Defence closes case at former Christian school director’s Saskatoon assault trial

Article content

The former director of a private Christian school in Saskatoon says he never met with nine students who say he hit them with a paddle, either in his office or at their home, while they attended the school in the 2000s.

John Olubobokun admitted that paddles were used in the school as a type of “scriptural discipline,” but it was the principal’s job, not the director’s job, to administer the punishment.

Article content

The paddling was done “behind closed doors in the presence of a witness” because it’s a “private matter,” Olubobokun said as his cross-examination continued Wednesday in Saskatoon provincial court.

Three other defence witnesses also testified before the defence closed its case. Closing arguments have been adjourned to May 2.

Olubobokun, 64, is charged with nine counts of assault with a weapon. He’s accused of hitting students with a wooden paddle while he was the director of Christian Centre Academy between 2003 and 2007.

The school was subsequently renamed Legacy Christian Academy and now Valour Academy.

On Tuesday, Olubobokun denied the paddling allegations. He said the school had stopped using corporal punishment after a Supreme Court ruling came out in 2003.

Court heard parents could buy paddles at the school’s affiliated church, then called Saskatoon Christian Centre. Many people who attended the church were also involved with the adjoining school.

Crown prosecutor Sheryl Fillo challenged Olubobokun about an investigation involving one of the complainants, Coy Nolin.

Article content

Article content

When the trial began in June, Nolin testified that Olubobokun came to his home, hit him three times with a paddle and then prayed in tongues in an attempt to get the “daemon” out of him after he admitted to having a sexual relationship with another student.

Olubobokun said it never happened. Instead, he said he met with Nolin to discuss rumours that he was the ringleader of inappropriate, sexual jokes that were going around the school. He said Nolin revealed sexual abuse allegations during that meeting.

That information led to an adults-only meeting at another family member’s home, Olubobokun said. He testified that he and his wife were there, and that they prayed in tongues.

He initially agreed with Fillo that he began to investigate homosexuality within the school after interrogating another student, but then said he was concerned with “sexual activity” between students, not homosexuality.

Olubobokun said he was fired in 2007 by the pastor, Keith Johnson, after he challenged Johnson’s decision to send his adult son on a class trip.

In June, Avril Ehnisz told court she was married to Johnson’s son, who was a youth pastor. She said the two of them accompanied Olubobokun and his wife to Nolin’s home, where she remembers praying in tongues and things getting “very heated” between Nolin and Olubobokun.

Article content

Olubobokun’s wife, Simo, testified on Wednesday that she has never been to the Nolin home. She corroborated Olubobokun’s testimony about going to the home of another family member to discuss familial abuse allegations. She said she was there to provide Coy’s mother with “spiritual support.”

“There was no spanking,” she said.

During cross-examination, Simo said she doesn’t recall seeing Nolin that day, and that she never had any dealings with him or his two brothers.

She said every parent in the church knew that “sometimes children would be spanked when needed,” but said she’d never witnessed a paddling at the school.

Lynette Weiler said she was Caitlin Erickson’s volleyball coach at Christian Centre Academy. Erickson testified in June that Weiler was present when Olubobokun accused her of being “too expressive” on the court. She said he paddled her because he was upset that she was being treated like the captain when she was too “ungodly” to be one.

Erickson said other times, Olubobokun hit her while they were alone.

On Wednesday, Weiler testified that she didn’t witness Olubobokun hit Erickson with a paddle in his office.

Article content

She told Fillo that she is a named defendant in an ongoing civil suit alleging historical abuse at the school.

“Are you concerned that if you were present during the paddling of a student, that that’s going to affect your liability in this lawsuit?” Fillo asked.

Weiler invoked Section 13 of the Charter, which states “A witness who testifies in any proceedings has the right not to have any incriminating evidence so given used to incriminate that witness in any other proceedings, except in a prosecution for perjury or for the giving of contradictory evidence.”

After a brief adjournment, Fillo re-asked the question.

“I’m not concerned,” Weiler replied.

When Fillo asked if it’s possible she was in the room with Olubobokun and Erickson, Weiler said “I guess it’s possible. I don’t have any recall of it, but I guess it’s slightly possible.”

Dawn Beaudry worked as a supervisor/teacher for Grades 9 to 12. She testified that while she never witnessed Olubobokun paddle a student, she knew it was happening in the school.

She described Olubobokun as a “strict and strong leader,” which she told defence lawyer Ron Piché was both positive and negative.

“I think that we were all aware that if rules were broken he was going to deal with them, so (we) were just on our toes more.”

The Saskatoon Star Phoenix has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark thestarphoenix.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content