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South Baffin MLA Fred Schell is scheduled to be in court Friday morning to respond to an assault charge after RCMP arrested him in connection with an April 10 attack at an Iqaluit home. - NNSL file photo

IQALUIT
South Baffin MLA Fred Schell is scheduled to be in court Friday morning to respond to an assault charge after RCMP arrested him in connection with an April 10 attack at an Iqaluit home, court documents show.

Schell, 59, faces one count of assaulting a woman. He was released on a promise to report to RCMP the morning of May 3, and appear in court the morning of May 4. He is under conditions to neither contact the complainant nor go to her home.

The accusations were made almost a month to the day after Premier Eva Aariak stripped Schell of his ministerial portfolios March 11 for a yet unannounced reason. From Sept. 28, 2011 until losing his cabinet posts, Schell had acted as minister of human resources and minister responsible for the Nunavut Housing Corporation, homelessness and the Workers' Safety and Compensation Commission.

Integrity Commissioner Norman Pickell is set to investigate the reasons once cabinet secretary Daniel Vandermeulen sends a request.

The integrity investigation, if it happens, would be the second into Schell's actions. Pickell presented the legislature with a report Oct. 18, 2011 finding him guilty of intimidating a bureaucrat. The legislature cleared him of the charges because Pickell should not have included comments made in the legislature, where Schell's freedom of speech is protected by parliamentary privilege.

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