Qikiqtarjuaq man forfeits right to jury trial after sleeping in

A Qikiqtarjuaq man lost his right to a jury trial after he accidentally slept through a court date in early September.

Ronald Audlakiak faces four charges, alleged to have taken place between Nov. 30 and Dec. 5, 2024. They include sexual assault with a weapon, assault involving suffocation, assault and uttering threats.

His four-day jury trial was supposed to begin on the morning of Sept. 1 in Qikiqtarjuaq.

Sixty community members had gathered at Qikiqtarjuaq’s community hall anticipating the start of jury selection, Justice Mark Mossey said in a written decision dated Oct. 15.

When Audlakiak didn’t present himself at court, Mossey delayed the proceedings until the afternoon. He did not give a reason, in an effort to avoid prejudicing the jurors.

Audlakiak then arrived when court reconvened and jury selection proceeded in the afternoon.

The accused once again failed to show up the next morning, for Day 2 of his trial.

Mossey declared a mistrial, issued an arrest warrant and, an hour later, RCMP found him asleep in his mother’s home.

When court reconvened in the afternoon to determine next steps, Audlakiak said he did not want to give up his right to jury trial and requested a hearing to determine whether that right had been waived.

“Mr. Audlakiak took the stand and explained that he simply slept in that morning,” said Mossey in his decision. “His evidence was that he only woke up when the police came to his home to execute the warrant for his arrest. He testified that he had gone to bed relatively early for him, around midnight, but did not have an alarm.”

Audlakiak acknowledged that he could have asked his mother or two adult sisters to wake him up, but he did not.

As for the apparent non-appearance during jury selection, Audlakiak explained he did show up and was in court with the group of potential jurors.

“Mr. Audlakiak did not provide an explanation as to why he did not present himself to the court, or his lawyer,” Mossey wrote.

Audlakiak has a constitutional right to a trial by jury, explained Mossey in his decision. But an accused who fails to appear at their own trial without a reasonable excuse can be deemed to have waived that right.

Defence lawyer Alan Regel argued that the “vast majority” of Qikiqtarjuaq’s population has been impacted by colonialism, and denying Audlakiak the right to a jury by his peers could be seen as an extension of that.

“What message does it send to the community, if the allegations are serious enough that the Crown files a direct indictment, personally signed by the Attorney General of Canada, that he is exposed to a jail term as great as 34 years, he has no chance of a preliminary inquiry — and he loses his right to have a jury simply because he slept in,” Regel said.

Regel also pointed out Audlakiak has been unemployed for years and is not accustomed to keeping a regular schedule.

“The court needs to consider as well, that the concept of time of an Inuit person growing up in a remote northern community … may be different from that of the court,” Regel said.

Mossey sided with the Crown, which argued sleeping in is not a reasonable excuse for missing a jury trial.

He took into consideration the cost — financial and otherwise — of delivering “meaningful access to justice” to people in the communities.

Mossey pointed out that the approximately 10 per cent of Qikiqtarjuaq’s population of approximately 600 people who showed up for jury duty was taken out of the workforce, from child-care duties and from hunting.

“The level of disruption to the community is evident,” Mossey said, adding allowing for a new jury trial would “minimize the cost” of the community fulfilling its jury obligations.

Mossey said at best, Audlakiak took a “cavalier approach to his jury trial” and that he was “wilfully blind in making the mistake of not taking even the smallest of precautions to ensure that he would be awake in time for trial.”

Audlakiak’s trial is set to resume, before a judge alone, on Feb. 25.