N.W.T. lawyers agree on new sentence recommendation for man declared a dangerous offender

Both prosecutor and defence agree that a Nunavut man who was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to remain in prison indefinitely should be released in a little more than two years.

At a sentencing hearing in Yellowknife, N.W.T. on Wednesday, both recommended that Noel Avadluk be given a new sentence of ten years in prison to be followed by a long-term supervision order.

In 2017 Avadluk, who is from Kugluktuk, Nunavut, was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to remain in prison for however long it takes for his risk of harming others to fall to a manageable level.

Now 52 years old, Avadluk successfully appealed the indefinite sentence, setting the stage for the new sentencing hearing held this week.

The Northwest Territories Court of Appeal identified problems with his initial sentencing in light of a subsequent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada.

In that decision, related to a dangerous offender case in Ontario, the court clarified how dangerous offenders should be sentenced. It emphasized that, though protection of the public is the priority, the judge must also take into account other factors, such as the offenders' moral blameworthiness, and impose the lest restrictive sentence required to protect the public.

Avadluk was declared a dangerous offender after being convicted of a sexual assault in Yellowknife that the judge described as "sudden, brutal and sustained."  It was Avadluk's second sexual assault conviction in an escalating criminal history that includes 43 convictions.

One of the main pieces of evidence both prosecutor Blair MacPherson and Avadluk's lawyer, Kate Oja, relied on was a new psychiatric report that concluded that Avadluk's risk of harming others is manageable.

In his report, Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe contradicts many of the conclusions reached by one of the forensic psychologists who testified at Avadluk's original sentencing. That psychiatrist, Dr. Scott Woodside, has come under heavy criticism in Ontario in recent years.

Woodside was hired to do a psychiatric assessment for a dangerous offender hearing there, but the judge found numerous errors in his report, found that they betrayed a bias and, as a result, deemed his expert evidence inadmissible.

Last year the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered a new sentencing for another dangerous offender case that ended with an indeterminate sentence based largely on Woodside's evidence, saying the errors and problems in the case where Woodside's evidence was rejected raised serious concerns about the reliability of his evidence.

In his assessment of Avadluk, Lohrasbe concluded that the man suffers from a series of psychiatric disorders and also from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. He disagreed with Woodside's conclusion that Avadluk's risk of harming others will not reduce normally, as it does with most, as he ages.

Lohrasbe said Avadluk's childhood in an abusive, alcoholic and violent home, and sexual assaults he suffered, have reduced his ability to appreciate the harm he causes.

"It's [Lohrasbe's] view that Mr. Avadluk, because of his childhood trauma, has developed a worldview that made it difficult for him to consider the suffering of others," said Oja.

But Lohrasbe also concluded that Avadluk's risk of reoffending is manageable, with help including individualized psychiatric therapy.

N.W.T. Supreme Court Justice Louise Charbonneau said she will give her decision on the sentencing in May.

Avadluk has been in prison since his original sentencing. If the judge accepts the sentence recommended by the lawyers, his 10-year prison sentence will expire in August 2027. The long term supervision order would begin then, likely starting in some kind of halfway house.

If Avadluk stays out of trouble, the restrictions would gradually be reduced over time.