Ex-priest sentenced to six years for sex abuse of Nunavut children

Defrocked Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger leaves an Iqaluit courtroom on Jan. 20, 2011, after his first appearance for six child sexual abuse charges in Igloolik, Nunavut, dating back to the 1970s. Dejaeger was arrested in 2023 in Kingston, Ont., and charged with additional sex offences dating back more than four decades. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Windeyer

IQALUIT — A former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to indecent assault against seven Inuit children more than four decades ago has been sentenced to six years in prison.

An Iqaluit court heard Eric Dejaeger assaulted six girls and one boy between 1978 and 1982 in the hamlet of Igloolik, Nvt.

“He destroyed their childhood, hurt their relations with their families and ruined their relationship with their church,” Justice Faiyaz Alibhai said in his sentencing decision Thursday.

“The trauma reverberated to the next generation, as the children of his victims also suffered from the consequences of his actions.”

Court heard harrowing accounts last week from five abuse survivors, who were between the ages of four and nine when the assaults took place.

The judge paused frequently to allow an interpreter to repeat his words in Inuktitut.

“Virtually all of the victims advised that the offences destroyed their relationship with the Catholic Church, marginalized them, made it difficult for them to communicate with their loved ones, to engage in physical intimacy or to be close to their children,” Alibhai said.

“They also became overprotective of their children.”

Crown and defence lawyers had jointly recommended the six years.

Dejaeger, 77, stood in court and made brief remarks before he was sentenced.

“I would like to ask for forgiveness for the cruel things I have done,” he said.

“I am a changed person. And all the time I have been in prison -- I have had a lot of time to think. And also the last 40 years, I have not reoffended.”

Alibhai noted this was the fifth time Dejaeger had been sentenced for crimes against children. He was previously been convicted of abusing dozens of other children in Nunavut and Alberta.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 30, 2025.

-- By Lauren Krugel in Calgary.