Iqaluit man sentenced to year in jail for sexual interference of minor
Maurice Guimond will serve approximately 7 months in jail, accounting for time served
Sixty-one-year-old Maurice Guimond has been sentenced to a year in jail for sexual interference of a minor. The conviction stems from an October 2021 incident in Iqaluit. (File photo)
A 61-year-old Iqaluit man has been sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of sexual interference of a minor.
Maurice Guimond was sentenced for an October 2021 incident in which he sexually touched a girl as she slept.
He will serve approximately seven months in jail, accounting for time already served, according to a sentencing decision released Monday by the Nunavut Court of Justice.
According to the decision, dated May 8, the pre-teenaged victim, her mother and her maternal aunt were at a house where Guimond was in Iqaluit on Oct. 9, 2021.
At some point late in the evening, the victim’s mother and her sister went to the kitchen to get food while the victim was lying on a mattress on the floor asleep.
Guimond went back into the room, positioned himself beside the victim and touched her breasts. He exposed his penis and masturbated while touching his sleeping victim.
The victim woke up when she heard Guimond breathing heavily, felt his hand on her breasts and saw his exposed penis, the report reads.
The victim got up immediately and fled the room to find her mother.
“She was too scared to describe immediately what had happened, but she told her mother what happened in answer to her mother’s questions,” wrote Judge Paul Bychok in the report.
Guimond pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault, sexual interference and indecent exposure but was found guilty of sexual interference on Dec. 10, 2022.
“The sentence I impose on Mr. Guimond must express our community’s revulsion towards sexual abuse against children,” Bychok wrote.
He added the sentence must take the harmfulness of the offences into account and ensure the punishment fully reflects the life-altering consequences that can flow from sexual violence against children.
Bychok accepted the Crown’s sentence recommendation of 12 months. The defence counsel had recommended Guimond be sentenced to time he’d already served followed by probation.
Bychok noted the Crown’s recommendation is at the low end of the sentencing range considering circumstances of this case, calling it “just adequate.”
He said he would have imposed a higher sentence.
Guimond will also have to serve 12 months of probation and must not attend any public space where people under the age of 16 are reasonably expected to be present. He also must not have any contact with the victim or her mother.
This is sick. 12 months for traumatizing a poor girl for the rest if her life is pathetic. Glad this beave girl spoke up and got the authorities involved because far too often these crimes go unreported in Nu
Disgusting crime and all he gets is 7 months after remand? Has the judicial system taken into account all the damage a person can do in one lifetime
Sending thoughts for the child to heal and do well in life.
The sentencing is a joke. Is the Nunavut Justice system broken or what? Show you care about these victims with tougher sentencing. The child has to live with this, and heal from this, it’s a life long journey (as a survivor myself). This life long pain should reflect the time served in jail. Children deserve better, we adults need to set an example by locking up pedophiles and how this has to stop. Kids deserve a bright future ❤️ contact the Justice Minister for better sentences.
This is probably the first time our of many times that this creep has been caught and people gone to the authorities.
He should be a registered sex offender on the national registry and a sample of his DNA put on file.
In Florida, he could get the death penalty while in Canada he gets nothing but a slap on the wrist for inflicting life long wounds. Maybe if we started sending these creeps to jail for 5-10 years they will get the message 12 months is a joke.
Yep well we keep voting for these ndp and liberal who are soft on crime and want to ban guns. Florida politicians have guts to stand up for what’s right while canada politicians keep thinking that a slap on the wrist and some rehabilitation is enough to put the dangerous repeat offenders back in society.
Bang on 867 (whoever you are).
As long as the Liberals and NDP are elected, this will not change.
You want change to the justice system, the feds have to make the change and that means the Conservatives who are willing to do just that. Common sense.
Sad to hear this, the poor girl will spend her whole life trying to get over this. Prayers to her, I hope she can be strong and try and live her life. There is no Justice here in NU, every sentence up here is 2 years less a day and this is not even half that time. They should get rid of the Prison here in Iqaluit and send everyone for hard time in the south, that would deter all the criminals up here and make them think before doing any crime.
Judge is allowed to go beyond what the Crown was asking, no? They have no trouble making their own decisions when they feel the Crown is asking for too harsh a sentence. If, as Bychok said, he would have handed down a tougher sentence, why didn’t he do that?
No doubt this guy will be welcome back at his job with security and benefits, and welcome back into the community. At 61 years old, you can bet this wasn’t his first crack at sexual interference. He just happened to get caught this time.
When this judge has upp-ed the sentence suggested by the Crown and defence lawyer, he gets slammed for being on a ‘power-trip’ and imposing his own views. When he listens to what the Crown and defence lawyer suggest – in this case, the Crown asked for 12-months (the sentence he gave) and the defence lawyer wanted time served, he gets slammed again as to why he didn’t up the sentence. And the armchair judges (and juries) out there comment that the justice system is a joke. Seems to me that people just like to complain and make ignorant (i.e., uninformed) comments about why didn’t the judge and lawyers do this or why did they do that? Because they are the experts in the law here – not those folks who are so quick to criticize every move that all people involved in the justice system do, everyday, as part of their jobs.
Not an easy job, no doubt. Judges are not infallible though, and we have a right to at least ask these questions. As far as tough questions go, “why not give him more time in jail?” is a pretty fair one. I wasn’t saying the judge is terrible, just trying to ask for some insight into his decision.
what a joke, this will be with her for the rest of her life, the court system here is a joke to all who are harmed.
Yes, I agree with most comments here, but a lot of abuse happens between Inuit families
and we hear nothing about it, or the police ignore it.
Your blog post about criminal defence law is informative and thought-provoking. It’s clear that you’ve put a lot of effort into researching and writing about this topic, and it shows.
For further insight into criminal defence law, I suggest you check out the post “Assault Charges for a Minor Canada.”