A Nunavut judge has ruled that a repeat sex offender should be designated as a long-term offender rather than a dangerous offender, which would have seen him incarcerated indefinitely. The long-term offender status is meant to combine a prison sentence with a long-term period of supervision with certain conditions. (File photo)
Nunavut judge waives dangerous offender status in sex assault case
Long-term offender status applied instead to ‘avoid the indefinite detention of an Indigenous man where alternatives to incarceration exist’
Updated at 5 p.m.
A Nunavut judge has ruled that a repeat sex offender should be designated as a long-term offender rather than a dangerous offender, which would have seen him incarcerated indefinitely.
In March 2021, Nunavut Justice Susan Charlesworth sentenced the Cambridge Bay man, who was convicted on multiple sexual assault charges, to six years imprisonment followed by a 10-year supervision order. He has three years remaining in that sentence because he had been in custody since his arrest.
Charlesworth’s written judgment explaining her decision was released on Monday.
The long-term offender status is meant to combine a prison sentence with a long-term period of supervision with certain conditions.
The conditions Charlesworth imposed include an order to take medication that would reduce the offender’s sex drive and deter him from drinking alcohol.
Jay Victor Evalik pleaded guilty in 2019 to a historic sexual assault of a minor.
Evalik was in his early twenties in 2004 when he sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was also a relative of his. The charge was laid 14 years later, in 2018.
Evalik also has a lengthy criminal record, including sex assault charges in the 1990s as a minor, various break and enter charges, a 2011 assault charge, a 2013 charge of exposure for sexual purpose and two other sex assault charges in 2013 and 2018.
At that time, the Crown said it would bring an application to have Evalik designated a dangerous offender, a definition he technically satisfied after pleading guilty to sexual assault.
But the defence argued that Evalik could instead be designated as a long-term offender, as he was willing to comply with an order requiring him to take sex-drive reducing medication as well as alcohol-deterrent medication.
In her decision, Charlesworth first noted the Supreme Court’s Gladue decision, which acknowledges the overrepresentation of Indigenous offenders in Canada’s prisons as a result of colonial policies and calls on courts to consider the circumstances of those offenders in sentencing.
Charlesworth considered that Evalik grew up in a home with substance-abusing parents and was removed from his home by youth protection services on several occasions.
A court assessment by a forensic psychiatrist found that Evalik had an extremely high risk of reoffending. “Essentially, he is a one-in-a-thousand sexual offender in terms of likelihood to reoffend,” Charlesworth wrote.
But she said the risk could be managed if Evalik took the prescribed medication to reduce his sexual urges and alcohol addiction.
“If successful, the long-term offender status would avoid the indefinite detention of an Indigenous man where alternatives to incarceration exist,” Charlesworth wrote in her decision.
“I am satisfied that, with a meaningful period of incarceration to start, there is a reasonable possibility that Mr. Evalik’s risk can eventually be controlled in the community. This will enable Mr. Evalik to participate in community life at a reduced level of risk.”
Evalik had already served just over two years of custody since February 2019, stemming from his most recent offence.
Charlesworth sentenced Evalik to a further three years imprisonment, followed by a 10-year supervision order.
In addition to the order to take medication, Evalik is also required to provide a DNA sample; his name will be added to the national sex offenders’ registry and he cannot use a firearm for 10 years following his release date.
If he breaches any conditions, Evalik could be returned to custody, Charlesworth said.
“Mr. Evalik: I hope that you are able to use the resources available during this long-term offender sentence to heal yourself and to prevent ongoing suffering to yourself and those around you,” Charlesworth concluded in her written decision.
Correction
This story has been updated to reflect that an assessment found Evalik had an extremely high risk of reoffending. An earlier version incorrectly stated that an assessment found Evalik posed a one-in-1,000 risk of reoffending.
(0) Comments