Iqaluit man gets six years for aggravated sexual assault, uttering threats

An Iqaluit man has received a six-year federal prison sentence for aggravated sexual assault and uttering threats.

After taking into account time already served in custody, Roonie Iqalukjuaq has 1,296 days, or a bit more than three and a half years, remaining of his sentence.

Iqalukjuaq, 44, was found guilty in January. He was originally set to stand trial in August 2019, but a mistrial was declared.

The victim, whose identity cannot be published because of section 486.4 of the Criminal Code, is only referred to as X in the judgment by Justice Paul Bychok, which was released on Tuesday, June 16.

“Mr. Iqalukjuaq subjected X to a prolonged and serious assault before he viciously sexually assaulted her,” Bychok wrote. “The facts of the case, and the personal circumstances of this repeat Indigenous violent offender, require me to emphasize denunciation and deterrence in this case.”

The sentencing falls in line with the prosecution’s recommendation for what it calls a “major sexual assault.” The defence had asked for a five-year prison sentence, saying that a six-year sentence would be “crushing.”

One evening in June 2018, Iqalukjuaq invited X into his shack behind Iqaluit’s old courthouse. The two knew each other but were not in a relationship. Iqalukjuaq was drinking wine and offered X some. Over several hours they became drunk.

Iqalukjuaq then suddenly became angry and began to beat her up to force her to have sex with him, in an attack that left her bloody and bruised. He threatened to kill her if she said anything. She later told police, “I thought he was really going to kill me.”

He ordered her to his bed and again threatened to kill her if she tried to leave. He dumped water on her and then sexually assaulted her.

Bychok found several aggravating factors that counted in favour of a severe sentence. Iqalukjuak has what Bychok called “a troubling history of committing serious violent crime.” He invited the victim into his home, assuming a position of trust, which he then violated. The victim was especially vulnerable because she was in his home alone with him. And Iqalukjuak threatened to kill her if she tried to escape.

The only mitigating factor that Bychok found was that Iqalukjuak had pleaded guilty, “thereby accepting responsibility for his actions—albeit only on the first day of his second trial.”

Bychok said that the length of the sentence also takes into account the frequency of reported sexual violence in Nunavut.

“Mr. Iqalukjuaq did not commit his crime in a societal vacuum. Physical and sexual violence against women—young and old—in Nunavut is of epidemic proportions. Tragically, these cases continually dominate our court dockets throughout the territory,” he wrote.

Bychok referenced a report prepared by Pauktuutit earlier this year that states that women in Nunavut are the victims of violent crime at a rate more than 13 times higher than the rate for women in Canada as a whole, and that the risk of a woman being sexually assaulted in Nunavut is 12 times greater than the Canadian average.

“What Mr. Iqalukjuaq did to X was every woman’s nightmare. As the recent Pauktuutit report reminds us, Inuit women in particular are among this country’s most vulnerable. How does the Nunavut sentencing judge account fairly for that reality? Ought that consideration play a role in sentencing? In my view, recent developments in the law suggest strongly that the unique vulnerability of Inuit women is an important consideration at sentencing.”

Bychok said that he needed to consider the impacts of colonialism on Indigenous offenders, in line with principles set out by the Gladue and Ipeelee cases. But he said he must also take into account the vulnerability of female Indigenous victims.

“The inter-generational effects of colonialism have not only contributed to the staggeringly high rates of Indigenous offending.… The impact of colonialism also gave rise to the very same inter-generational effects which have left all Inuit women—and not just intimate partners—in a particularly vulnerable position in society. In my view, this reality ought to inform the deliberations of a Nunavut sentencing judge when sentencing an offender who has victimized an Inuk woman.”

Bychok also said that Iqalukjuaq’s sentence is “consistent with traditional norms of Inuit justice.”

Correction
An earlier version of this story said that Iqalukjuaq was convicted for sexual assault causing bodily harm, rather than aggravated sexual assault. We regret the mistake.

“When a person threatened the traditional group’s safety and security, that person could be, and sometimes was, banished. In other words, he was separated from the community. Many were welcomed later back into the group. Forgiveness, reconciliation, reintegration and restitution were, and still remain, key concepts of Inuit societal relations. Similarly, Mr. Iqalukjuaq now must be separated from the community. He will be released, and he will return home. We all hope he will work to regain his community’s trust.”

R v Iqalukjuaq, 2020 NUCJ 15 by NunatsiaqNews on Scribd