RANKIN INLET
It was a happy moment for members of the Rankin Inlet Fire Department when all charges against deputy fire chief Michael Aksadjuak were dropped in a Rankin courtroom April 13.

Deputy fire chief Michael Aksadjuak, left, gives the thumbs up after having all charges against him dropped concerning a defrauding incident with the Rankin Inlet Fire Department on April 13, 2017, in Rankin.- Darrell Greer/NNSL photo

Aksadjuak had been named as co-defendent in charges laid against former chief Ambrose Karlik for defrauding money from the department on a number of occasions.

Karlik was found guilty this past December.

Rankin fire chief Mark Wyatt said he was pleased the charges were dropped.

He said he stood by his deputy chief's innocence from the moment the charges were laid about eight months ago.

"Michael's (Aksadjuak) signature was on some of the cheques that were cashed, so he was implicated as a co-defendant and charged in five or six instances too," said Wyatt.

"Hearing all the charges being dropped against Michael made me feel ecstatic, actually, because I believed in him the whole time, so I see this past Thursday as being a good day for the community of Rankin Inlet.

"I never had a doubt in my mind about Michael's innocence from the first time he told me his side of the story, then throughout the whole process, until they dropped the charges on April 13.

"I've got to know Michael a lot during my time here, and he was fairly instrumental, along with a couple of other firefighters, in bringing all this to light with the police to begin with."

Wyatt said he considers Aksadjuak to be an honest man who simply wouldn't do something like that.

He said, in his opinion, Aksadjuak simply trusted the Karlik too much for his own good.

"Michael unwittingly got himself into the position of being charged because he signed some blank cheques when he was asked to by the former fire chief.

"He was just kind of duped, and it was terribly unfortunate when he got implicated in all of the charges when the investigation went through.

"Michael is still the deputy fire chief today, and I never once considered demoting him, removing him from this department, or anything like that while all this was going on because I believed in him.

"This has been going on for about eight months since the charges were first laid and, during that time, I kept him here and trusted him enough to have him sitting in my seat while I was away a couple of times for three weeks."

Wyatt said Aksadjuak remained pretty upbeat on the job during the time it took for him to get his day in court.

He said most of the time one wouldn't know the severity of the charges he was facing based on his demeanour at work.

"Michael was a little concerned when the charges first came out because they were serious charges.

"It was a serious situation, but he and I had long talks, I was with him several times when he met with his lawyers, and I also had an opportunity to look at some of the evidence that was against him, and I just simply had no doubts about him.

"The Crown offered, on a couple of occasions, to drop some of the charges if he'd agree to plead guilty to lesser charges which would have resulted in, more or less, just a slap on the wrist to him.

"But when he and I talked about it, he told me he wasn't going to plead guilty to anything because he hadn't done anything, so he stood his ground and rid himself of all charges when they decided during the preliminary hearing that there wasn't enough evidence against him to continue."

Aksadjuak said it was horrible for him to carry around such a heavy burden for such a long period of time.

He said he had no choice but to pray for the strength to stand up against the charges.

"Rather than sitting around just thinking about it, I made the decision to study my Bible, put my trust in the Lord and be truthful with the law," said Aksadjuak.

"I've been here a long time, and, if you look back years and years, you'd see this place was really poor, and I believe I was the one who got it back up, so I plan on doing whatever it takes to do that again here.

"I just remember feeling happy that the spirit of the Lord was with me when we were going into court on the day they dismissed the charges, so I didn't feel fear or anything like that.

"I think people in the community are happy the charges against me were dropped, because I'm an honest and truthful man."

Aksadjuak said going forward from here, he wants to spend more time in the department in case something like this happens again and he has to go back to the law office.

He said one thing he'll never do again, no matter who does the asking, is sign another blank cheque for anyone.

"I was the one who worked so hard to raise money for the department, so it was a hard, hard way to learn a lesson for me.

"When I first realized the money just wasn't adding up, all I wanted to do was visit the RCMP and some different law offices.

"I had a very hard time believing someone in the department would be doing this, especially when I had a chief at the time who I trusted a lot.

"That trust was sure shattered."

No sooner did Aksadjuak have the charges against him dropped, that another piece of wonderful news reached him.

He said learning that he was going to be officially recognized for his 30 years of service couldn't have come at a better time.

"I almost cried when I got the news that same morning.

"I couldn't say a word to my chief for a while after that.

"So, after all this, I'm so proud and happy I'm still a free man and I'm back on the right track again with our new chief.

"And I know I never want to go through anything like this ever again in this lifetime."

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