Youth convicted in woman’s death moved to adult jail, Nunavut court rules
“A deeply troubled and angry young man”
Nunavut Justice Sue Cooper has decided that the young man convicted of a young Iqaluit mother’s murder will wait for his trial at the Baffin Correctional Centre. (FILE PHOTO)
Months before a deeply disturbed Nunavut youth was convicted of manslaughter Sept. 10 in the November 2012 stabbing death of Tracy Uttak, 26, a Nunavut judge took an unusual step.
Nunavut Justice Sue Cooper ruled that he should be transferred from the Iqaluit youth offenders facility to the Baffin Correctional Centre until his trial on his homicide charge took place in March 2015.
The young man, 16 at the time of the homicide, was first detained at the youth centre on Dec. 3, 2012, shortly after police arrested him and charged him with first-degree murder and some other offences.
But last December, in a judgment only recently released, likely because the youth has now been convicted of manslaughter, Cooper outlined why she decided to dismiss the lawyers’ application brought on behalf of the young man — called SP in the judgment — to have him detained full-time at the youth centre.
Cooper said she agreed with SP’s transfer to an adult facility before he had turned 18.
SP had previously been on a remand warrant that allowed him to be housed at BCC during the day and at the youth centre during the evening and night.
But in late 2014 lawyers for SP brought a motion to have the remand warrant amended so that SP would no longer be housed at BCC during the day, but remain full time at the youth centre.
In her judgment, dated Dec. 24, 2014, Cooper acknowledged that “the power to direct a young person to be detained in an adult facility is to be viewed as highly exceptional and is to be used sparingly.”
However, Cooper found many compelling reasons for SP to be kept at BCC, reviewing a large volume of material from the youth centre about SP, including progress reports, behavioural reports and a psychiatric report.
“A review of the materials from the Youth Centre portrays a deeply troubled and angry young man. The records are replete with incidents of disrespect, aggression, bullying, and threatening. They are also replete with incidents of self-harm and self-loathing. Since SP’s remand in December of 2012, there have been over 75 incidents of one type or another,” she said.
These include an incident in the spring of 2014 between SP and a young person who was to be a witness for the prosecution in the homicide charge against SP.
In May of 2014, SP pleaded guilty to assault on that young person and was sentenced to one day in jail and 12-month probation.
According to the probation order, SP was to have no contact with the assault victim.
“It is alleged that within weeks of being placed on that probation order he breached it by yelling at the victim of the assault ‘F—- you, you’re afraid of me, I’m going to get you.’ He was charged with breaching the probation order and that charge is pending before the courts. The victim of the assault is no longer at the Youth Centre,” Cooper noted.
In July 2014, when the youth centre first asked for SP to go to BCC, SP was being kept in a 23-hour lock up at the centre “both to ensure there was no contact with the victim of the assault and also because of general behavioural issues.”
SP then started to spend his days, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., at BCC’s mental health unit, the Katak Unit.
According to the psychologist at BCC, as SP became “more comfortable” at BCC, he began to bully vulnerable inmates.
“This resulted in SP being placed in behavioural segregation, some of which had to be served at the Youth Centre due to space issues at BCC.”
The youth centre said SP had not made any progress during his time at the youth centre, where its staff aren’t trained to deal with violent residents.
“I am satisfied that the public interest, that being the safety and rehabilitation of the greater population of residents at the Youth Facility, supports the application by the Territorial Director to have SP transferred to an adult facility,” Cooper determined. “I am also satisfied that such a transfer will have either no impact or a positive impact on the interests of SP.”
The sentencing submissions in SP’s case are scheduled to be start Nov. 2 at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.
Prosecutors have said that they will seek an adult sentence for the convicted young man.
That’s a suggestion that the Crown will ask for a longer sentence than three years, which is the maximum sentence a youth offender can receive under the Youth Criminal Justice Act for any offence considered less serious than murder — like manslaughter.
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