September 7, 2001

Hoag off the hook

Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT — Federal lawyers have suspended their case against a disgraced American missionary who confessed to having sex with a teenage Iqaluit girl.

Prosecutor Richard Meredith announced in court Tuesday that the Crown is staying proceedings against Gary Hoag, who was charged with one count of sexual exploitation.

Hoag, a youth minister from California, fled Iqaluit in May, 1995, after he admitted to a congregation of Anglican parishioners that he had "committed adultery" with a 15-year-old local girl.

Until his confession, Hoag and his wife had been the popular leaders of the Northern Lights youth group at St. Jude's Anglican Church in Iqaluit.

Days after his admission, Anglican church officials helped whisk Hoag out of town before RCMP investigators could lay a charge.

Because sexual exploitation is not an extraditable offence, Ottawa couldn't force the U.S. to turn Hoag over to Canadian authorities.

The maximum penalty for sexual exploitation is five years in jail.