Former Nunavik police officer gets 7-year prison sentence
Charlie Keelan pleads guilty to five criminal charges, including sexual assault, sexual exploitation
Former Nunavik police officer Charlie Keelan, who is seen here performing in 2019 under the stage name Saali, is going to prison for seven years after pleading guilty to five sexual offences that occurred while he was a police officer. (FIle photo)
A former Nunavik police officer has been sentenced to seven years in prison for sexual offences dating back to his time as a police officer in the northern village of Quaqtaq.
On Tuesday, 50-year-old Charlie Keelan was sentenced in a Quaqtaq courtroom after he pleaded guilty in January to five criminal charges, including sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a teenage girl while in a position of authority, Quebec’s police watchdog, the Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, said in a news release after his sentencing.
Keelan was arrested in Kangiqsualujjuaq on Sept. 16, 2024, after a months-long investigation by the bureau, which is responsible for looking into incidents where people are injured or die during contact with police in the province.
He is a former officer with Kativik Regional Police Force, now known as the Nunavik Police Service.
Keelan’s crimes involved four victims aged 15 and 16.
They took place between 2001 and 2006, bureau spokesperson Jérémie Comtois said Wednesday.
Keelan has previously been in court and served time for similar offences. In 2021, he was sentenced to three months in jail after pleading guilty to several sexual assaults that took place in Quaqtaq and Kangirsuk between 1995 and 1997.
He was also convicted of sexual offences involving a minor for incidents that occurred in 1999 while he worked as a police officer in Kuujjuaq.
Keep speaking up about wrongs.
Keep talking to your children to be absolutely sure they can come forward.
Anytime.
I forgot to say that in my opinion the penalties are way too low – only seven years in prison? The sentence needs to be longer! 50 years minimum, or something even more severe than that.
50 years is more than what people get for murder in the first degree. Although the Canadian justice system seems very lenient, it is suppose to be a corrections system. They do not offer complete rehabilitation if you look at the statistics of criminals returning to jail shortly after and usually for the same charges. It’s a systemic failure, entirely.
You’re right, and I agree, it seems like the justice system is too lenient, not just in Canada but elsewhere. I feel that if they were more punishing, maybe people would be less inclined to commit crimes. It’s not fair to have criminals walking around happily after ruining the lives of the victims and their families.
My other comment didn’t show up, but I was saying that there have been multiple cases of the same type of crime occuring in the area in the 2000s. Law enforcement should have investigated these incidents earlier. I think it’s very strange and I feel bad for the victims as well as their families.
I hope they ban his music from all radios.
Nope.. inukjuak public radio officials are too dumb. I contacted them and they refuse to stop Keelan and twin flames completely.