Nunavut man who masterminded Iqaluit robberies seeks sympathy in sentencing

KFC/Pizza Hut Quickstop in Iqaluit, site of two armed robberies in April 2015. (PHOTO BY STEVE DUCHARME)

A young man who two years ago coerced a group of Iqaluit youth into committing a chain of convenience store robberies said planning the crimes was “the stupidest decision in my life.”

Michael Cooper-Flaherty, 20, begged for sympathy April 5, during his sentencing submissions at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Cooper-Flaherty, due to receive his sentence in July, pleaded guilty in August 2016 to multiple charges of robbery, stemming from five robberies of local Iqaluit convenience stores between late 2014 and mid-2015, along with a breach of an undertaking.

Cooper-Flaherty convinced several Iqaluit youth to hold up Iqaluit’s Inuksugait Plaza Quickstop with a knife in 2014, along with swiping cash from a manager of the Baffin Gas Bar while he was walking to the RBC Royal Bank—making away with nearly $7,000 in total.

While Cooper-Flaherty was on bail from the previous two robberies in 2015, Cooper-Flaherty recruited another group of youth, and one adult, to rob the Plateau convenience store with a knife in February, and orchestrated two hold-ups—this time with a gun—at the KFC/Pizza Hut Quickstop on April 6 and April 12.

All the youth who were involved in the robberies are protected by a court-ordered publication ban due to their age.

“This is not the kind of life I want to live anymore. I don’t want to waste another day of my life doing nothing, being miserable and angry when I could be doing so many good things for myself,” Cooper-Flaherty told Justice Paul Bychok during a prepared apology to the court.

Cooper-Flaherty has already spent nearly two years in prisons in Iqaluit and Ontario, but asked for a minimum global sentence of five years for his crimes—minus time already served.

“I apologize to your honour, my co-accused, victims of my crimes and to the whole community of Iqaluit,” said Cooper-Flaherty, clad in a black and gray hoodie and sporting numerous tattoos on his face and neck.

Defense lawyer Yoni Rahamim floated the idea of releasing Cooper-Flaherty on restrictive bail conditions to his father, to allow the young man to seek treatment for mental health issues such as depression, post-traumatic stress, obsessive compulsive disorder and substance addiction.

“Once Michael steps out of custody the justice system loses all jurisdiction they have on him,” Rahamim warned Bychok, arguing that the court has the opportunity to mandate treatment for Cooper-Flaherty, who he said “did not have a very advantageous start in life.”

Psychologists label Cooper-Flaherty as a medium-risk to re-offend if left untreated.

Cooper-Flaherty told the court that his robberies were an outlet for his anger and an opportunity to prove himself to his friends.

“I was in a bad situation, my life at the time was very unstable with drug dealing to get by and moving from house to house because I ran away from home when I was 15 years old,” he said.

Crown lawyer Doug Garson endorsed a five-year minimum global sentence, but noted Cooper-Flaherty’s string of robberies left the community in terror.

“When these robberies were going on, it was a terrifying coming of age for this community to see this kind of hardball, big-city type crime, being committed here in Iqaluit,” Garson said.

“Cooper-Flaherty was the ringleader here…he was the adult that was co-opting these teenagers to commit these robberies… he was having these young people do the dirty work for him.”

But Garson recognized Cooper-Flaherty’s signs of remorse for those actions and his clean criminal record prior to the robberies.

“There’s still hope for Michael Cooper-Flaherty and the Crown would submit that to the court,” he said.

Bychok told the court he has “been giving a lot to think about,” before adjourning proceedings until July when he releases his decision on the case.

But Bychok also questioned the mildness of the sentences recommended by lawyers, given the severity of Cooper-Flaherty’s crimes.

“How does a five-year sentence respect the principles of proportionality and totality?” Bychok asked Garson.

Garson responded that the Crown attempted to balance the severity of Cooper-Flaherty’s crimes with his previously clean record, done in “good faith” with his legal counsel.

Bychok gave lawyers until the end of May for any additional submission, before court is scheduled to reconvene July 11 for a final decision.