Iqaluit resident charged in international child porn investigation

KIRSTEN MURPHY

At least one Iqaluit resident has been charged in connection with Operation Snowball, an international child pornography crackdown, said a representative of the Major Crime Unit at the RCMP’s V Division in Iqaluit.

The resident was charged with possession of child pornography within the last year, said acting Cpl. Steve Kielt. The arrest followed a territorial-wide probe, but Kielt declined to release the person’s name.

The matter is currently before the courts.

Other Nunavummiut have been identified as suspects in relation to Operation Snowball, but no charges have been laid, Kielt said.

“I can’t say [how many more people face charges] because there are active investigations going on at this time…. As you can appreciate, if there are people who are under investigation, there are steps they make [if they learn they are part of the probe],” Kielt said.

Canadian police departments launched a nation-wide child pornography probe at the request of United States authorities two years ago.

An estimated 2,000 Canadians were targeted. At least 42 charges have been laid across Canada, Det. Sgt. Paul Gillespie of Toronto’s sex crimes unit said during a press conference on Jan. 16.

Ten suspects from the Toronto area have been arrested, Gillespie said.

“So far the informations that have been laid [in Nunavut] have been for possession of child pornography,” Kielt said.

V Division’s Major Crimes Unit does not have a department dedicated child pornography investigations. However, Major Crimes officers were actively involved in Operation Snowball.

“Our mandate is to investigate all serious crime. So this investigation would fall into that,” Kielt said.

A Winnipeg man was arrested last year after police seized a reported half a million child pornography images from his home computer in connection with Operation Snowball, the Canadian Press reported.

An estimated 250,000 suspected pedophiles worldwide have been implicated in the child pornography crackdown based on credit card details retrieved from porn sites.