Jack Danylchuk/ Terry Kruger
Northern News Services
Monday, July 9, 2007

KAKISA - Chief Lloyd Chicot of Ka'a'gee Tu First Nation in Kakisa says he did not write a character reference for disgraced school teacher Marvin Lizotte.

"I have not verbally spoken or written any letter in the defense of Marvin," Chicot wrote in a letter to NWT News/North. "I have attached the letter that was supposedly signed by me...the letter is not (on) our First Nation letterhead nor is the signature mine."

The letter attributed to Chicot was one of eight character references presented to Supreme Court Justice John Vertes before he sentenced Lizotte on June 14 to 14 months in jail.

Lizotte admitted to having sex with three teenaged girls while he was a teacher in Fort Providence and pleaded guilty to charges of sexual exploitation. One of the girls was 14. Two were 15 and one of them said she had sex with Lizotte 100 times over several years.

Since publication of a News/North story that identified Chicot as the author of one of the letters of reference, the chief said in an interview he has been "questioned many times by people about why I would do such a thing."

Chicot said he was aware that Lizotte had returned to Kakisa where he was teaching when RCMP arrested him in 2003, soliciting character references, but "I would never write a letter without support from my council.

"Just the other week I was in a march to raise awareness of violence against women."

Glen Boyd, Lizotte's lawyer, declined to comment on the letter attributed to Chicot, but said he advised the court and Crown prosecutor John MacFarlane about Chicot's concerns.

MacFarlane, who had asked for a sentence of two years less a day, also declined comment and said it will be up to Chicot to make a complaint to RCMP.

Chicot said the Ka'a'gee Tu council decided not to contact the police.

"I don't want to create anymore difficulty, we'll just leave it the way it is,' he said."

Terri Nguyen, chair of the legal ethics and practice committee of the NWT Law Society, said there is no onus on lawyers to determine the authenticity of letters of reference, even though the court may give them significant weight, especially when they are written by a community leader.

"What I do is have the persons address the letters to me; that provides more assurance about the source than if it comes through the accused," Nguyen said.

In all, eight letters of reference were presented to Justice Vertes, including ones from Chief Chicot's mother and sister. With one exception, a letter sent to Boyd by Julie Landsberg, a friend of Lizotte's who lives in Scotland, the letters were addressed "to whom it may concern." No one else has come forward to deny writing a letter.

Shawna Ward, senior purchasing officer at Hay River Health and Social Services, grew up with Lizotte in Fort Vermillion, Alta. "He has been and always will be a friend to myself and my family," she wrote.

Connie Ward, a former girlfriend who "remained close friends" with Lizotte, praised him "as a man of great integrity. He is always thinking of others, especially his students."

Linda Dyck, a lifelong friend and teacher in Fort Vermilion, wrote of Lizotte's "upstanding character and dedication to the field of education."

Lizotte's family, Wade, Lisa, Alexa, and Ivan, described their son and brother as "the youngest in our family and the first to strive to finish high school. Marvin has always been a favorite with all kids, whether they were his students or his relatives."

Trevor Lizotte, who introduced himself as "an upstanding character employed as a corrections officer at North Slave Corrections," wrote that "Marvin is driven and I find him to be a positive role model as a life motivator."