‘Sick monster’: Ex-priest pleads guilty to indecent assaults of children in Nunavut

By Canadian Press on January 23, 2025.

IQALUIT — A Catholic priest’s sex assaults on Inuit children decades ago in Igloolik, Nvt., transformed a once friendly and trusting hamlet into a place marred by anger and addiction, court heard Thursday.

Wails and shouts could be heard in the Iqaluit courtroom where Eric Dejaeger pleaded guilty to indecent assaults against six girls and one boy between 1978 and 1982. He’d previously been convicted of dozens of offences against children and some adults.

A woman, whose relatives were abused by Dejaeger and was in court to offer support, read a victim impact statement describing the harm done to the tight-knit community.

“I grew up in Igloolik, in a beautiful environment (where) everybody knows everybody, greeting each other with smiles and laughter. There was much respect for each other in that community,” she said.

“Today, that environment is gone … The once happy community is now filled with anger, disrespect, abuse and mental illness.”

She called Dejaeger a “sick monster.”

“I am not going to tell you to rot in hell, but I hope they throw you in a small room with vicious husky dogs and they rip you up alive.”

Indecent assault is no longer listed as an offence under the Criminal Code but was at the time the offences occurred.

Prosecutor Emma Baasch described each of the assaults in graphic detail in the Nunavut Court of Justice. Baasch spoke of horrific sex acts. Children were as young as four when the abuse began, she said. One complainant described blacking out from the pain.

In some cases, it began with the priest offering the children candy. Court heard Dejaeger gave a picture to a girl to colour before taking her on his lap and assaulting her. It was of Jesus giving someone a flower.

Of one victim, the prosecutor said, “Mr. Dejaeger told her she would go to hell if she said anything.”

Baasch said Dejaeger told another girl “that Jesus would not accept her anymore” if she told anyone what happened.

A woman who said the abuse started when she was six years old said she would urinate on herself to protect herself. The more it smelled, the safer she felt.

“I would let it dry and do the same thing all over again. I refused to change my underwear and my pants,” she said.

“I wanted revenge for the little girl he hurt. I wanted revenge because the little girl was scared. I don’t want revenge anymore.

“I’m 51 years old and I’m not a little girl anymore and I’m not scared anymore.”

Some delivering victim impact statements spoke of how they will no longer set foot in a Catholic church or let their children do so.

“I don’t like to go to church anymore, even if it’s a special occasion,” one woman said in her victim impact statement.

“I hate seeing new priests come to our community. I hate the smell of the incense that the Catholic church uses.”

She said she recently found her birth certificate and that she planned to burn it because she thinks Dejaeger may have baptized her.

“I will now check and burn it, even if Eric’s name isn’t on it because it comes from the Catholic church.”

A picture of that woman when she was five years old was presented to the court as an exhibit, and pained wailing could be heard in the video conference of the court proceedings.

“Look! I hope you recognize her,” a woman could be heard shouting. “She’s innocent. How would you touch a five-year-old?”

Some women described feeling uneasy receiving physical affection from boyfriends or husbands and using drugs and alcohol to ease the pain. They also said they’re afraid of dogs because Dejaeger had one.

RCMP announced in June 2023 that Dejaeger had been arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he had been living. They said the charges stemmed from investigations conducted between 2011 and 2015.

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. The offences included indecent assault, unlawful confinement and bestiality.

Later that year, he was also sentenced for historical sexual offences against children in Alberta, to be served concurrently with his sentence for the earlier Igloolik charges.

He was given statutory release on May 19, 2022, after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

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

— By Lauren Krugel in Calgary.

The Canadian Press