Former priest pleads guilty to indecent assaults of children in Nunavut

Defrocked Catholic priest Eric Dejaeger is escorted by police outside an Iqaluit courtroom on Jan. 20, 2011. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Windeyer

IQALUIT -- A defrocked Catholic priest pleaded guilty Thursday to indecent assaults against seven children decades ago in Nunavut.

Court heard Eric Dejaeger committed the offences between 1978 and 1982 at or near the hamlet of Igloolik. Six of the children were girls and one a boy.

Prosecutor Emma Baasch described each of the assaults in graphic detail in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

In some cases, it began with the priest offering the children candy. Court heard Dejaeger gave a picture of Jesus to one girl to colour before taking her on his lap and assaulting her.

The victims were as young as four at the time the assaults began, Baasch told court.

Of one victim, the prosecutor said, “Mr. Dejaeger told her she would go to hell if she said anything.”

Baasch said Dejaeger told another girl “that Jesus would not accept her anymore.”

Wails could be heard in a video conference of the court hearing before victim impact statements were read.

RCMP announced in June 2023 that Dejaeger had been arrested on a Canada-wide warrant in Kingston, Ont., where he had been living.

He was previously convicted of committing numerous sexual offences while working as an Oblate missionary.

Dejaeger served part of a five-year sentence, beginning in 1990, for sexual crimes against children in Baker Lake, Nvt., committed between 1982 and 1989.

In 2015, he was sentenced to 19 years in prison for 32 crimes against Inuit children and some adults between 1978 and 1982 in Igloolik.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Jan. 23, 2025.