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Fifteen years for shooting brother
Judge denounces 'increasing, and disturbing, incidence of firearm crime in Nunavut'

Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Published Tuesday, March 28, 2015

KINNGAIT/CAPE DORSET
The sentencing decision for Elee Geetah, 23, of Cape Dorset, in custody since the fatal shooting of his brother in 2010, was released March 20.

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Justice Neil Sharkey did not impose a life-time firearm ban on Elee Geetah. - photo courtesy Nunavut Court of Justice

NNSL photo/graphic  Read the full decision

Justice Neil Sharkey imposed a 15-year sentence, minus six years and three months for time served. Sharkey had previously informed the community of his decision.

"On Jan. 29, 2015, in Cape Dorset, I imposed a 15-year term of imprisonment upon Elee Geetah," stated Sharkey in the decision. "I felt it was important that the accused, his family, and the community all know the sentence imposed before the court left the community."

Geetah, on trial for murder, was instead found guilty of manslaughter by Sharkey last summer. He was also found guilty of four firearms charges. Those charges arose from Geetah's actions following the fatal shooting, where he discharged firearms multiple times into the community from a second-storey window of his parents' home.

Geetah received 10 years for the manslaughter charge and five years for the firearms charges.

"While the firearm offences as a group are imposed consecutive to the manslaughter sentence, they are to be served concurrently with each other," stated Sharkey.

The tragic events occurred Oct. 10, 2010, when Geetah, then 19, and his brother Jamesie Simigak, then 23, had an altercation.

"In the year or so before the shooting, Elee had been having suicidal thoughts - in particular because of the death of his best friend who had committed suicide. In the hour or so before the shooting, Elee had been having a bad day. He was not getting along with people and he had done some minor damage to the house," stated Sharkey, outlining the facts of the case.

"Eventually, Elee just decided to leave. However, Jamesie did not want Elee to leave the house, likely because he wanted Elee to wait until their parents came home and account for the damage he had done. As Elee was going out the door he was surprised by Jamesie, who punched him, jumped on him, and pinned him to the floor. A small scuffle ensued, but their uncle, Ohituq, pulled the boys apart and put an end to it. Jamesie's ambush, however, set Elee off drastically into a mad rage. Elee said nothing, but he did a lot in the space of only a few minutes."

The tragic shooting followed.

"Elee testified that the reason he fired the shot was to scare everybody and get them to run out of the house after which, he said, he intended to use the remaining round in the shotgun to kill himself," wrote Sharkey.

The shot instead killed a curious Simigak, who stepped out of the kitchen at the moment the shot was fired. An uncle and several siblings managed to escape the house. Geetah then went upstairs to his parents' bedroom and started firing high-powered rifles out the window. Shots hit trucks, missing people walking down the street. Another shot hit an RCMP officer's house, and one killed an RCMP officer's dog.

A standoff ensued and, after a few hours, RCMP crisis negotiator Staff Sgt. Jimmy Akavak convinced Geetah to give himself up.

In his 31-page decision, Sharkey notes, " . the judges of this court are well aware of the ever

increasing, and disturbing, incidence of firearm crime in Nunavut. Specifically, the communities of Cape Dorset and its sister community Kimmirut have, in the last decade, been riddled with firearm violence, including firearm violence directed at the police (twice with fatal result)."

Further, Sharkey laments that "firearms, once used only as tool in the not too distant past, are now the first resort of choice as a weapon for a small but significant minority of frustrated and dysfunctional young men -- young men unable to deal with jealousy, anger, or suicidal thoughts, and often driven by alcohol."

This context, stated Sharkey, informed his sentencing decision.

"In this case, Elee Geetah's moral blameworthiness is high. His reaction, in the aftermath of Jamesie's assault was both immediate and impulsive and, I appreciate, driven in large part by his desire to end his life and to join his lost friend and soul mate. But he was also possessed of sober and capable mind."

Sharkey discusses the firearm charges, which he notes caused the community to suffer a "heightened anxiety" - which at the sentencing hearing was transformed into "condemnation."

"In southern Canada, I might expect a large community turnout during the sentencing hearing, replete with much expression of public outrage at the offender for frightening the entire community," said Sharkey. "In the Nunavut context, an entirely empty courtroom, except for Elee's parents, with not even a single community member present in support of Elee, is a sign of the community's condemnation through silence. The court must assure the good citizens of Cape Dorset that it affirms the value of a peaceful community, and that it denounces Elee's conduct in the strongest possible terms."

Sharkey, however, did not opt to impose a lifetime firearm ban as is the norm, instead deciding on a 15-year ban.

"I have decided to minimally temper justice with mercy by allowing Elee Geetah, albeit many years from now, to use a firearm. I do not think it necessary to punish the man that Elee Geetah is one day likely to be, for the rest of his life, for the criminal sin and tragic mistake he made in late boyhood," Sharkey stated.

"I will allow Elee Geetah, in the future as a man approaching middle age, to once again use a firearm as a tool, and to participate fully in the traditional life that he shared with his family prior to that tragic day."

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