Veteran Nunavut leader Jack Anawak gets 30 days in jail

Jack Anawak, 66, the former Liberal MP who ran as an NDP candidate in the 2015 federal election, will serve 30 days in jail, to be served intermittently on weekends starting Feb. 2, after he pleaded guilty for a second time to a drinking and driving offence. (FILE PHOTO)

The veteran Nunavut leader Jack Anawak, who ran in last year’s territorial election, was sentenced Monday by a Nunavut judge to 30 days in jail after earlier pleading guilty to drinking and driving.

Anawak, 66, was charged with two counts following an incident in Iqaluit last June: operating a vehicle while impaired and failing a breathalyzer test.

Anawak, at a brief appearance before a Nunavut justice of the peace this past November, pleaded guilty to having a blood-alcohol level exceeding 80 milligrams of alcohol.

Crown lawyers stayed the other charge.

Anawak’s lawyer, James Morton, confirmed to Nunatsiaq News Tuesday that his client will serve his jail sentence on weekends in Iqaluit, starting Feb. 2.

Under a joint sentencing submission, Anawak will also pay a $100 victim impact surcharge, under a joint sentencing submission from lawyers, and the court also ordered a three-year driving licence suspension.

The court permitted Anawak—after he promised the court that he will not drive—to keep his driving license until he returns from a conference in Manitoba.

That’s because it’s his only piece of identification and he needs it to fly back to Iqaluit.

This is Anawak’s second conviction for impaired driving. He pleaded guilty to an earlier charge in 2013.

Under the Criminal Code, the mandatory minimum sentence for a second conviction for impaired driving is 30 days in jail.

Anawak, who has held many elected and non-elected leadership posts, told the court in November that “leaders are no different than anyone else and we must be held accountable.”

“Whatever trauma we have suffered in the past should not get in the way of knowing the difference between right and wrong—I was wrong,” he said.

“Over the years I have witnessed some people in leadership getting away with far too much, and I don’t want to be one of those.”

Originally from Naujaat, Anawak has served in various territorial and federal positions since 1988, when he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal for the old federal riding of Nunatsiaq.

He held that job until 1997, when he became interim commissioner of Nunavut during the planning period for the new territory.

In February 1999, he was elected to the first Nunavut legislative assembly, where he lost a bid to become Nunavut’s first premier but served briefly as a cabinet minister.

He also served as a circumpolar ambassador, replacing Mary Simon, and was also elected to serve as a vice president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc.

He switched to the New Democratic Party during the 2015 federal election campaign to run for the Nunavut seat in the House of Commons.

He finished second, behind Liberal candidate Hunter Tootoo, who now sits as an Independent.

While facing the impaired driving charges, Anawak ran in last fall’s Nunavut territorial election as a candidate for Aivilik, but lost to Patterk Netser.