to the scene, about
100 kilometres from town. The missing man and his snowmobile were never recovered,
said Sgt. Greg Peck.
“It’s an area
with a very strong current,” Peck said. “There were no signs of life.”
June 13, 2003
Teens disrupt Happy
Valley
Four Iqaluit teens brandishing
pellet guns and shooting at houses in Happy Valley will not face criminal charges.
No one was hurt in the
June 1 incident. One window was damaged. The matter will be handled by a restorative
justice committee, said Cont. Mark Tindall.
TOP
| 
Nunavut 99
