![]() In public statements, the church has said it is learning about the alleged abuses for the first time and will cooperate fully with the investigation. Johnson said in an emailed statement that he would like to speak with the StarPhoenix, but did not reply further to the request before publication deadline. They are run by Brien Johnson, a son of the former pastor. The church is now called Mile Two Church, and the school is called Legacy Christian Academy. Nick Hutchinson is a former student at Legacy Christian Academy (previously known as Christian Centre Academy) in Saskatoon Photo by Heywood Yu / Saskatoon StarPhoenix Four students said the church even told their own family members to cut them off, and some did. The consequence of leaving was total exile, which often meant losing contact with the only friends they had. The church gradually infiltrated every part of their lives, cutting them off from the outside world and beginning to control everything they did - the books they read, the TV they watched and the people they spoke to, they said. Many students said they and their parents felt powerless to stop it. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The allegations have not been tested in court. ![]() The StarPhoenix has interviewed 13 former students of Christian Centre Academy, whose staff are now the subject of a criminal investigation and a class-action lawsuit alleging decades of physical, psychological and sexual abuse. So I did cry, after five swats, six swats, until I couldn’t take it anymore.” And because I didn’t cry, I wasn’t accepting my discipline. “When my brother left, I told him that if I ever was spanked again I would never cry,” Cole said. And Cole says he was spanked with a wooden paddle nearly every day for six months, part of a regime of corporal punishment students say the school staff used well after the practice became illegal in 2004. Coy, at the age of 15, said church members attempted an exorcism on him after learning he was gay. His brother Cody, at the age of 13, was pushed out of his home for disobeying school staff. It was the picture of a thriving congregation.īut over time, the church would come to control every part of his family’s life, and would one day try to tear them apart, Cole said. Cars queued in the parking lot for packed services. Manage Print Subscription / Tax ReceiptĬole remembers the church’s burgundy interior, the wood grain of its pews and the cream walls that were later painted a striking shade of blue. ![]()
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