SANIKILUAQ
The defence lawyer for a former Nunavut teacher is hoping Justice Neil Sharkey agrees with him that the testimony of nine complainants related to 32 sex-related charges are not reliable.

Johnny Meeko is facing the charges from alleged incidents between 1984 and 2006 during his time as a teacher at Nuiyak Elementary School in Sanikiluaq. The charges involve sexual assault, sexual interference and assault.

The question of whether Meeko committed the alleged abuses "we say can never be answered by this court," said defence lawyer James Morton.

"Johnny says and we say he did not do it. Others say he did. But the others who say that Johnny abused them have told stories which we say are tainted by inadvertent collusion, and what's more, are at least in some cases fantastic, and we say, impossible."

Closing arguments spanned several days in Iqaluit court last week, with Morton repeating that some of the evidence was "simply fantastic."

At one point, Sharkey responded that, "it's fantastic a man walked on the moon," pointing out that just because something might seem implausible doesn't mean it couldn't have happened.

"We're not suggesting that any of the witnesses are not credible," said Morton, clarifying that he's saying they're unreliable instead, mostly due to the passage of time from when the allegations were said to have taken place.

"One can give honest testimony that is not correct."

The allegations were described in detail earlier in the year, with most taking place during victims' Grade 3 and Grade 4 years. Allegations include Meeko lining up students and checking for breast growth, making lewd comments, touching over and underneath clothing in sensitive parts and touching in both private and public settings. One complainant gave testimony about multiple rapes at an older age.

"If one thinks back to what one did in Grade 3 and Grade 4, I have a memory of Grade 3 and Grade 4, but is my memory of Grade 3 and Grade 4 what happened, what I think happened or perhaps what I was told by my parents?" wondered Morton aloud.

He specifically said the testimony that Meeko would regularly line up students at the front of the classroom to touch inappropriately in such a public way was "fanciful."

He said it is "unsafe" to accept the evidence of these witnesses.

"At this distance in time, it is our submission that you cannot find to the criminal standard what actually did happen," said Morton.

"The promise of compensation is floating out there, further muddying the waters," he added.

Crown prosecutor Priscilla Ferrazzi spent a long time going back and forth with Sharkey in the minutia about the legitimacy of similar fact evidence, which is a legal term that establishes the conditions under which evidence of past misconduct of an accused can be admitted at trial for the purpose of inferring that the accused committed the misconduct at issue.

Ferrazzi said the similar fact evidence showed that Meeko repeatedly used the same methods to achieve his means and should rebut any suggestion that the complainants' individual testimonies were fabricated.

With both private and public touching, Meeko normalized the behaviour and involved the students in things that would have been well beyond their understanding, said Ferrazzi.

"The suggestion that their breasts would grow for example in one instance and that guys would really like that a lot, big breasts, that's well beyond comprehension of a Grade 3 student developmentally, so you have a number of complainants who testify ... similarly to the kind of language that Meeko used," she said.

Meeko, 61, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was arrested in 2012. At the time, he admitted to police that he had touched many of the complainants, but has since rescinded that admission, saying it was made under duress.

During the final arguments, Meeko remained in a stoic posture, arms folded on the table in front of him. He would look at whoever was speaking and look back down frequently with no expression. During a break, he discussed with associates the historic weather patterns of Sanikiluaq and the island's history of caribou and eider ducks.

No date has been set for the judge to issue a verdict.

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