Sask. medicine man gets eight years for sexually assaulting 12 women

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A Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench judge has sentenced Cecil Wolfe to eight years in prison for sexually assaulting 12 women during treatment sessions while he was a practising medicine man in Saskatchewan.

One woman leaned over and cried when Justice John Morrall delivered his decision on Wednesday. As the courtroom emptied, she hugged one of the investigating officers, thanking him through tears.

Morrall said it was highly aggravating that Wolfe used his position as a trusted spiritual healer and elder to disguise his assaults as legitimate healing practices.

“It is particularly reprehensible and vile that Mr. Wolfe took advantage of this position of authority … to violate the sexual integrity of multiple vulnerable women over the course of nine years in order to take advantage of their relationship of trust,” he told the full gallery before Wolfe was taken into custody.

The 63-year-old had been living in the community since he was charged in 2021 after a woman made a police report, prompting 11 more women to come forward.

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He pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual assault in Saskatoon, Loon Lake and Muskeg Lake Cree Nation between 2012 and 2021.

Some victims worked at the Saskatoon Tribal Council. They told court they were encouraged to see Wolfe, who also worked for STC performing ceremonies.

A standard publication ban protects their identities because they are victims of sexual assault.

During Wolfe’s sentencing hearing in March, Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli asked for a sentence of 10 years and nine months to reflect the duration and severity of the assaults, as well as Wolfe’s trusted position.

She also noted how many of the victims — mostly Indigenous women — were seeking treatment for trauma when they were further traumatized by Wolfe, whose assaults left both physical and spiritual scars.

“He created more victims in an already victimized community,” Morrall said.

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Defence lawyer Harvey Neufeld asked for a sentence of four to five years. He spoke about Wolfe’s poor health condition and outlined letters of support from people who still see him as a respected member of the Indigenous community.

According to the facts presented in court — to which Wolfe pleaded guilty — he touched the women’s breasts, buttocks and pelvic area, sometimes inserting his fingers into their vagina to remove what he called “bad medicine” from their bodies.

“It is not appropriate, in the Indigenous tradition, to touch a female body during doctoring, especially private areas such as the buttocks, vagina or breast. The only acceptable places to touch a female are the middle of the back, head, feet and shoulders,” the agreed facts state.

The women said they consented to being touched because they trusted Wolfe, and believed they had to follow his orders. It’s also why many of the assaults went unreported for years, court heard.

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“There is no going back to ceremonies; Cecil took that away from me for life. I will never trust a ceremony again,” one woman wrote in her victim impact statement.

“It is clear that these offences have had outsized effects on the victims, given that Mr. Wolfe’s breach of trust damaged their cultural core in addition to their sexual integrity,” Morrall said.

“Mr. Wolfe has created mistrust in the role of medicine men and spiritual healing, not only in the eyes of many of the victims, but in the larger Indigenous community as well.”

After outlining other cases with similar circumstances, Morrall determined that five of the offences involved digital penetration and constituted a “major sexual assault” — which warrants a starting point sentence of three years, according to Saskatchewan’s Court of Appeal.

The other sexual assaults came close to fitting into that category, Morrall noted.

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He sentenced Wolfe to 33 months on five counts, 18 months on five counts, 12 months on one count and nine months on the final count.

The total consecutive sentence would be 23 years. After applying the totality principle — which ensures sentences aren’t “unduly harsh” — the global sentence was brought down to eight years.

“Do not feel sorry for yourself,” Morrall told Wolfe.

“Think about those victim impact statements. Please, feel sorry for those victims of your crimes. Their lives have been changed forever. Dedicate your life to ensuring that no one suffers in that way again.”

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