Former First Nations Police Chief’s Request for Lenient Sentence over ‘abhorrent’ Rapes Rejected
By Graeme Hamilton
After Jean-Paul Neashish, a former First Nations police chief, was convicted of sexual assault, his lawyer argued for a lenient sentence because the man had been sexually abused at a residential school. But in a decision this week, Quebec Court Judge Jacques Lacoursiere rejected the request, jailing Neashish for six years and noting he was not the only one in the case to have suffered because of his aboriginal status. “We cannot neglect to take into account the particular situation of the victims, who are also aboriginal,” the judge said. “They also suffered from historical factors and years of upheaval and the economic development of this community. In addition to being victims of the accused’s actions, they are victims of a direct and systemic discrimination.” Neashish’s crimes involved an abuse of power, both as a uniformed police officer attacking inebriated young women or as an adult preying on girls aged 14 and under. The man, now 68, was a police officer on the Atikamekw reserve of Wemotaci, central Quebec, in 1976-89. He was later elected band councillor and in 2000-12 served as negotiator for the Atikamekw Nation. But the court heard that the long-serving policeman and successful politician harboured dark secrets. In the summer of 1984, he arrived in uniform at a party in Wemotaci to find a woman feeling sick from the combined effects of alcohol and prescription medication. He put the 26-year-old in his police vehicle and drove her to a remote location. She testified that he removed her from the vehicle, lowered her pants and raped her. The victim, who cannot be identified, testified when he was finished, a second man raped her. Marcel Boivin, a former Wemotaci band chief, is scheduled to stand trial next month for that assault. Another woman was in her early 20s when she was arrested by Neashish at a drunken party in the 1980s. She testified that he lifted her shirt and licked her breasts before warning her not to tell anyone. A year later, he arrested her again, and this time drove her to a remote spot where he raped her. The following winter, Neashish tried to assault her again but she resisted. She said he slapped her but let her go when she threatened to report his earlier assaults. The other three victims were all minors. The abuse ranged from fondling to oral sex. We cannot neglect to take into account the particular situation of the victims, who are also aboriginal One victim said that she was less than 10 years old when Neashish showed her how to perform oral sex and warned her not to tell anyone. “He was basically my teacher,” she told the court. As part of the judicial process, the court ordered what is known as a Gladue report to determine to what extent Neashish’s aboriginal background contributed to his crimes. The report’s portrait of Wemotaci is grim, noting high unemployment and a suicide rate more than four times the provincial average. It added Neashish spent seven years in residential school from the age of eight and was sexually abused by a priest. After working in logging camps, he returned to school and became a police officer. His lawyer had proposed a sentence of less than two years followed by community service, while the Crown recommended a seven-year prison term. The judge took into account Neashish’s history of abuse, but said his “particularly abhorrent” crimes and their lasting impact on his victims required that a clear message be sent. “The victims were entitled to expect that the accused would protect them and not abuse his authority to satisfy his base instincts,” Lacoursiere wrote. “He also betrayed the trust placed in him by the community of Wemotaci.” • Email: ghamilton@nationalpost.com
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