Former NWT deputy minister Willard Hagen’s court case is moving forward with a preliminary hearing next year.
Defence lawyer Peter Harte appeared in court Tuesday on behalf of Hagen who was charged in February with aggravated assault.
The charges against Hagen have not been proven in court.
The victim of the alleged assault was found with a stab wound in his abdomen downtown in the early hours of Feb. 28 of this year. After obtaining a search warrant, RCMP seized a knife, two winter jackets, and three cellphones from Hagen’s Yellowknife residence.
The preliminary hearing is set to proceed on Jan. 13, 2021.
Hagen resigned from his post as the Department of Lands deputy minister last September following a racially charged Facebook comment attacking Frame Lake MLA Kevin O’Reilly. He called O’Reilly a “racist asshole” [sic] and a “white boy who thinks he has all the solutions because he’s a white boy.”
Hagen is also a bush pilot and founder of Aklak Air. He is the former president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council, former director of the Métis Development Corporation, and a former chair of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.