Philippe Morin
Northern News Services
Monday, July 9, 2007

INUVIK - Here's a story that will probably be told for many years by off-duty RCMP officers.

Last week, police chased a mentally disturbed man, who later started wandering naked in the woods and is suspected of starting a forest fire.

According to the Canadian Mental Health Act, an adult can be forcibly taken into custody: to prevent the person's or patient's substantial mental or physical deterioration or for the protection of the person or patient or the protection of others. When a person is apprehended, they can be held up to 48 hours in a mental health facility before a psychologist, psychiatrist or counsellor decides whether they can be released.

"They found him naked as a jaybird, covered in mud," said Mayor Derek Lindsay.

"It is my understanding they were chasing him in the woods for some time."

Staff Sgt. Sidney Gray said the man was originally from southern Canada, possibly Northern Ontario.

He had been staying at the Inuvik Homeless Shelter since spring, after hitchhiking from Whitehorse.

It wasn't his first brush with police. In March, police apprehended him after he tried to walk to Paulatuk.

Earlier he had attempted to walk to Tuktoyaktuk and Paulatuk on separate occasions, and suffered severe frostbite on legs, feet, hands and face.

"You have to understand, this is someone on a different plane, we have no way of knowing what he was thinking," said Gray.

On Wednesday, June 27, the man was to appear before a psychologist for assessment, Gray said.

It was then he evaded police, who were aware he was staying at the Inuvik Homeless Shelter.

Const. Noella Cockney injured her shoulder after falling during the chase. The man managed to dodge police throughout town.

He then headed into the woods and officers decided to end the chase.

"We decided to wait for him to come out," said Gray. "We thought if we chased him further, it would just drive him deeper into the bush."

On Saturday, June 30, Lindsay said some boaters spotted the man, who had taken off his clothes.

It's unknown if he had been living in the woods for three nights, or sneaking back into town for food.

Lindsay said police apprehended the man, gave him some clothes, and brought him back to the station for some food.

The man's psychological assessment found him to be disassociated with reality.

The man was apprehended under the Mental Health Act on June 29.

"A psychiatric counsellor deemed he was mentally unsound, so they sent him out. He's gone to Edmonton now, I don't think we'll see him back here again," he said.

Lindsay added he was relieved the man would be getting some help.

He added it is suspected the man might have started a medium-sized forest fire near Navy Road June 21, which required helicopters to douse the blaze.

"It's just a really weird case," said Lindsay. "It's just an anomaly. You can't really predict these kinds of cases. I guess he's just one of those oddballs. I have no idea what he was thinking or why he came up here," said Lindsay.

Candice Smith, who works at the homeless shelter, said the man had stayed there for two weeks before his latest episode.

"He didn't cause any problems and we didn't become concerned until the last day, and that's when it happened," she said, of the man's escape.