WARNING: This story accommodates disturbing content material.
A former Catholic priest took benefit of an already susceptible group when he inflicted horrific sexual abuse on a number of Inuit youngsters a long time in the past, a Crown prosecutor advised a sentencing listening to Friday.
An Iqaluit courtroom heard graphic particulars this week of Eric Dejaeger’s assaults on six women and one boy between 1978 and 1982 within the hamlet of Igloolik, Nvt.
Dejaeger was beforehand convicted of dozens extra offences in opposition to youngsters and adults in Nunavut and Alberta.
The 77-year-old pleaded responsible Thursday to seven counts of indecent assault. On Friday, prosecutor Emma Baasch and defence lawyer Scott Cowan collectively beneficial a jail sentence of six years.
Courts have lengthy decried the epidemic of sexual abuse in opposition to girls and youngsters in Nunavut, Baasch stated in her sentencing argument.
“Socio-economic elements and the affect of colonialism not solely contributed and contribute to this epidemic however supplied the proper situation for Eric Dejaeger to inflict years of abuse on the group of Igloolik,” she stated.
Get every day Nationwide information
Get the day’s prime information, political, financial, and present affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox as soon as a day.
“Compelled relocation, the RCMP canine slaughter, overcrowded housing, meals insecurity (and) makes an attempt to eradicate Inuit tradition are the very elements that Eric Dejaeger exploited to realize entry to his victims and safe their secrecy for many years.”
Baasch advised Justice Faiyaz Alibhai that Dejaeger’s responsible plea ought to be thought-about a major mitigating think about sentencing, because it spared victims from having to testify.
However she stated that have to be weighed in opposition to quite a few aggravating elements, together with the younger age of the victims, the truth that Dejaeger was ready of belief and the lasting harm from his crimes.
“In the end, no sentence can erase the hurt,” she stated. “Hopefully, the victims can now acquire some sense of closure.”
Indecent assault is now not listed as an offence below the Legal Code however was when the abuse passed off.
“Disgrace on our predecessors in Parliament, however the most sentence for a few of these offences was 5 years,” Cowan stated of the decades-old laws.
He stated the legislation when it existed — mixed with modern-day sentencing rules — makes a six-year time period “a completely sq. one with justice.”
Contemplating the time Dejaeger has already served on different intercourse crime convictions, “what he’s getting is successfully a 30-year sentence,” Cowan stated.
“Let nobody say that Mr. Dejaeger was ever handled leniently.”
In a video feed of the courtroom proceedings, a grey-bearded Dejaeger could possibly be seen sitting together with his arms crossed on the defence desk. He wore a blue sweatshirt.
Sufferer affect statements delivered Thursday by the 5 surviving complainants described how the assaults led to habit, psychological well being struggles, poor vanity and distrust.
The youngest sufferer on this case was 4 when the abuse began, and others had been between six and 9.
Court docket heard some victims have refused to set foot in a Catholic church because of the abuse and that the long-running assaults have harmed the tight-knit group as an entire.
Dejaeger was beforehand convicted of committing quite a few sexual offences whereas working as an Oblate missionary. He served a part of a five-year sentence, starting in 1990, for sexual crimes in opposition to youngsters in Baker Lake, Nvt., dedicated between 1982 and 1989.
In 2015, he was sentenced to 19 years in jail for 32 crimes in opposition to Inuit youngsters and a few adults between 1978 and 1982 in Igloolik. The offences included indecent assault, illegal confinement and bestiality.
Later that 12 months, he was sentenced for historic sexual offences in opposition to youngsters in Alberta, to be served concurrently together with his sentence for the sooner Igloolik fees. He was given statutory launch on Could 19, 2022, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.
Alibhai is at hand down his sentence for the most recent offences subsequent Thursday.
The choose thanked victims for telling their tales.
“It will be significant not only for victims, however for all of us who reside in Nunavut, that the reality is advised and issues which are hidden and stored at nighttime be introduced into the sunshine.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
Source link