Nunavut Appeal Court reduces sexual assault sentence for former RCMP member

Nunavut's Court of Appeal has upheld an appeal and reduced the sentence for a former Iqaluit RCMP special constable convicted of sexual assault from nine years in prison to four.

In June 2024, Mosesie Ikkidluak was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for three counts of sexual assault over a 13-year span — each time while the victim was asleep.

That sentence from Justice Paul Bychok went beyond what both the Crown and defence had initially recommended, which was four years. 

At the time, Bychok said the joint recommendations were "so out-of-whack that they can only be described as completely unhinged." He added the four-year sentence recommendation reflected "thoroughly discredited attitudes towards – and a shocking indifference to – the plague of sexual violence faced daily by Inuit girls and women".

But in a memorandum dated July 10, 2025, three Nunavut Appeal Court justices wrote that Bychok "did not acknowledge the recommendation's explicit attention to the gravity of the offence."

"Further, he ignored – which the joint recommendation did not – the need to characterize the gravity of the offence specifically and accurately, and to properly account for and consider the circumstances of this offender." 

Some of the factors they listed included Ikkidluak's prospects for rehabilitation, the difficulties of being in jail as a former member of the police, and the harshness of serving a federal sentence in the South, particularly one lasting nine years. 

"It is not clear, in fact or from the sentencing judge's analysis, how the sentence imposed will foster his rehabilitation."

They also wrote that Bychok gave an incorrect description of what happened during one of the assaults – namely that he stated the victim was touched in places outside of what she disclosed in her testimony. 

Above all, they said Bychok did not convincingly justify the issues with the joint recommendation, and it doesn't appear that he gave proper notice to the Crown and defence about his position on the sentence. 

In written submissions in support of the joint submission, the Crown identified the impact on the victim who had to "completely remake her social and family circle", but it also noted Ikkidluak's potential for rehabilitation and his sensitivity to the "consequences of his actions".

The Crown noted that a sentence of "five years and above is generally reserved for offences that are higher on the scale of objective gravity and/or when the offender has prior convictions for the same offence and specific deterrence is a key sentencing factor". 

The Appeal Court judges emphasized that this conclusion does not suggest the only suitable sentence for such a crime would be four years, and that this sentence reflects the circumstances around the joint recommendation from the Crown and defence.