A Nunavut man who plunged a knife into the neck of one male victim in downtown Yellowknife before going on to assault a corrections officer while in custody at North Slave Correctional Complex (NSCC) has been sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for the pair of sudden and unprovoked attacks.
Amid tightened security at the Yellowknife Courthouse Friday, 19-year-old Jordan Charlie sat handcuffed in a prisoner’s booth – reserved for inmates deemed to pose a safety risk – in NWT territorial court.
Before the decision was handed down, Charlie, flanked by two courthouse sheriffs, listened as Crown prosecutor Martha Chertkow detailed the two attacks that brought him before the court.
In the early hours of March 22, Charlie approached a man on 50 Street. He asked the man if he had drugs to buy for his cousin. The man, who didn’t know Charlie, said he had two grams of marijuana he could sell for $40. Charlie then led him across the street to the Raven Pub where his cousin was waiting. Abruptly and without provocation, Charlie then stabbed the male victim in the neck with a curved, four-inch knife.
Nineteen-year-old Jordan Charlie, pictured here in a Facebook photo, received a federal sentence of four-and-a-half-years Friday for a pair of unprovoked attacks in Yellowknife
Charlie grabbed the drugs dropped by the victim and left the area.
The victim, who was bleeding profusely – blood was squirting almost a metre from a torn artery in his neck – sought help from a nearby taxi driver, who drove him to Stanton Territorial Hospital. He was medevaced to Edmonton where he underwent emergency surgery after losing “a life-threatening” amount of blood, said Chertkow, who added the victim is lucky to be alive.
The man was released from hospital four days later. He is still dealing with the enduring physical and psychological trauma of the attack. The man has trouble swallowing. He often chokes when eating food. He doesn’t socialize as much as he used to – the victim is embarrassed by a speech impediment caused by the attack.
He “feels like an idiot,” when he talks, he told Chertkow.
He feels unsafe in Yellowknife, where he grew up.
Two days before the brutal and bloody attack, Charlie called his case worker in Nunavut. He said he was going to stab someone or hurt himself. Following the stabbing, Charlie made another call, this time to a crisis line. He told a victim support worker he’d stabbed someone. In the days that followed, Charlie’s victim identified him in a police lineup. Charlie then admitted to RCMP he had stabbed and robbed a “drug dealer,” downtown.
He’s been in custody ever since.
Charlie later pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and robbery.
At NSCC he was separated from the general population amid concerns for his own safety but Charlie committed another assault less than two months later on May 28, said his lawyer Baljinder Rattan.
After appearing on video at NSCC for court appearance, Charlie attacked a male corrections officer as the two walked alone in a hallway back to his cell.
Security footage capturing the chaotic and violent event was shown in court.
Charlie punched the officer in the face more than 20 times. The officer hit his head against a concrete wall before falling to the ground, where Charlie repeatedly kicked the man in the head. The assault ended after an intervening corrections officer pepper sprayed and handcuffed Charlie.
He later pleaded guilty to assaulting a peace officer. For the three offences, Chertkow recommended a five-year sentence, while Rattan asked Deputy Judge Jacques Desjardins to consider a two to three-year term.
'Incredibly sad'
Rattan, who described the case as "incredibly sad," said her client was acting out violently, in part, because he wanted to go back to Nunavut.
After his arrest, Charlie told her that he thought he'd be sent back home if he caused enough trouble.
He intended to keep getting arrested, said Rattan, in the hopes he'd be sent back.
“Even if he was sent back in a coffin, he wanted to go back to Nunavut," she told the court.
Charlie was sent to southern Canada for treatment years before the attacks occurred before ending up in Yellowknife.
Born and raised in Nunavut, Rattan said the territory didn’t have the services required to address the dire needs of her client.
Charlie became a permanent ward of Nunavut when he was only a few years old after being separated from his parents who were plagued by alcohol addiction, she said.
He was sent to Ontario to receive treatment.
He bounced from foster home to youth facility. He never had a structured environment to receive the treatment he needed, said Rattan.
She said her client was sent to an unfamiliar place where doctors hurled a host of questions at him.
Since then, multiple psychiatrists have weighed in on Charlie’s behavioural issues. In reports submitted to the court, Rattan said Charlie suffers from a reactive/attachment disorder, along with “borderline personality traits,” and oppositional defiant disorder in the “backdrop of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.”
Charlie struggles with abandonment issues and shows aggression and violence when faced with separation from caregivers, the court heard.
Charlie, the court heard, has tried to kill himself multiple times and the attempts have affected his cognitive ability.
His time at NSCC, marked by segregation and a lack of access to much needed programs, is an another example of how northern facilities are unable to provide therapeutic services to criminal offenders, said Rattan.
“It makes me wonder if we live in two different counties – one for Northern kids and one for southern kids,” said Rattan, who stressed she wasn’t making excuses for her client, only trying to find explanations for his behaviour.
Charlie was ordered to submit a DNA sample and is banned from possessing firearms for 20 years.
With credit for time spent in pre-trial custody, he has just over three-and-a-half years left to serve.