Dejaeger appears in Nunavut court to start appeal

By Thomas Rohner
Nunatsiaq Online
November 11, 2015

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674dejaeger_appears_in_nunavut_court_to_start_appeal/

The convicted pedophile and former Catholic priest, Eric Dejaeger, shields his face after arriving under police supervision at the Nunavut Court of Justice in Iqaluit Nov. 10. Dejaeger is appealing at least some of his 32 convictions for sex crimes against Igloolik children committed between 1978 and 1982. Photo by THOMAS ROHNER

Convicted of dozens of sex crimes against mostly Inuit children over a span of two decades, the former Roman Catholic priest, Eric Dejaeger, made a brief appearance at the Nunavut Court of Appeal in Iqaluit Nov. 10 to try to get at least some of those convictions overturned.

Dejaeger, appearing before Justice Robert Kilpatrick in baggy navy blue sweatpants and sweatshirt, with his head and beard recently trimmed, had filed a notice of appeal earlier this year, on March 26.

That notice lists six convictions that Dejaeger, now 69, is appealing, but contains so little detail that it’s not clear which incidents these convictions relate to.

But it remains likely that Dejaeger is appealing at least some of the 32 sex crimes against Igloolik children on which Kilpatrick convicted the former priest in September 2014.

“Right now, the notice of appeal is deficient in so much as it doesn’t set down any grounds for appeal,” Kilpatrick said. 

But that isn’t Dejaeger’s fault, the judge said.

The Legal Services Board of Nunavut is currently deciding whether it will represent Dejaeger in his appeal.

Before deciding whether to provide Dejaeger with legal aid, court reporters need to file transcripts of some of Dejaeger’s earlier dealings with the court, defence lawyer Tamara Fairchild told Kilpatrick.

Dejaeger’s first convictions on child sex charges relate to incidents that occurred in Baker Lake in the 1980s.

After serving a five-year federal sentence for nine convictions related to incidents in Baker Lake, the Belgium-born Dejaeger fled to his home country to avoid facing allegations arising from his time in Igloolik.

Dejaeger successfully hid from Canadian authorities in Belgium until a local reporter discovered him hiding among members of the Oblate order.

Dejaeger returned to Canada in 2011, was arrested and eventually convicted in 2014 of 32 sex crimes stemming from his time in Igloolik between 1978 and 1982.

Kilpatrick sentenced Dejaeger in February to 11 more years in prison for those crimes.

And most recently, Dejaeger pleaded guilty to four more sex crimes against children, this time involving three children in Alberta between 1974 and 1978.

Justice Sue Cooper sentenced Dejaeger to four five-year consecutive terms for those crimes committed in Alberta.

At the end of the proceedings Nov. 10, Kilpatrick asked Dejaeger if he had any questions.

“No, not really,” said Dejaeger, as he shrugged his shoulders.

Kilpatrick scheduled Dejaeger’s next appearance in the Nunavut Court of Appeal for March 9, 2016.