Former N.W.T. Mountie, mayor faces sex charges

A former RCMP officer and mayor in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., has been accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy while he was a Mountie, according to police.

Duncan Canvin, a former mayor of Fort Simpson, was arrested Thursday night andcharged with sexual assault and sexual exploitation in connection with offences that allegedly took place while he was a member of the RCMP's Fort Simpson detachment.

Canvin, now a 52-year-old liquor store owner, has since been released on several conditions, including one that he not be around the complainant oranyone under the age of 17, police said in a release Friday.

Canvin, wholeft the police force in 1997, served as mayor of Fort Simpson from 2006 until September 2009, when he lost hisre-election bid. He served as a village councillor prior to his mayoral term, police say.

He is scheduled to appear in territorial court on Dec. 7 in Fort Simpson, a village of about 1,200 located about 400 kilometres west of Yellowknife.

Partied with boys, complainant alleges

RCMP said they cannot disclose more information about Canvin's arrest because the investigation is ongoing.

Police also said they could not release the male complainant's name because he was a "young person" at the time of the alleged offences, even though he is an adult now.

But the complainant told CBC News on Friday that he and other teenage boys in Fort Simpson came under Canvin's influence in the early 1990s, when Canvin was an RCMP officer and a minor hockey coach in the community.

According to the complainant, Canvin had allegedly turned his home into a fraternity house of sorts, where alcohol was readily available and pornographic movies were shown regularly.

The complainant said it was only two years ago that he felt he had enough strength to tell another RCMP officer, who isa personal friend, about what happened.

In 1996, Canvin was acquitted of a sexual interference charge involving another boy in Fort Simpson.

The complainant in the current case said despite the previous allegation against Canvin, and Canvin's open partying with boys, he has continued to enjoy the respect of most people in the community.