Nunavut sex offender apologizes, says he too was a victim

Silas Takawgak has spent more than 800 days in jail for historic sex charges dating back to the 1980s and 1990s. (FILE PHOTO)

A Nunavut man guilty of historical sex crimes against girls and young women apologized to his victims in an Iqaluit courtroom June 5.

“Deeply, from the depths of my heart, I am truly sorry,” said Silas Takawgak, 55, before Justice Sue Cooper at the Nunavut Court of Justice.

The victims were not in the court room.

Cooper heard sentencing recommendations from lawyers June 5 on Takawgak’s four convictions, which involve three female complainants from the same community.

Takawgak’s convictions relate to incidents that occurred between 1984 and 1994, when the victims were between 11 and 14 years old.

In a Feb. 6 judgment, Cooper initially found Takawgak guilty on seven of 10 charges involving six complainants.

But at the beginning of the sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Amy Porteous asked the court to stay three of those seven charges.

In her February ruling, Cooper kept the identities of all girls and their community secret to protect their identities.

Porteous recommended a sentence of five-and-a-half to six years, minus credit for time served, for Takawgak, who was in his mid-20s to mid-30s at the time the crimes were committed.

“Certainly Mr. Takawgak needs to see a serious sentence with serious consequences here, as does the community all of the victims come from,” Porteous told Cooper.

Takawgak, who has a “substantial… serious and violent” criminal record dating back to the early 1980s, has shown a pattern of sexually assaulting young women, Porteous said.

“He substantially interfered with the sexual integrity of very young people at a time in their lives when they really should have been developing their own personal attitudes — healthy attitudes — about sexuality.”

Today, one of the victims wonders why she wasn’t strong enough to protect herself, Porteous said.

Police arrested Takawgak and charged him in March 2013.

Defence lawyer David Berg recommended a sentence of four to five years for his client, and argued that the 815 days Takawgak has spent in custody for these crimes means he has already served that amount of time.

That’s because, Berg argued, Takawgak should receive between double and triple credit for time already served as a result of the hardships he endured during his in-custody time.

Those hardships involved being moved five times between five different facilities, including 17 months at the overcrowded Baffin Correctional Centre in Iqaluit.

Berg also argued that under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, his client deserves a lesser sentence.

Specifically, Berg argued, the Charter says when someone has been convicted of a historical offence for which the punishment has changed over time, that person should be given the lesser punishment from that time-span.

Takawgak told Cooper that during his time at the BCC he completed a men’s treatment program for sex offenders.

“I was so grateful I have taken the program because during the program I have learned that I myself am a survivor of sexual abuse,” Takawgak said, referring to an incident he said happened when he was a teenager.

Takawgak said the program also revealed a need for trauma counselling, especially relating to the death of his father at a Montreal hospital when Takawgak was six years old.

“He passed away there, and they buried him there, and he never came back,” Takawgak said.

“I’m planning on going to a treatment centre… for my trauma needs and for mental and emotional healing after I’m released.”

After Takawgak finished speaking in court June 5, he folded up the piece of paper from which he had read his comments to Cooper and put it back into the pocket of his blue BCC-issued sweatpants.

Takawgak is expected back in court on June 18, at 9:30 a.m., for sentencing.