INDIGENOUS BAR ASSOCIATION CONDEMNS LENIENT SENTENCE IN R. V. DEJAEGER, DEMANDS STRONGER JUDICIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & RECOGNITION OF SYSTEMIC VIOLENCE BY INSTITUTIONS

FOR IMMMEDIATE RELEASE - The Indigenous Bar Association in Canada (IBA) is deeply dismayed by the six-year sentence imposed on Eric DeJaeger, a Catholic priest who sexually abused multiple Inuit children in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982. This lenient sentence erodes public confidence in the justice system and falls woefully short of addressing the gravity of the crimes committed. Further, it ignores the catastrophic harm inflicted on victims and their families, and the entrenched role of colonial and religious institutions in perpetuating such violence.

In DeJaeger, the Nunavut Court of Justice (NCJ) acknowledged that this was the offender’s fifth sentencing for similar offences. DeJaeger was a known fugitive who evaded justice for years after an arrest warrant was issued by the NCJ in 2002. His presence on Interpol's list for "crimes against children" underscores the severity of his offences and the systemic failure to hold him fully accountable.

Despite his well documented and extensive history of predatory behavior, DeJaeger received a sentence that overlooks the lasting trauma inflicted on the victims, their families, and the larger Inuit community. In addition, disproportionate effect of the harms inflicted versus the term of the sentence substantially undermines the need to deter future offenders from similar wanton and reprehensible conduct.   The IBA asserts that sentences in cases involving sexual violence against Indigenous children, particularly when perpetrated by non-Indigenous men, must be denunciatory in the strongest terms.

In R. v. Manji, an NCJ case involving the appropriation of Indigenous identity, the court clearly stated that significant penalties must be imposed to deter offenders and send a strong message that criminal misconduct by non-Indigenous parties involving Indigenous communities will not be tolerated. The court recognized that fraudsters are deterred by seeing other fraudsters face substantial penalties. Yet, in DeJaeger —despite the far-reaching trauma of sexual violence against Indigenous children—the court delivered a sentence that fails to meet these critical objectives.

Both DeJaeger and Manji pleaded guilty and were repeat offenders of similar crimes; however, in DeJaeger a guilty plea was indeed a mitigating factor in sentencing. By imposing only six years of imprisonment, the court has failed to warn future perpetrators and continues the long-standing bias and leniency often afforded to perpetrators associated with powerful colonial institutions like the Catholic Church. This failure of justice sends a dangerous message that the sexual exploitation of Indigenous children will not be met with the full weight of the law.

The IBA is also appalled by the court’s failure to address the Church's longstanding role in perpetrating and enabling sexual violence against Indigenous children. This ongoing protection and leniency afforded to religious institutions and their representatives perpetuate cycles of harm and impunity. The justice system must hold such institutions to account by imposing sentences that reflect the severity of these crimes.

DeJaeger’s actions have left a legacy of trauma that continues to reverberate through generations. This trauma is compounded by the high rates of sexual violence in the North today, a reality rooted in the early violence inflicted by perpetrators like DeJaeger and the institutions that enabled them.

A six-year sentence is a gross affront to the victims and their families. It fails to send a strong message of deterrence and denunciation, and brings the administration of justice into disrepute. The IBA demands that future cases involving sexual violence against Indigenous peoples reflect a more nuanced approach to sentencing by adopting principles of deterrence to condemn all forms of violence perpetrated on Indigenous communities, as outlined in decisions such as R. v. Manji.

The IBA stands in solidarity with the survivors of Eric DeJaeger’s crimes and the community of Igloolik. We reiterate our call for the justice system to dismantle the biases that continue to protect colonial institutions and to ensure that meaningful justice is delivered for Indigenous Communities.

The IBA is a national non-profit organization representing Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, and Inuit) lawyers (practicing and non-practicing), judges, legal academics and scholars, articling clerks and law students, including graduate and post-graduate law students and paralegals in Canada. The IBA’s mandate includes, inter alia, advocating for the recognition of Indigenous laws, legal traditions, protocols and processes; promoting the reform of policies and laws affecting Indigenous peoples in Canada; and fostering public awareness within the legal community in respect of legal and social issues of concern to Indigenous peoples in Canada. For more information, please visit www.indigenousbar.ca.