Saskatoon Provincial Court opened Wednesday with a prayer from an Indigenous elder before a sentencing hearing for Cecil Wolfe began.
Cecil Wolfe, an Indigenous man, pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual assault.
The assaults happened between 2013 and 2021 in Saskatoon, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation and Loon Lake.
An agreed statement of facts signed by Wolfe, the Crown prosecutor and the defense was read out loud in open court in English, it stated Wolfe was working under the pretext of being a traditional Indigenous healer or medicine man.
The agreed statement of facts also said in many cases, Wolfe would ask his victims to come to him wearing a skirt, sometimes ask them to remove their underwear, and would then proceed to touch them inappropriately.
Wolfe admitted to touching the women but said it was not meant to be sexual. He claimed he was removing “bad medicine.”
In some cases the women didn’t question Wolfe as he was an elder and medicine man, and in other cases women stopped attending due to the touching making them uncomfortable.
Once the agreed statement of facts was finished being read out loud, the judge asked Wolfe if he understood what was said but came to the conclusion that Wolfe may not have completely understood.
Wolfe mainly speaks Cree.
The judge decided the agreed statement of facts would have to be presented again but translated to Cree to ensure Wolfe understood what was being said.
After a short recess, court began again with a translator being sworn in. Translation began and took the rest of the day to complete.
A joint submission was made from the prosecution and defense and would see Wolfe receive nine and a half years in jail.
The judge will have the final say on how much time Wolfe ultimately receives.
A decision was not made on Wednesday and a continuation date was set for Dec. 9.