Nunavut appeal court overrules sentence of Iqaluit standoff shooter

Armed police in white winter camouflage search around houses in Iqaluit’s Happy Valley neighbourhood which was locked down for 41 hours between April 28 and April 30, 2015. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

A panel of three Nunavut Court of Appeal judges has ruled that pleading guilty to a crime does not overrule a minimum mandatory sentence.

The panel ruled, in a Sept. 22 judgement, that Justice Paul Bychok unlawfully reduced the sentence of Jamie Mikijuk by four months for pleading guilty to a firearms offence related to an armed stand-off in Iqaluit in 2015.

Mikijuk was, according to agreed facts presented in court, intoxicated and suicidal when he engaged in a 40-hour armed stand-off with Nunavut RCMP, forcing an evacuation of Iqaluit’s Happy Valley neighbourhood before finally surrendering April 30, 2015.

According to the Criminal Code, Mikijuk’s minimum sentence should have been four years in prison, less time served in remand custody awaiting trial—a total of 645 days multiplied by 1.5.

But in February, at the time of sentencing, Bychok noted that Mikijuk had pleaded guilty and taken responsibility for his actions, had no previous run-ins with police, had expressed “sincere regret” for his actions and had saved the overburdened justice system precious trial time.

For that, he reduced Mikijuk’s sentence, ordering three years, eight months of prison time, minus the enhanced time served.

Crown lawyers didn’t care for that too much and appealed the sentence.

“It will come as no surprise, I’d imagine, that the Crown’s position is the sentence is not lawful,” Crown lawyer Ivan Nault told the court in March.

The appeal court judgement, released Sept. 25, is only one page long—straight and to the point.

“We agree that the trial judge imposed an illegal sentence and that, as conceded by counsel for the respondent, appellate intervention is warranted,” the appeal ruling states.

“In the result, the appeal is allowed and a sentence of four years imprisonment is substituted,” the ruling says, minus the enhanced credit of 968 days for time served in remand.

That means that, minus time served, Mikijuk has to serve 492 days from the date of sentencing: Feb. 3, 2017. If that is correct, he gets out of prison in May 2018. After that, he is on probation for two years and must adhere to a 10-year firearms ban.