Prominent Nunavut businessman faces $1.2M sex assault judgment

IQALUIT, Nunavut — A prominent Nunavut businessman has been ordered to pay $1.2 million in damages for almost 20 years of sexual assaults on four children.

There’s no guarantee that the victims of Ike Haulli will see any money, despite repeated abuse inflicted over years.

“We’re going to make efforts to collect upon it,” said the victims’ lawyer, Alan Regel, despite comments from the judge suggesting Haulli couldn’t even afford to travel to Iqaluit for the trial.  

At one time, Haulli has owned or been involved with some of Nunavut’s largest shipping and construction companies.

He has also served as head of the Baffin Regional Chamber of Commerce. As recently as last year, he was chairman of the Nunavut Community Futures Association, which received a $1-million grant from the federal government during his tenure.

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Justice Earl Johnson’s written decision in a civil lawsuit outlines assaults on three girls and a boy in Igloolik that date back to 1968, when Haulli, then 16, threw a nine-year-old girl on the floor of her grandmother’s house where she had gone to do chores and raped her.

Three years later, he raped a four-year-old who had come to visit a new baby born to Haulli and his then-wife.

In 1980, he forced a 10-year-old boy to perform oral sex. Two years later, Haulli — 30 by this time — raped a 15-year-old girl.

All the victims complained of assaults stretching over years. The most recent assault in the judgment dates to 1986.

Some occurred in government offices when Haulli worked for the hamlet of Igloolik.

Haulli did face criminal charges. In 2008, he pleaded guilty to sex crimes against one of the civil complainants, as well as a fifth girl.

He was acquitted of counts involving one of the complainants and charges involving another were stayed.

Two of the complainants in the judgment initially filed statements of claim against Haulli in 2007. Those matters were repeatedly delayed by Haulli’s requests for adjournments and failure to co-operate with the judicial process.

Regel said Haulli failed to appear or produce any materials during examinations for discovery, a crucial pre-trial stage akin to a preliminary hearing in criminal trials. He never filed a statement of defence and, after his first lawyer left the case, he never hired another.

Johnson suggested Haulli simply ignored the matter.

“I think that’s a safe conclusion,” Regel said.

Eventually, Haulli did question the complainants during the civil trial on a conference call, said Regel.

Johnson’s judgment found Haulli scarred his victims for life. They suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression with suicidal tendencies and drug and alcohol addictions.

It remains difficult for the victims to form trusting relationships and all have had difficulty leading stable lives and holding down jobs.

Regel said they are likely to have to return to court to get the money awarded them.  

“It’s kind of like going from one stage to another. Now we have to go about collecting.”

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton

The Canadian Press

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