A Cambridge Bay man with a history of sexual assault convictions has been designated a long-term offender.
He’s had a further three years tacked on to his sentence – for a total of six years – and he will be required to take injectable sex-drive reducing medication and alcohol deterrent medication to help him readjust to community life after his release, which will include a 10-year period of supervision.
Offender Jay Victor Evalik has already served more than two years of his sentence, which will be credited at time and a half.
“If Mr. Evalik breaches any conditions of the LTO (long-term offender) supervision order, including those requiring him to take medication (without reasonable excuse), he would be in breach of his release and could be returned to custody during which the LTO order is suspended,” wrote Justice Susan Charlesworth. “Of course, as the sentence is served, and Mr. Evalik settles into his new life, the parole board – with medical and other advice – can make changes to those conditions. During his incarceration and after while on the LTO supervision order, Mr. Evalik will also have access to programs and services that will reduce his risk.”
The Crown sought a dangerous offender designation for Evalik, which entails an indeterminate prison sentence. The Crown’s argument was that Evalik’s record of violent behaviour, which includes seven sexual assault convictions between 1995 and 2018, made him “intractable,” or uncontrollable. It was noted that Evalik refused treatment while imprisoned previously.
Evalik most recently pleaded guilty in January 2019 to a 2004 sexual assault against a 13- or 14-year-old girl whom he’d gotten drunk. That crime occurred when Evalik was in his early 20s, but the legal charge didn’t come until 14 years later.
The defence lawyer advised that Evalik, now almost 40 years old, was willing to take the sex-drive reducing medication and alcohol-deterrent medication that the judge was prepared to order him to consume. The defence also maintained that a long-term offender classification would be more fitting than a dangerous offender label.
Charlesworth concurred, even though the accused and his lawyer denied a forensic psychiatrist the opportunity to interview Evalik. Instead, the psychiatrist analyzed various records and concluded that Evalik “meets the criteria for conduct disorder and antisocial personality disorder, likely alcohol use disorder, and possibly cannabis use disorder as well. Based on his sexual offending, (the psychiatrist) stated that the possibility that Mr. Evalik has an underlying sexual behaviour disorder should be evaluated.”
The judge admitted to being “troubled” that the psychiatrist found Evalik to be a “one in a 1,000 sexual offender” and that the psychiatrist was unable to determine whether Evalik targets children.
However, the psychiatrist also noted that the available drugs to reduce Evalik’s sex drive and his alcohol use are a “powerful tool” and would “absolutely” reduce the dangers he poses to the community. He also noted that sexual offenders’ rates of committing such crimes decline substantially as they reach their 50s and 60s. As well, he recommended a form of behaviour therapy and support circles.
The psychiatrist advised that “offenders from Nunavut can do better in the south, not only because of increased services (which there clearly are) but also because the offenders are in a different milieu, without familiar triggers for bad behaviour,” the sentencing reads.
In a sentencing decision circulated by the Nunavut Court of Justice on July 5, Charlesworth determined that the psychiatrist “set out a plan for Mr. Evalik that has a possibility of eventual control of his risk to the community. Mr. Evalik says he wants to control his behaviour and there are programs and treatments that will help him do so. If workable, this would be a less restrictive sanction, that would attain the same sentencing objective of safety for the public as would an indeterminate sentence.”
She also noted that the Supreme Court of Canada has found that Indigenous offenders are “severely over-represented” in Canada’ prisons.
“If successful, the LTO status would avoid the indefinite detention of an Indigenous man where alternatives to incarceration exist,” wrote Charlesworth, who also imposed a 10-year firearms prohibition, a DNA order and a 20-year order under the Sex Offenders Identification and Registration Act.
“Mr. Evalik: I hope that you are able to use the resources available during this long-term offender sentence to heal yourself and to prevent ongoing suffering to yourself and those around you,” the judge stated.