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Trial delays frustrate victim's father

Karen Mackenzie
Northern News Services
Published Monday, June 30, 2008

IQALUIT - The father of a woman brutally beaten in Pangnirtung in 2005 said he is "disgusted" following the latest delay in the trial of a man accused in her attack.

Tommy Nuvaqiq, who is charged in the violent beating of the 31-year-old woman on June 20, 2005, was to stand trial June 9 in Pangnirtung.

Due to "some potential developments" the matter was rescheduled to be addressed on June 23 during the regular court circuit, according to Crown lawyer John Solski.

Then, after being moved due to weather to Iqaluit on June 25, Nuvaqiq fired defence lawyer Sue Cooper, delaying the proceedings again.

"I just want a different lawyer," Nuvaqiq told Justice Beverley Browne, when asked to explain his action.

Browne counselled Nuvaqiq to think carefully about his decision, warning him to have a new lawyer when the matter is again spoken to on Aug. 18 "or go without one."

A new trial date will be set then.

She also warned him that having no lawyer at the next proceedings could result in a "higher sentence."

"I'm thoroughly disgusted with the legal system. The accused gets all the rights and the victim has none," said the father of the woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban.

"This has been three years of this here. We actually thought it was finally coming to a conclusion. But I guess it is what it is. Apparently this person seems to be well-versed. We're so far away too, and frustration weighs heavy right now."

Nuvaqiq, who was 23 at the time he was arrested, is charged with aggravated sexual assault and break and enter in connection with the attack, which took place in a boarded-up home in Pangnirtung.

The victim worked for Northern Property and was staying in the house at the time of the attack.

Nuvaqiq was arrested on July 16, 2005, in Pangnirtung.

In August 2005, he elected to be tried by judge and jury with a preliminary inquiry, which, after several appearances, took place in December 2006.

The matter was committed to trial in January of last year.

"The Crown has been ready to proceed with this for a long time," Solski said.

Solski said he believed the court made the right decision by not forcing the proceedings to continue this week, because to do so "would have been grounds for an appeal."

"We want to do this once, and we want to do this correctly," he said.

Solski will be seeking a dangerous offender application if the matter goes to trial, he told the court last week.

Cooper declined to comment.

According to the victim's father, she has now moved on with her life "as best she can" following extensive group, physical and speech therapy.

She and her husband are now living in Calgary.

"She's doing fairly well, considering everything, and proceeding with almost a normal life," he said. "Somewhere along the way we have to close the book on this."