Levi Barnabas (born January 24, 1964) is a Canadian politician. He was elected to the

Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly, or Legislative Council of the Northwest Territories (with Northwest hyphenated as North-West until 1906), is the legislature and the seat of government of Northwest Territories in Canada. It is a u ...

in 1995 and served until Nunavut was created in 1999. Barnabas served as the first Speaker in the

Legislative Assembly of Nunavut The Legislative Assembly of Nunavut is the legislative assembly for the Canadian territory of Nunavut. The seat of the Assembly is the Legislative Building of Nunavut in Iqaluit. Prior to the creation of Nunavut as a Canadian territory on ...

Biography

In 1999 he was elected to the 1st Legislative Assembly of Nunavut but had to resign in August 2000 after being convicted of sexual assault.Nunavut women's groups outraged by cabinet appointment: Human Resources Minister Levi Barnabas convicted of sexual assault in 2000
at

CBC North CBC North (; ; ) is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's radio and television service for the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon of Northern Canada as well as Eeyou Istchee and Nunavik in the Nord-du-Québec region of Quebec. Hist ...

The conviction came at the same time as

James Arvaluk James Arvaluk (April 1948 – April 27, 2016) was a Canadian politician from Coral Harbour, Nunavut. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Northwest Territories from 1991 to 1995 and a member of the Legislative Assembly of Nunav ...

was charged with assault against his girlfriend. He pleaded guilty and resigned. The two scandals rocked the new government, and caused a substantial drop in positive public opinion. The resignation led to the first by-election in Nunavut history. Barnabas ran in the December 2000 by-election but was defeated by

Rebekah Williams Rebekah Uqi Williams (March 3, 1950 – April 15, 2023) was a Canadian politician who served as the acting commissioner of Nunavut from June 22, 2020, when Nellie Kusugak's term ended, until January 14, 2021, when Eva Aariak took office. Sh ...

. He ran again in the 2004 Nunavut election in a hotly contested race and defeated Williams by doubling her vote count.

References

External links

An Overwhelming Agenda? Nunatsiaq News 22 September 2000
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnabas, Levi 1964 births Inuit from the Northwest Territories 20th-century Inuit people 21st-century Inuit people 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut Living people Inuit politicians People from Igloolik Speakers of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut 20th-century members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories 21st-century members of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut Inuit from Nunavut