Judge rejects proposed sentence in sexual assault case

A Nunavut judge has rejected a joint proposal by Crown and defense lawyers to sentence a Baker Lake man convicted of sexual assault to 120 days, calling it “way outside the parameters” of judicial standards.

On April 11, Judge Paul Bychok said in the Nunavut Court of Justice that an “appropriate” sentence for Paul Tuluqtuq would be three years in prison.

However, due to the circumstances of the case, he sentenced Tuluqtuq to two years in prison minus one day, to be served in Nunavut.

In his sentencing, Bychok said that on September 6, around 6 a.m., Tuluqtuq entered the female victim’s home uninvited while under the influence. A court order prevents the publication of the woman’s name.

The woman was sleeping on the couch and woke up to find Tuluqtuq touching her genitals over her clothing. When the woman shouted, “What the hell are you doing?” Tuluqtuq fled the house.

Tuluqtuq and the woman knew each other, but only as acquaintances, Bychok noted.

Tuluqtuq pleaded guilty to sexual assault on January 23.

On April 10, Crown attorney Christopher McCarthy and defense attorney Alan Regal offered a joint statement in court calling for a 120-day suspended sentence for Tuluqtuq, followed by twelve months’ probation.

But in his decision the next day, Bychok said the lawyers’ request fell outside the “expected sentence in the circumstances of this serious crime.”

Regal defended the joint submission, stating that had it not been for Tuluqtuq’s criminal past, he would have asked for a suspended sentence.

Bychok said he took into account the Gladue Principle, which takes into account systemic and background factors experienced by indigenous people, in sentencing.

“I must, and do, consider the all-too-real consequences of the intergenerational trauma that Inuit have suffered as a result of colonialism,” he said.

The judge reminded Tuluqtuq of his “long and disturbing criminal record” dating back to 1998, noting 10 previous convictions for violent crimes.

The court is not convicting you of past offenses, Bychok said, “but the fact is that you are a repeat offender with a serious criminal record.”

He called the lawyers’ joint recommendation “so far wrong that if I were to impose it it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

In addition to two years less per day in prison in Nunavut, Bychok also sentenced Tuluqtuq to 12 months’ probation after he was released.

Tuluqtuq will also be listed on Canada’s National Sex Offender Registry for the next ten years.