Iqaluit mural artist, youth advocate faces multiple assault charges

This prominent mural on a retaining wall for the driveway that leads to Qikiqtani General Hospital in Iqaluit is just one of many pieces of public art that Jonathan Cruz has created over the past decade in Nunavut and Nunavik. He now faces five counts of assault and four counts of overcoming resistance to commit a crime and has yet to enter pleas. He is scheduled to return to the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit May 21. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

A well-known Iqaluit graffiti, hip-hop and design artist appeared before a Justice of the Peace in an Iqaluit courtroom April 30 to face multiple assault charges.

Jonathan Cruz, who worked with local youth in completing some of his murals in Iqaluit and Igloolik, made his first court appearance at the Nunavut Court of Justice on nine charges: five counts of assault and four counts of overcoming resistance to commit a crime.

The charges — entered on the court record March 16 and April 22 — relate to a police investigation triggered by a single complainant, the Nunavut Crown prosecutor’s office told Nunatsiaq News April 30.

Cruz, 33, moved to Iqaluit in 2001 and founded the Nuschool Design Agency in 2009.

In Iqaluit, Cruz painted outdoor murals on the side of the fire hall as well as on the concrete retaining wall below the driveway that leads to the Qikiqtani General Hospital.

Cruz also helped paint the walrus mural in Igloolik’s old community hall.

In a 2005 Nunatsiaq News story, Cruz credited art for his escape from a life of gangs and drugs when he was growing up in suburban Toronto.

And in 2012, Cruz told Nunatsiaq News that working with troubled youth was important to him.

“It’s something that’s very dear to me, being about helping kids that are troubled or that are in trouble or have broken homes,” he said then.

The charges Cruz faces have not been proven in court and Cruz has not yet entered pleas on any of them.

He is expected to appear in court again on May 21 at 9:30 a.m.