Search warrant details what led to assault charge against former N.W.T. deputy minister

Information in a search warrant sheds some light on circumstances leadingto former Northwest Territories deputy minister Willard Hagen being charged with aggravated assault.

According to information provided by police to get a warrant to search a downtown Yellowknife home earlier this year, the investigation began on Feb. 28, when an RCMP officer patrolling the streets of Yellowknife at 4:30 a.m. saw medics attending to a man in front of the Royal Bank on Franklin Avenue.

The information the RCMP provided to get the warrant has not been tested in court. No plea has been entered in the case.

The police officer learned from the medics that the 51-year-old man had suffered a stab wound to his abdomen and a cut on his wrist. With help from a police tracking dog, the RCMP were led to a 53rd Street home, where they found a trail of blood droplets along the path to the front door.

Officers noticed that a glass panel in the top part of the front door had been broken, according to the warrant. When they knocked, former deputy minister of Lands Willard Hagen came to the front door. According to police, Hagen told them he had been sleeping and had no knowledge of what had happened.

In the warrant, police say Hagen allowed them into the home, where they saw "blood throughout" and a knife. Though they found no one else in the house, they say they believe others had been there because Hagen picked up several jackets while looking for his own, and said the jackets did not belong to him.

Police got the warrant and searched the home later that day. They seized a knife, two winter jackets, three cellphones, and took two swabs for DNA evidence, according to the search warrant documents.

More than a month later, Hagen was charged with aggravated assault. He has yet to enter a plea in the case, but described the charge as "bullshit" when CBC contacted him on Thursday. His next appearance in territorial court is scheduled for Sept. 15.

Hagen is well-known throughout the North, particularly in his home region of the Beaufort-Delta. He is a bush pilot, founder of Aklak Air, former president of the Gwich'in Tribal Council and a former chair of the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board.

He was appointed deputy minister of Lands in 2016 by then premier Bob McLeod. Hagen resigned in Sept. 2019, after making disparaging remarks about a Yellowknife MLA on Facebook.