Accused Iqaluit middle school teacher to appear in Nunavut court April 12

About 400 students attend Aqsarniit Middle School in Iqaluit. (PHOTO BY JANE GEORGE)

A man who teaches at Iqaluit’s Aqsarniit Middle School will appear April 12 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit on three charges of sexual interference.

Nunatsiaq News has learned the man is one of several teachers who assisted a school filmmaking club that worked on a project called “Through Inuit Eyes.”

That project received money through the Government of Nunavut’s Public Health Strategy, assistance from the RCMP, and funding from other sources.

In October 2011, the RCMP Gazette, an RCMP in-house publication, said “Through Inuit Eyes” was influenced by an earlier project undertaken among children living in Toronto’s troubled Jane and Finch neighbourhood.

“He realized that children in the community did care about drug prevention, but didn’t have the means to speak openly about it,” the Gazette said in the October 2011 article.

On March 1 in the Nunavut legislature, Premier Eva Aariak praised the Aqsarniit Film Club “as an inspiring example of how our younger generations are bringing Nunavut to the rest of the world. “

Twelve students from the Aqsarniit Film Club and the teacher were to visit Toronto April 26 for pre-screening of their films at the University of Toronto, in advance of the Toronto Student Film Festival.

It’s not clear if that trip will now occur.

The RCMP have not definitively stated whether the three complainants are Iqaluit school attenders, and if so, which school they may attend.

But police have refused to identify the accused teacher, asserting that to do so “may disclose the identity of victims.”

The 2011 census shows there are at least 1,020 children aged five to 15 living in Iqaluit and therefore eligible to attend one of Iqaluit’s six public schools.

An additional 580 children in Iqaluit are aged 0 to five.

Following an expansion done several years ago, Aqsarniit Middle School, which offers Grade 6, 7 and 8 classes, serves a student body of nearly 400.

Paul Mooney, the superintendent of the Qikiqtani School Operations, also refused to disclose the identity of the accused teacher.

But his reasons for doing so are different than those given by the RCMP.

This week, he told Nunatsiaq News that the QSO will not reveal the identity of the teacher or name the school because there’s “an interest in protecting the employees.”

Police did say March 29 that the charges were sworn against the accused teacher in police cells, before a justice of the peace.

The RCMP then confirmed April 3 the man would have his “next court date” April 12 at the Nunavut Court of Justice.

The Nunavut Court of Justice told a Nunatsiaq News reporter April 4 that she would have to wait until the first appearance to report the name of the teacher, according to a new media policy that came into effect April 1.

The reporter was first told that she could not see the court docket for April 12.

Then, they said she would receive a copy of the docket April 9.

But then, after discussion among themselves, they showed the April 12 docket to her, but said that she could not report the name of the man facing three charges of sexual interference until after his first court appearance.

A further April 5 email to the general court mailing list from Melissa Hess, a Nunavut Court of Justice court clerk, said “information listed in section 4.3 of the Access to Court Records Policy may not be published until after an accused’s first appearance date.”

However, the man was formally charged in an earlier appearance, which took place while he was in RCMP custody, the RCMP said.

“He appeared before a Justice of the Peace while in cells. That’s where the charges were laid,” said an April 3 email statement from the RCMP V Division in Iqaluit about a March 29 news release from the RCMP. “The release did not say he appeared before a judge. His next court date is April 12th. That will be at NCJ in Iqaluit.”

Earlier this week, APTN reported that some Iqaluit parents are upset that education officials have told them nothing about the accused teacher and that they had to find out about the matter in the news.

The offence of sexual interference applies to any person who, for a sexual purpose, is alleged to have touched, directly or indirectly, with a part of the body or with an object, any part of the body of a person under the age of 16 years.