Nunavut court: Iqaluit spouse-killer gets 15 years

Justice John Rooke sentenced 52-year-old Pitseolak Peter of Iqaluit to 15 years in prison for manslaughter in the Nunavut Court of Justice Sept. 12, minus 30 months for time already served, after finding Peter guilty in a trial this past July. (FILE PHOTO)

Pitseolak Peter, 52, of Iqaluit received a 15-year sentence Sept. 12 for inflicting the brutal beating that in February 2013 killed his common-law wife, Kathy Makituk Michael.

Justice John Rooke, who normally sits on the Queen’s Bench of Alberta, had found Peter guilty of manslaughter July 25 after a judge-alone trial.

Peter will serve out the 15 years minus two and a half years for time already served in custody awaiting trial.

“If [Peter] survives prison, he will be released back into the community one day, hopefully to become an elder in his community, like his parents, not the wretch of the community, like he is now,” Rooke said.

“It’s not just the court at horror, but the community is at horror too,” Rooke said of Peter’s lethal spousal abuse in his sentencing judgment.

Friends and family of Michael — all women — sat on one side of the courtroom gallery during the four-hour sentencing hearing. Some of them broke into tears and left the courtroom, but then later returned.

Peter’s parents sat on the other side of the gallery, directly behind their son.

“My mother was wonderful, she was caring, she was generous,” Kathy Michael’s daughter said in her victim impact statement.

“I forgive you,” she said to Peter. “Because if I didn’t, I’d carry a great deal of hatred and darkness in my heart… I forgive you, but I can’t forget.”

Peter was charged with second degree murder after Michael died in hospital Feb. 17, 2013, two weeks after RCMP found her at home on Feb. 3, 2013, naked in a bath tub, with severe injuries.

A medical report found more than 30 injuries on Michael’s body, including a broken bone in her neck, a broken nose, burns on her face, massive bruising over much of her body, a big gash above her left eye and a subdural hematoma.

A subdural hematoma is a form of bleeding inside the head of a person who has suffered a traumatic skull injury and is often lethal.

In his July 25 verdict judgment, Rooke said that because Peter was likely intoxicated when he beat Michael, the Crown could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Peter intended to kill her — a necessary element for proving second degree murder.

So Rooke convicted Peter of manslaughter.

Rooke explained Sept. 11 that manslaughter falls on a scale: from a killing that is mostly accidental to a killing that is a near-murder.

“This case is much closer to near-murder,” Rooke said. “It’s at the very high end of the scale.”

And prison terms for manslaughter can range from time served in custody to life in prison.

There is no mandatory minimum sentence for manslaughter, except for cases that involve firearms.

Sentences for spousal abuse cases, especially cases involving death, tend to be longer in Nunavut than in other jurisdictions of Canada, Rooke said.

But Rooke said longer sentences don’t appear to be enough to prevent would-be offenders in Nunavut.

Spousal violence accounts for a significant proportion of all violent crime and homicide in the territory, he said.

“Men in Nunavut, and in this community, in Iqaluit, are not getting the message,” Rooke said. “Specifically aboriginal men are not getting the message about attacking women… they need to understand that there is a message.”

That message, Rooke said, is that men are not to assault their spouses, and that being intoxicated is not an excuse. If they do, the court reserves the severest of punishments for them, he said.

“This offense is a crime, and it may also be a social problem,” Rooke said.

“The court cannot deal with the social problem. That’s for governments to address. But courts can deal with crime.”

Peter’s 15-year sentence is one of the longest manslaughter sentences ever imposed in Nunavut because of many serious aggravating factors, Rooke said.

Rooke found Peter’s criminal record for spousal assaults and other assaults “tremendously” aggravating.

Rooke said Peter’s life appeared to fall apart after the death of his first wife in 1989 and that Peter never got it back together.

“Well, it’s beyond time to get it back together,” Rooke said.

Peter’s numerous breaches of court orders to abstain from alcohol are also aggravating, he said.

Peter should have known better when he was sober, but instead took reckless risks, he said.

“He’s a time bomb waiting to go off when he drinks and is around loved ones, particularly spouses,” Rooke said.

Peter did not learn from his other convictions, Rooke said, and needs to spend enough time in prison to receive education and counseling, and needs time to contemplate the seriousness of what he has done.

“How would you feel if you sat in the [court] gallery and someone had done this to your daughter?” Rooke asked Peter. “To your mother, or your grandmother?”

Peter looked silently at Rooke as the judge spoke.

Defence lawyer James Morton asked Rooke to consider Gladue principles in sentencing Peter.

Gladue principles, which flow from a 1999 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, are used in sentencing Aboriginal offenders.

Gladue pre-sentencing reports are supposed to take into account Aboriginal peoples’ historic and social hardships, such as the effects of poverty, suicide, residential school and dispossession.

But Rooke found Gladue principles do not apply in this case, because Peter had a good upbringing “for Nunavut,” with loving parents, raised traditionally on the land, and minimal tragedy compared with many other Inuit.