Nunavut woman gets additional four and a half years for Ottawa killing

ANDREW SEYMOUR
Postmedia News

OTTAWA — An Ottawa judge lamented Nunavut’s high violent crime and suicide rates before sentencing an Inuit woman Thursday to a further four years and five months in prison for manslaughter.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Lynn Ratushny said Louisa Killiktee, 28, escaped none of the northern territory’s “shocking” and serious problems, which led to an “explosion of violence” behind an Ottawa homeless shelter in July 2009 where Killiktee tossed Arlene Lahey to the ground and kicked her four times in the head.

The attack only ended when a bystander intervened. The 44-year-old Lahey, who was unable to walk, talk or feed herself after the assault, died three months later from complications from her injuries.

Ratushny said Killiktee’s tragic background was an important consideration when deciding what sentence was fit for taking Lahey’s life.

Killiktee’s childhood included physical and sexual abuse, alcohol abuse and domestic violence by her parents and her own substance abuse problems sniffing camp fuel, smoking marijuana and heavy drinking.

Killiktee’s background was shaped by the “trauma” she experienced growing up in Cape Dorset said Ratushny, who sentenced Killiktee to nine years, less four years and seven months for time already served.

“Nunavut’s inhabitants are experiencing profound social misery,” said Ratushny, noting 50 per cent of social worker positions in the territory are vacant. “The crisis is upon us.”

In her decision, Ratushny highlighted statistics that showed Nunavut experiences seven times the violent crime rate of the rest of Canada. Its homicide rate was 1,000 per cent of the national average, she said.

Sexual assault rates are 12 times the national average and the suicide rate for males aged 15 to 24 is 40 times the national average, she said.

Child abuse rates are 10 times the national average and seven in 10 Nunavut preschoolers grow up in homes without adequate food, said Ratushny.

“These conditions shame us and should make us weep and do better,” she said.

“The accused is a product of these complex and serious dynamics. In the face of such terrible circumstances, it is obvious how serious an injustice it would be to impose a sentence on Ms. Killiktee that purports to be a fit sentence, without attempting to stand in her shoes and understand how she came to be the person she is today,” said Ratushny.

“She has been left traumatized by her childhood.”

Ratushny said she also had to weigh the continued danger to the public Killiktee presented.

Killiktee came to Ottawa in 2004 and developed an addiction to crack cocaine and a penchant for violent outbursts, once trying to drown a woman in the river and clawing her spouse in the face as he held their child.

“Two years ago, she acted aggressively and impulsively yet again, and ended a life,” said Ratushny. “The victim’s family will never be the same.”

However, the judge accepted that Killiktee was remorseful for what she did, and wanted treatment, even though repeated attempts by Killiktee to address her addictions in the past had failed and her violence had escalated.

At the time of the attack on Lahey, Killiktee was depressed and abusing substances again after the suicide of her 16-year-old brother and a recent miscarriage where she lost triplets.

An intoxicated Killiktee would have felt provoked by Lahey slapping her in the head and calling her a slut and a whore, Ratushny found.

“It will not be a quick process for treatment to succeed so as to protect the public against an accused who turns to substances to kill the pain of her past and acts out with violence under that influence,” said Ratushny.

Ratushny, who called Killiktee’s two daughters the “bright stars” in her life, encouraged her to rehabilitate.

“Work long and hard at your healing, Ms. Killiktee, so that your daughters can be proud of their mother,” she said.

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