The Court of Better Fiction by Debra Komar

Author:Debra Komar
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2019-03-15T16:00:00+00:00

Dubuc took the matter one step further. In the trial transcript sent to the Justice Department and governor general for review, Dubuc circled a reference to Toktogan as Binder’s wife and in the margin wrote: “This title is a misnomer. Binder was unmarried. The woman — widow — kept house for Binder. She might as well be called the housekeeper.” Dubuc knew Toktogan had a child by Binder — she testified to that effect in open court — but the judge had no patience for the entire line of questioning. Cory dropped his objections, Cyril was permitted to testify, and his translations were accepted into evidence.

Cyril’s testimony revealed one final secret, a fact he had learned in the days before Binder and Doak were shot. Otto Binder was due to be transferred by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Binder had told Cyril he would soon be “sent East,” leaving the fate of Toktogan in question.8 The transfer was likely only a rumour — Binder’s HBC employment record contained no mention of any pending reassignment — but the prospect of losing his paramour gave Cyril Uingnek motive to act.9

To remove any whiff of scandal, Constable Woolams retook the stand and declared that everyone at Tree River was one big happy family and that Binder actually planned to “gift” Toktogan to Cyril when he went east.10 Woolams then quickly redirected the jurors’ attention back to Alikomiak’s confession and the victims’ devastating injuries.

Cyril’s skill as a translator had been a point of contention long before the affair, the murders, or the trials. Doak had often complained he was not a “first-class interpreter”11 and that Cyril had a tendency to be creative with his translations.12 He also spoke a different dialect. The local bands were Inuinuait, whereas Cyril was Inuvialuit.13 As a result, Cyril was “a little timid in dealing with the Copper Eskimo.”14

Careful parsing of Cyril’s translations reveals an alarming degree of congruity among witness statements.15 Alikomiak claimed “his reason for killing Cpl. Doak was that he was frightened of him, and he killed Binder as he thought that if he saw Cpl. Doak’s body he would most likely shoot him.”16 A virtually identical statement appeared in Cyril’s translation of Toktogan’s interview one week later.17

Such overt repetition raises red flags, as does the way the interviews were conducted. Toktogan, a key prosecution witness, was present during Alikomiak’s third interrogation, a violation of protocols requiring witnesses to be questioned separately to prevent collusion, tampering, or intimidation.18 There was no reason for her presence, beyond her role as the translator’s new wife.

One final detail warrants serious consideration: Cyril Uingnek was at the Tree River detachment on April 1, 1922. His whereabouts went unaccounted for in the police reports, but witness statements recounted his movements throughout the day.

On April 1, Woolams sent Cyril with a packet of RCMP reports from the seal camp to the Tree River detachment. He left before dawn, hoping to catch Bonshor and Stevenson before they made the mail run to Great Slave Lake.

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