Man charged with murder in Iqaluit
Charge laid Aug. 21, news release sent out in response to media inquiry
A man is charged with the murder of Jimmy Kownirk after an incident in Iqaluit this summer. (File photo)
A man appeared in court this week charged with a murder in Iqaluit that went unreported by police over the summer.
Peter Toonoo, 38, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Jimmy Kownirk, according to court documents. The incident is alleged to have occurred June 5.
Nunatsiaq News learned of the charge Tuesday from the Nunavut Court of Justice docket and requested further information from the courts.
The newspaper also asked RCMP on Thursday why, two months after the charge was laid, police had not alerted the public there had been an alleged murder in the city.
Hours later, the RCMP issued a news release about the charge.
Kownirk was found with “severe injuries” and medevaced to Ottawa, where he died, according to the release.
“At this moment I cannot say why a news release was [not] published after Mr. Toonoo’s arrest,” said Cpl. George Henrie in a follow-up email to Nunatsiaq News.
“What I can say is moving forward, the Nunavut RCMP will ensure that news releases are published in a timely manner.”
Henrie said Kownirk’s family was aware of the RCMP investigation and was notified when Toonoo was arrested.
Toonoo was charged Aug. 21 and has been in custody since that time, said Henrie.
Toonoo made his first appearance in Iqaluit court on Sept. 24, appeared in court again on Tuesday and is scheduled to make his next court appearance on Nov. 26.
He has applied for legal aid, according to court documents.
How does Cpl. George Henrie not know why the media release didn’t go out when he is the media guy for the RCMP. If he doesn’t know why it didn’t go out, how can he ensure it doesn’t happen again.
He said he “cannot say why”, not that he doesn’t know why. Reading between the lines translation = “We just didn’t.”
His first appearance was on September 24? That would have been on the docket, along with the charge and name. Why does local media not have a reporter checking this dockets daily or weekly? It takes five minutes. A murder charge jumps off the page. And then you ask questions and investigate, no? Rather than just regurgitate the RCMP media releases word for word? Except for the names of the person who is being charged. Except in this case, when you printed it out of spite, it seems.
Everything about this is weird.
This is an award winning paper, you just check that attitude at the door!
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I know this is just a small newspaper, but seriously, I check the court dockets on my coffee breaks out of sheer curiosity…it takes very little time and effort. I often wonder why many of these cases are not being reported on. So so so many aggravated assault cases, s/an and child s/a cases and the same names keep appearing over and over, some of them “prominent” members of the community. Why is there not a reporter assigned to that beat, to investigate and get ahead of the story. If you are simply relying on police media releases, you aren’t so much a news outlet as you are a community bulletin board or newsletter. Do you just not understand how to read the docket? Google the dang charge and abbreviation, Facebook search and google the person. There’s often a story. Are you afraid to publish something “negative”, even through it is serious and can actually benefit the community to be aware of it? It it seriously easy. Write an actual piece, rather than printing an announcement.
Nunatsiaq news doesn’t want to stick its neck out or do anything that might offend anyone. Check out the editorials. Total pablum, nothing interesting to say, nothing informative. Predictable and boring. It’s been this way for years.
Wow, family is greiving and all the news cares about is throwing the RCMP under the bus. “Media forgets to check the local public court docket” should be the headline.
My condonlences to the family and friends for your loss.
“Hey RCMP, why didn’t you let us copy your homework?”
It is all about sensationalizing. News these days need to be very good or very bad in order to get peoples attention. Very scary world out now.
So what’s the news story? Is it that someone was murdered or that the police did not do a news release right away?
Someone commits and crime and in this case “murder” and Nunatsiaq news goes on the attack towards the police?
If anyone needed to be informed, I would think the family of the victim, which from what I’m reading here they were. If the public was in danger and the police needed help solving the crime, then maybe I wouldn’t be too happy with them, but it sounds like they got the guy. So why is Randi Beers smearing the police?