Yellowknife (July 14/04) - A judge's decision to sentence a man to house arrest for sexually abusing his daughter is a disgrace and smacks of racism, said the head of a city womens shelter.

"There is a complete double standard in the justice system when it comes to aboriginal victims and white offenders," said Arlene Hache, director of the Centre for Northern Families.

Arlene Hache: "It's absolutely horrible. Her life has been permanently altered and all (her father receives) is a slap on the wrist."

Its fruitless for women and girls to come forward.

Hache was reacting to a July 9 decision by NWT Supreme Court Justice Virginia Schuler to hand down a two-year conditional sentence to a Yellowknife man who sexually abused his young daughter for nearly a decade.

The non-aboriginal man was found guilty of invitation to sexual touching and assault June 30 following a two-day trial. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges and when convicted cried out in the courtroom: "No, nothing happened."

He faced up to 14 years in prison. The Crown attorney asked for a three- to five-year jail term.

According to justice officials, the man who cannot be named because of a court ordered publication ban, would enter his daughter's room at night and force her to stroke his penis. If she refused, the man would threaten her with violence, the court heard.

The abuse, which happened in Cambridge Bay and Yellowknife from 1992 to 2000, left the girl with deep psychological scars, according to court documents.

In a letter to the court, the girl said she tried to commit suicide by overdosing on pills and still dreams about the years of abuse.

"I am having a hard time at school. I have been having bad dreams. I am not eating or sleeping very well since this happened. (The abuse) made me scared and sad," she wrote.

"It's absolutely horrible," Hache said of the abuse. "Her life has been permanently altered and all (her father receives) is a slap on the wrist."

The victim now lives with her mother in another community while her siblings are in foster care.

The man will be allowed to live at home and keep his job for the duration of the two-year conditional sentence.

He can leave the house for four hours each week and has been ordered to perform 240 hours of community service, undergo anger management and sexual deviance training and pay a $200 fine.

"Isn't that nice, said Hache. He'll get to sit on his lawn and drink lemonade or even take in a movie."

During sentencing, Schuler said she was impressed by 12 letters of support submitted by the man's friends. They included glowing praise from the man's pastor who said: "I believe (his) passion is to shape the lives of his children in a positive way... and become the kind of citizen (he) is himself."

A fellow parishioner called the man a caring and compassionate father.

But Hache said the eloquence of the letters shouldn't mitigate the man's crime.

" It doesn't change one bit what he did," she said.

Hache also called the decision racist, citing a pair of cases earlier this year in which two aboriginal men received jail time for sexually assaulting teenaged girls.

In both of those cases, the men took advantage of the girls while they were intoxicated.

"This is one of the most blatant miscarriages of justice I have ever seen," she said.

"He comes off looking good because he's a nice, rich white guy who goes to church. Ill eat crow if I'm wrong, but aboriginal offenders don't get the same treatment in this system."

The Crown attorney's office did not return a phone a call seeking comment on the case. Hache said while she hasn't spoken to the Crown's office, she plans to push for an appeal of the sentence and even for a tribunal before the Human Rights Commission.