Meeko trial witness says students ‘just moved on’ after being spanked

At the trial of former teacher Johnny Meeko, testimony from complainants, witnesses and Meeko himself came to a close Thursday at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit.

Meeko, from Sanikiluaq, faces 18 sex-related criminal charges from 11 complainants who were his students at Nuiyak School between the 1970s and early 2000s.

Four of the charges were laid in 2019. The other 14 are being retried after Meeko won an appeal of his 2017 conviction.

Meeko took the stand for the second day, facing cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Abel Dion.

Meeko again denied that some of the allegations of sexual assault, rape, and touching students’ buttocks and breasts for sexual purposes ever occurred.

Testifying in Inuktitut with an interpreter, he acknowledged that other allegations — spanking students on their birthdays, and touching them across their buttocks to get them to sit straight instead of slouching — did happen.

Under questioning by Dion, Meeko said he was experiencing memory loss that made it difficult to recall some of the students and some of the events during his time as a teacher.

He said this was due partly to anesthesia he had taken for various health reasons over the years.

Defence lawyer Ilan Neuman called one witness to testify. A relative of Meeko, she said she was in the same Grade 3 class as two of the complainants during the 1990s when Meeko was their teacher.

In particular, the witness spoke of the spanking students underwent on their birthdays and said she too was spanked by Meeko on her birthday during that year.

She said children in the class would laugh as the spanking took place, and “just moved on” afterward.

She said the students were not asked if they would like to be spanked, however, and she couldn’t recall there being any students who were visibly upset or who complained about being spanked by Meeko at the time.

The witness agreed there may have been some who did not want to be spanked on their birthday.

“I’m doing pretty much fine,” she testified. “But we’re all different.”

Thursday was Day 7 for the trial, which started May 23. The Crown and defence will present their closing statements to the jurors Friday.

The jury is expected to be sequestered beginning Monday.