Postal employee delivered more than mail, court rules

KIRSTEN MURPHY

A Nunavut judge ruled this week that a Canada Post employee delivered more than mail while she was working in the postal outlet in Iqaluit.

Louise Turcotte, 47, was given a six-month conditional sentence after pleading guilty to mailing 400 grams of marijuana to Pangnirtung resident Billy Evic in June.

“I certainly hope this is the last time I or anyone else sees you in this courtroom,” Justice Rene Foisy told Turcotte in the Nunavut Court of Justice on Jan. 21.

Turcotte mailed a package containing 400 baby-bottle liners filled with a gram of marijuana each. A month after the $20,000 package arrived in Pangnirtung, Turcotte and her partner Roland Levesque, 53, were arrested at their Iqaluit home. About $25,000 in drug money was seized at the house. The money has been handed to the courts.

“Her prints were found on the baby bottle liners,” said Christine Gagnon, crown counsel. Levesque was acquitted of the drug trafficking charge laid in connection with the money found in Turcotte’s home.

Pangnirtung resident Billy Evic, 34, was fined $1,500 for drug possession in Nunavut Court of Justice this fall.

Turcotte, a seven-year Canada Post employee, was linked to the deal at Evic’s suggestion, Gagnon said.

Turcotte appeared in court dressed in jeans and a thick white sweater for the hour-long trial conducted in French. She switched her plea to guilty the day of the trial.

Conditions of her sentence include three months of house arrest. She will serve the sentence in Gaspe, Quebec, where she now lives.

Shortly after her arrest, Turcotte was fired from her job with Canada Post. At about the same time, the post office was closed intermittently due to a staff shortage.

John Caines, media officer for Canada Post, said the closures were not a direct result of Turcotte’s dismissal.