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Tuktoyaktuk man behind bars again
Edwin Avik threatened to kill RCMP as he lit apartment on fire

Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Monday, January 16, 2017

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A 33-year-old Tuktoyaktuk man with more than 50 previous convictions is back behind bars after sending an apartment up in flames this summer and threatening to shoot up the RCMP.

Edwin Joseph Avik was sentenced in Yellowknife Supreme Court on Jan. 13 to two years less a day in jail for arson.

According to a statement of facts read in court by Justice Shannon Smallwood, Avik had been drinking for two days straight when RCMP responded to calls on Aug. 3 that he was acting "eratically" and threatening to shoot people.

When RCMP located Avik at an apartment at 10:35 p.m. that night, he threatened to shoot them.

By the time they arrested him several hours later, he had tossed knives, furniture and clothing out the windows and barricaded the apartment door with a fridge.

He then lit the curtains on fire, sending the apartment unit up in flames.

Avik told the court the incident has been an "eye-opener" and he was sorry.

"The solution is really up to you ... to make those changes to stop that cycle," Smallwood said.

Avik is also sentenced to 12 months for uttering threats, 15 months for breaching court orders and six months for assault, to be served concurrently.

He is given eight months credit off his sentence for time served in remand and will have a two-year probation period following his sentence. He must also submit a DNA order and faces a firearms ban ending 10 years after his release.

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