Peter Kingwatsiak trial: Translation issues mark accused's cross-examination

The afternoon portion of day four of Peter Kingwatsiak's murder trial can best be described as lost in translation.

The Cape Dorset man, who's on trial for shooting his stepbrother Mappaluk Adla in 2010, delivered difficult testimony during cross-examination Thursday, when he said he couldn't understand the Inuktitut interpretations of the Crown's questions any more.

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As the day began Thursday, counsel's questions were interpreted to Kingwatsiak, who would answer in Inuktitut — as he said he felt more comfortable testifying in his first language. The answers were interpreted to the court in return.

All seemed to be going smoothly until about mid-afternoon, when court resumed from a brief recess. At that point, Kingwatsiak persistently said he didn't understand crown prosecutor Barry McLaren's questions, often asking him to repeat them, causing delays in the cross-examination.

Later, Kingwatsiak said he could in fact understand McLaren's questions in English, but the interpretation is what threw him off and confused him. He said some words weren't being interpreted properly, and at some points Kingwatsiak even corrected the interpreters when they were translating his own answers.

Justice Bonnie Tulloch suggested McLaren ask his questions in English and Kingwatsiak answer in Inuktitut through the interpreter.

The idea worked for a short period, until Kingwatsiak began challenging McLaren on the way he was asking his questions.

In one instance, McLaren asked him if he had told many people in the community he wanted to kill Adla, to which Kingwatsiak replied that by using the word "many" in his question, McLaren made it seem as if Kingwatsiak told the whole community, and perhaps the question would be better if worded differently.

To complicate matters, during one line of questioning where McLaren quoted Kingwatsiak's Wednesday testimony, Kingwatsiak told the court the interpreters were misquoting him. It's not the first time he's brought it up.

On Wednesday, Kingwatsiak corrected the interpreters and said they spoke a different dialect, even leading Justice Tulloch to clear the courtroom to discuss the interpretation issues.

Eventually, though, the court did hear testimony relevant to the case.

Accused admits to dropping shotgun behind mother's home

Kingwatsiak testified that on the night he threatened Adla with a .303-calibre rifle, Kingwatsiak told his ex-girlfriend Geena Lampron — whom Adla befriended — he was going to kill Adla. But Kingwatsiak said that was only an effort to make Lampron go home and he had no intentions of shooting Adla.

Lampron eventually did go home, taking the rifle's bullets with her.

The court also heard how on the day Kingwatsiak was arrested, he had "Geena Rose, one and only" written on his arm in pen. Kingwatsiak admitted to having it on his arm, but claimed he wrote it about a month before the arrest.

Earlier in the day, before all the translation issues, Kingwatsiak testified his relationship with Lampron was not the most important thing in his life at the time of the shooting. That runs contrary to previous testimony from the crown's expert witness, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Philip Klassen.

McLaren also brought up a phone call Kingwatsiak made from the Baffin Correctional Centre after his arrest, where he allegedly asked a friend to retrieve a shotgun Kingwatsiak had dropped on a mountain in Cape Dorset.

Kingwatsiak said he couldn't remember what he asked his friend for, but admitted to dropping a shotgun on the ground behind his mother's house — which he said was near Adla's — the night before the shooting. He said he dropped it because he was already carrying two rifles with him.

When McLaren asked what he was doing carrying three guns at night near Adla's house, Kingwatsiak denied he was near Adla's house and couldn't say why he had the guns.

Toward the end of the day, the court saw some emotion from Kingwatsiak, when he began crying. McLaren was asking about a witness allegation that Kingwatsiak was walking around Cape Dorset crying the night before the shooting. McLaren suggested he was crying because Lampron had twice rejected Kingwatsiak that day when he asked her if they could get back together.

In tears on the witness stand, Kingwatsiak said he was crying because it was near the anniversary of his sister's suicide.

The cross-examination will resume Friday morning, with the crown expected to question Kingwatsiak about the morning Adla was killed.