Nunavut court: teacher lined us up to grope us, former school girl says

Johnny Meeko, currently facing 32 historic sex charges from when he was a teacher in Sanikiluaq between 1984 and 2006, leaves the Iqaluit courthouse Aug. 17 on the first day of his trial. (FILE PHOTO)

Johnny Meeko, the former Sanikiluaq teacher currently on trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice for sex crimes against children, forced school girls to line up at the front of his classroom so he could grope them, a witness testified Aug. 19 in Iqaluit.

“[Meeko] would line us up, we would all face the blackboard… he would stand in front of us and start to feel our breasts. Johnny would feel our body,” said the witness, who was in Grade 5 at the time.

“[Meeko] would take his time with girls that had bigger breasts, and he would be checking on the other girls [to see] if they were growing,” she said.

The boys in the class were given free time to colour and do homework at their desks, the complainant testified.

“A teacher who [sexually] touches you affects your whole life,” the witness said, her voice cracking.

The touching occurred on top of clothes, she added, similar to what Justice Neil Sharkey heard from four other witnesses earlier in the trial.

Sharkey has now heard from seven complainants over three days of the judge-alone trial in Iqaluit.

The identities of nine complainants, who together allege over 30 offences committed by Meeko, are protected by a court order.

Meeko, 60, is charged with 32 offences, including nine counts of sexually touching someone under 14 years old, 12 counts of sexual assault and two counts of rape. All charges are alleged to have occurred while Meeko taught at Nuiyak Elementary School between 1972 and 2007.

The court also heard Aug. 19 from another witness, who said she was a classmate of the complainant who testified the same day.

But that witness said she was in Grade 3 at the time of the abuse, not in Grade 5, and she had no memory of being lined up at the blackboard.

The witness did say, however, that Meeko didn’t just grope students over their clothes.

“I remember one time he went inside me [with his fingers]… I went home and then I saw blood on my underwear,” the witness told Sharkey.

“What did you think was happening?” prosecutor Amy Porteous asked.

“At first I thought I was going to die, but then the bleeding started to stop,” the witness answered.

Lawyers on both sides focused some of their questions Aug. 19 on whether the complainants had a financial motive in filing charges against Meeko.

At least five of the seven complainants who have so far testified told the court they were approached by lawyers visiting Sanikiluaq interested in filing a lawsuit against Meeko to collect damages for sexual abuse.

Four of the five witnesses said they were approached earlier this month, while the fifth said she was approached in the summer of 2013.

But all five witnesses denied a monetary motive.

Lawyers Geoff Budden and Alan Regal were named by multiple witnesses in particular as asking around town to speak to people who allege they were victims of sex abuse by Meeko.

“You do know that [Geoff Budden] was trying to get you some money, right?” Meeko’s defence lawyer, James Morton, asked a witness Aug. 19.

“It was to help, he said,” the witness replied.

“He was trying to help by getting you some money, though, right?” Morton asked.

“Ya,” the witness answered.

But prosecutor Priscilla Ferrazzi asked the same witness earlier in the day if the witness was driven by money when she gave her statement to the police in the summer of 2012.

“No, I just wanted to talk and I was worried,” the witness said.

“What were you afraid of happening?” Ferrazzi asked.

“The same thing that happened to me,” the complainant testified.

Morton told Nunatsiaq News outside the courtroom that in cases where allegations of sexual abuse by an authority figure are swirling around a community, it is “very common” for lawyers to offer their services to those who say they’ve been abused.

And in small communities like Sanikiluaq, residents don’t have a large pool of lawyers to draw on, prosecutor Porteous told Nunatsiaq News, which means lawyers who specialize in lawsuits for victims of sexual abuse aren’t as accessible as in larger communities.

But Morton said potential lawsuits are independent of related criminal proceedings.

“It certainly doesn’t interfere with my role as a defence lawyer, and I don’t think it would interfere with the Crown’s role either,” he said.

When compensation is likely, though, it does raise questions about motive, Morton said.

“The judge has to decide whether the complainants coming forward did so for the purpose of telling what happened to them, or for some other purpose.”

Two more complainants are expected to testify Aug. 20.

Sharkey told the court that this segment of the trial has been extended to early next week to allow two Crown witnesses from eastern Canada to arrive.

Meeko, wearing a charcoal T-shirt, navy sweat pants and black sneakers, has sat quietly beside his lawyer for the duration of the trial, sometimes scribbling messages for his lawyer on a note pad during witness testimonies.

At other times, Meeko has shared large mostly-toothless smiles with three women who have sat behind him in the court gallery all week, sometimes filling up cups of water to give them.