Man not criminally responsible for attempted murder of 4-year-old nephew

Warning: This story contains graphic details.

A man in Nunavut has been deemed not criminally responsible for the attempted murder of his four-year-old nephew and has been ordered to be admitted to a hospital.

On March 23, 2021 — nearly a year ago — a man identified in court documents as Q.M. approached his nephew on the street in the community where they are part of a close family. A court order prohibits the publication of information that would identify the victim or a witness.

The man, who is more than six feet tall, picked up the boy, and lifted him into the air “as high as possible.”

“The accused then slammed the victim head first into the ground,” Justice Susan Cooper wrote in her verdict, summarizing the facts of the case.

Cooper’s verdict did also not identify the community where the attempted murder took place, but the document notes that the case was heard in Iqaluit on Jan. 24.

The boy’s mother saw what happened from inside a nearby home. When she got to her son, he was already on the ground, unconscious.

“The accused walked away without saying anything,” the judge wrote.

He was later arrested and told police he had received a “signal from God” the night before the offence and the next morning went “on a mission to rid the world of sin.”

“[He] was sent on a mission to kill the victim because the victim was the son of Satan. God told the accused that he had to kill the victim,” the judge said in a summary of what he told police.

Immediately after the attack, the victim’s chances of survival were considered “slim,” the judge wrote. He suffered severe head trauma and a brain bleed. He was medevaced to Edmonton and when through 12 hours of surgery. Half of his brain was severely damaged and had to be removed.

But the boy’s condition improved slowly and five days later, his chance of survival was estimated to be 60 per cent. Ten months after the attack, he was back home living with his family but faces “a future with limitations and medical interventions.”

“It is not possible to say whether he will ever make a full recovery,” the judge wrote.

Q.M. pleaded guilty to the attempted murder charge, but the Crown and defence lawyers applied to have him declared not criminally responsible.

The judge noted that people  around Q.M. were concerned about his “bizarre” behaviour for months before the attack occurred.

“In the months leading up to the offence, the accused’s boss was so concerned about the accused’s behaviour that he went to RCMP,” Cooper wrote.

“The concerns were taken up with staff at the health centre, who went to see the accused but did not observe any symptoms.”

Q.M. eventually lost his job and increasingly isolated himself, according to what his sister told the psychiatrist who did a court-ordered assessment after the attack. She reported he was agitated, stopped sleeping, and began to make “strange comments, mostly religious in nature.”

Substance abuse was also considered as a factor. Although Q.M. had a history of alcohol abuse, he had quit drinking in early 2020, Cooper wrote. Q.M. also had a history of cannabis use but denied it was a problem for him, and he reported that the last time he used cannabis was a month before the incident.

Q.M. continued to experience symptoms of psychosis until he was placed on anti-psychotic medication,  more than a month after his incarceration at Baffin Correctional Centre.

Following the assessment, Cooper found the man was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the attack that made him incapable of knowing what he did was wrong.

She ordered that he be held in custody in a hospital. She noted he is likely to be admitted to the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Services, where he had been treated previously.

This also means the Nunavut Review Board will assess Q.M.’s recovery.

The board will “assess the level of threat posed by the accused and take actions to control the threat and provide the accused with appropriate care,” wrote Cooper in the verdict.

“This is an ongoing process with regular reviews of the accused’s progress.”