Montreal police seek possible victims of alleged sex offender

Anyone who believes they may have been a victim of Oba Femi Toussaint, 40, or knows anyone who may have been a victim or witness, is asked to inform their local Montreal police station or call 911, the Montreal police said. (SPVM HANDOUT)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

MONTREAL—Montreal police are searching for possible victims of a man they arrested April 7 on allegations that he sexually assaulted a minor.

Oba Femi Toussaint, 40, faces charges of aggravated assault, sexual interference, kidnapping, administering a noxious substance and breach of conditions.

He is currently being held in custody in Montreal.

Anyone who believes they have been a victim of Toussaint in the past, or knows anyone who may have been a victim or witness, is asked to inform their local Montreal police station, the Montreal police said.

They may also call 911 to file a formal complaint.

Community workers in Montreal allege Toussaint is well-known on the street for targeting Inuit women who are homeless, offering them protection and drugs. They also allege that he abuses them and pimps them out.

He goes by the street nickname “OD” and frequents Montreal shelters where a majority of visitors are Indigenous and Inuit women.

Toussaint told Nunatsiaq News in an interview last summer that he was one of the last people to see Siasi Tullaugak alive just hours before her death on Aug. 28, 2017.

After originally deeming it a suicide death by hanging, Montreal police re-opened the case three weeks later, and now handle it as a “suspicious death.”

Tullaugak’s death is still an open case and the investigation is continuing.

Toussaint and Tullaugak had a relationship. Her friends and family allege he was not only abusive to Tullaugak, but he had also been fighting loudly on the street with her just hours before her body was found hanging from a balcony beside an alley they were seen fighting in earlier, according to witnesses.

Toussaint also confirmed that fight in an interview with Nunatsiaq News last year, but said that the last time he saw Tullaugak, she was getting into a car with an unknown man during the period between their fight and her death.

Tussaint also told Nunatsiaq News that although they fought often, he never hurt her.

Because it is an ongoing investigation, Montreal police would not comment when asked if Toussaint is a person of interest in the death of Tullaugak.

Toussaint followed a 15-year-old girl into a parking garage in the Ville-Marie district of Montreal, and under constraint, forced her to take drugs before sexually assaulting her, Montreal police said April 6 in a news release.

Montreal police would not comment when asked if the alleged victim is Inuk.

To protect victims of sexual assault and minors from being identified, police have put a strict privacy policy in place, which includes not providing information about race even when there is an alleged racial pattern.

Toussaint has a history of allegations related to breaking and entering with a weapon and theft with a weapon, uttering threats, and assaulting women.

One assault case from May 2016, which included uttering threats and assault with a weapon to a young woman is still ongoing, and a court date was set for May 2018.

Toussaint has been in and out of jail since that charge with several warrants for arrest for failing to comply with his probation and for failing to appear in court.