Former priest pleads guilty to indecent assaults of children in Nunavut

By Canadian Press on January 23, 2025.

IQALUIT — A defrocked Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault against children in Nunavut.

Court has heard Eric Dejaeger committed the offences between 1978 and 1982 at or near the hamlet of Igloolik.

RCMP announced in June 2023 that Dejaeger had been arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he had been living.

He was previously convicted of committing numerous sexual offences while working as an Oblate missionary.

Dejaeger served part of a five-year sentence, beginning in 1990, for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nvt., committed between 1982 and 1989.

In 2015, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for 32 crimes against Inuit children and some adults between 1978 and 1982 in Igloolik.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 23, 2025.

The Canadian Press