'Nunavut has felt the &#39de;vastating; impact of crack cocaine'

Declaring that the Inuit of Nunavut need special protection from southern-based peddlers of addictive drugs, Justice Earl Johnson imposed jail terms last week on two cousins from Edmonton who pleaded guilty to selling crack cocaine in Iqaluit.

"There are enough social problems stemming from alcohol abuse alone without the curse of crack cocaine," Johnson said March 4 in an oral sentencing judgment.

Johnson handed one of the young men, Mohammed Jamal Cherkaoui, 21, of Edmonton, a 46-and-a-half-month jail term: a four-year sentence minus a month-and-a-half for time served.

Cherkaoui, who once aspired to become a lawyer, pleaded guilty to possessing $366,000 worth of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and $78,400 in cash obtained by drug sales.

Police arrested him in the fall of 2007 after conducting searches at apartment 211 in Iqaluit House and apartment 708 in the eight-storey high-rise.

Johnson said police watched Cherkaoui make frequent trips between the two apartments. Each time he returned from apartment 708, police saw him make "hand-to-hand" drug deals in the alleyway beside Iqaluit House.

In a search of apartment 708, police found 1,484 grams of crack with an estimated retail value of $366,000, $78,400 in cash, and score sheets containing records of drug transactions. They also found two cell phones and a laptop computer containing evidence that Cherkaoui communicated regularly with people in the south about the progress of the drug dealing scheme.

Johnson said, however, that Cherkaoui is "a remorseful young man with no record and good prospects for rehabilitation."

And he took note of a submission from Cherkaoui's lawyer that described tearful meetings with the young man's parents, hardworking and highly-respected immigrants from Lebanon, "who described the shame the accused had brought to the family by engaging in the filthy trade of illegal drugs."

But Johnson rejected the defence lawyer's submission that Cherkaoui get a sentence of only two years less a day.

"This court must send a message to him and to those people in southern Canada who exploit the Inuit of Nunavut," he went on to say.

He justified his tough sentence by quoting comments made by Justice René Foisy in Iqaluit last September, when Foisy sentenced another Edmonton crack dealer, Jacob Alan Friskie.

"Nunavut is different than other jurisdictions because it is largely populated by Inuit; it is the Inuit territory. By and large these are not people of means; these are people who have to struggle to live, they don't have a lot of money – many of them are very poor. When dealing with crack cocaine or other very addictive drugs their small resources are spent to feed a habit which they [acquired] as a result of ­people like you coming into this territory."

Johnson also referred to the notorious case of Mark King Jeffrey, who murdered a 14-year-old girl after smoking crack.

"Nunavut has felt the devastating impact of crack cocaine," Johnson said.

Cherkaoui's cousin, Rafic El-Cherkaowi, 23, also of Edmonton, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, but will serve only seven months in jail.

That's because Johnson found that El-Cherkaowi was a "lower-end player" in the drug-dealing scheme.

El-Cherkaowi, born in Tripoli, Lebanon, also comes from a highly respected family, Johnson noted. His father, a successful businessman who owns several restaurants in Edmonton, had hoped his son would one day run one of the family businesses.

But El-Cherkaowi "was not interested because it was hard work and came to Iqaluit with the intention of getting into the taxi business," Johnson said.