Ottawa man receives 16-year sentence

ANDREW SEYMOUR
POSTMEDIA NEWS

(updated at 10:15 a.m.)

An Inuk man who viciously and senselessly beat an accomplished artist and drummaker from Nunavut to death by kicking and stomping on his unconscious body at least 52 times with steel-toed boots was sentenced Sept. 16 to 16 years in prison.

Tim Kadluk, 26, admitted that he beat 41-year-old Joshua Oqallak to death in an apartment on Dieppe Street near MacArthur Avenue on New Year’s Eve 2008. He pleaded guilty in June to manslaughter.

Court heard the two men had been drinking heavily in Oqallak’s apartment. At some point, the two men got into an argument.

A heavily intoxicated Oqallak — whose blood-alcohol level would later be determined to be nearly four times over the legal limit to drive — punched Kadluk in the mouth. Kadluk, who was also extremely drunk, hit him back, knocking him unconscious with a single punch.

Kadluk then delivered at least another 51 blows, mostly from his steel-toed boots, to Oqallak’s head, face, torso, hands, legs and ankles. At least that was how many “heavy impacts” a doctor counted on Oqallak’s battered body during an autopsy.

It’s believed Oqallak would have lived for about an hour before dying from the massive brain damage he suffered.

Kadluk later confessed to police, said prosecutor Julie Scott, telling them that he administered the “brutal beating” because he was “pissed off and drunk.”

Following the beating, Kadluk laid the unconscious Oqallak face down on his side so he wouldn’t choke to death on his own vomit. He also propped an upside-down chair over Oqallak’s head and chest to keep him from rolling over, he said.

Oqallak died about an hour later as a result of brain injuries.

Members of Oqallak’s family, some of whom attended the hearing by video from Arctic Bay, Nunavut and others who sat in the courtroom, cried softly as Scott read in the facts.

Scott said Oqallak’s death was “tragic and completely senseless.”

“How this began or why this happened will never truly be known,” said Scott. “What we do know it was over something insignificant, something in retrospect that leave us all shaking our heads in bewilderment and leaves the persons who loved and respected Joshua angry, confused, lonely and grieving.”