Editor’s note: This story contains details that some readers may find disturbing. For the fourth time since 2018, a former Sanikiluaq teacher will stand trial relating to charges of sexual abuse against Inuit children. Johnny Meeko successfully appealed his conviction of 29-year sentence for the alleged abuse that spanned 1984 to 2003. Meeko can ask the Nunavut Court of Justice to be released from prison on Jan. 5, 2026, when a new trial will be scheduled. The previous judge made errors in admission of evidence and instruction to the jury, creating an unfair trial for Meeko, the Nunavut Court of Appeal ruled in a decision released on Dec. 5. Specifically, one piece of witness testimony was ruled to have been improperly introduced to the trial without adequate instructions to the jury. One witness said Meeko admitted to sexually abusing five students while denying sexually abusing others. The witness said that she “became deaf” after hearing Meeko allegedly admit he abused the witness’s child. Because there are four other unnamed allegations in that witness’s testimony, the lack of detail amounts to a rumour, or hearsay, the appeal court ruled. Meeko was on trial for allegedly abusing 11 specific children, and the witness’s testimony could have related to other children whose arguments and evidence were not being tried by the court, the appeal judges determined. It’s possible the next trial could introduce that testimony as evidence, but only with instruction to the jury on how to consider the four unnamed children. “The trial judge may have led the jury to believe it was wrong to consider inconsistencies between witnesses when assessing credibility,” the appeals court wrote in its ruling. The jury was not properly instructed on how to handle other evidence, the appeal court decided. Meeko denied the allegations of abusive penetration on the children. But he admitted that other complaints were accurate and argued that they were common practice by teachers at that time. Touching a child’s chest, Meeko argued, was to help them sit up straight. The jury was not instructed to treat the allegations of birthday spankings or chest grabbing as separate from the abusive penetration, the appeal court ruled. It’s possible a jury may have convicted Meeko because they believed he’s the kind of person who would commit abusive penetration, and not because the evidence actually showed that he did, according to the appeal court’s decision. “There was a real risk the jury would focus on those incidents to an unwarranted degree or become confused by how to assess them. There was also the risk the jury would convict the appellant on the basis that the uncharged discreditable conduct made his guilt ‘likely,’” the appeal court stated. Some instructions to the jury were incomplete. The jury repeatedly asked the trial judge about how to consider different pieces of evidence and testimony as a whole. During the trial, the judge explained that each charge against Meeko was a mini-trial. But the appeals court said that was too simplistic. Some of the former students had brought forth multiple allegations. “The jury’s assessment of a complainant’s credibility and reliability would be relevant to more than one count,” the appeals court wrote in its decision. Meeko was convicted by a judge alone in 2018 but successfully appealed that conviction in 2021 due to the trial judge relying on witness testimony over evidence. In May 2023, Meeko was convicted for sexually abusing eight children but the jury could not agree on charges related to an additional three children. A mistrial was declared. In October 2023, Meeko was convicted and sentenced for sexually abusing eight Inuit children. That conviction has now been successfully appealed and a fourth trial for Meeko will be held in the future.
Fourth trial ordered for Sanikiluaq teacher accused of sexual abuse
