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Two former teachers at a private Christian school tried to argue they have immunity from professional disciplinary proceedings because the regulatory board didn’t exist at the time of the allegations.
That argument failed, and the professional misconduct charges against Dawn Beaudry and Louis Brunelle will proceed, according to a decision from the disciplinary committee of the Saskatchewan Professional Teachers Regulatory Board (SPTRB).
The allegations stem from when they worked at Christian Centre Academy in Saskatoon, which later changed its name to Legacy Christian Academy and is now named Valour Academy. It is closely associated with Mile Two Church, now called Encounter Church, which adjoins the school.
Beaudry and Brunelle are among the defendants listed in a 2022 statement of claim in a proposed $25-million class action lawsuit alleging abuse at the school. A judge dismissed the lawsuit last year, citing abuse of process because the plaintiffs didn’t immediately disclose settlement agreements with three of the other defendants. That decision is under appeal.
Some former staff at the school have faced criminal charges, primarily related to allegations that students were hit with a wooden paddle.
Those include a former director who was convicted of assaulting more than a dozen students, a former principal who was convicted on one out of four counts of assault and has another upcoming trial, and another former director who has two upcoming trials. Lawyers for the convicted men have indicated they would be appealing.
A former athletic director also pleaded guilty to sexual assault. The teenage victim in that case was Beaudry’s daughter. Usually, the daughter’s name would be subject to a publication ban, but she asked for and received permission to have the ban lifted.
The former athletic director at the Christian Centre Academy in Saskatoon is admitting he sexually assaulted a teen student.
Aaron Benneweis pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sexual exploitation. His victim was 13 when the offences began.
Neither Beaudry nor Brunelle face criminal charges, but in 2022, an education ministry official contacted the SPTRB “regarding potential misconduct,” according to the discipline committee’s decision on its jurisdiction to hear the allegations against Beaudry and Brunelle.
The official asked the board to “engage in an investigation on behalf of the Ministry of Education ‘of the individuals for whom the SPTRB has authority.'”
Not all staff at the school at the time were registered teachers (although Valour Academy currently says it employs certified teachers in every classroom), so the board would not have authority over all staff.
As well, the SPTRB does not confirm whether teachers are being investigated until the disciplinary committee decides to hold a hearing or there is an agreed resolution. This means there could be other teachers who are the subjects of complaints to the board, but that information is not public yet.
Beaudry taught at the school and Brunelle was an administrator. During certain periods of time, they have been registered teachers, although they are not currently listed on the public registry.
Professional misconduct alleged
The professional misconduct charges against Beaudry date from incidents between 1989 and 2013 when she allegedly “failed to provide adequate instruction” to students and “from 2008, conspired to conceal criminal activities, including sexual assault, which suppression placed minors in your care at increased risk of harm and which was harmful to their best interest.”
More details about the charges are not available, but CBC previously reported that Beaudry and her daughter said they were encouraged by their church pastor to initially tell police the sexual assault conduct by the athletic director began when the girl was 16, to make it easier on him, rather than the truth that it began when she was younger than 16.
Beaudry, 59, did not respond to a request for comment from CBC.
The professional misconduct charges against Brunelle date from between 1989 and 2001 when he allegedly “participated and/or conspired to participate in the arbitrary and excessive physical punishment of minors in your care.”
The allegations include that he repeatedly paddled a female minor, that he ordered two male student minors to remove their clothing in front of each other and that he “facilitated and/or conspired to facilitate the isolation and confinement of a student … to a remote work camp.”
Lawyer Philip Fourie represented Brunelle at the hearing on the board’s jurisdiction. In a statement to CBC, he said Brunelle categorically denies any wrongdoing or professional misconduct.
Brunelle, 73, has been retired since June 2022. He resigned from Christian Centre Academy in 2001, although he returned as principal at Legacy Christian Academy from 2017 to 2022.
Fourie said the events now being scrutinized happened in “another era” when norms and expectations were markedly different.
“At the school where Mr. Brunelle taught, any discipline was administered on behalf of parents and in accordance with strict written protocols that were designed with parental input,” Fourie said. “Where corporal discipline occurred, it was with the express written permission of the student’s parents.”
He said Brunelle is a “devoted educator” and that students and parents have said, “he was an exceptionally loving and kind teacher who cared immensely for each student.”
The proceedings have caused “considerable stress” during Brunelle’s retirement, “but he remains confident that a fair process — grounded in the law and attentive to history — will vindicate his good name.”
The regulatory board
The SPTRB was established in 2015 as an independent organization with the responsibility of regulating teachers in the province. Prior to that, the Ministry of Education was responsible for certification, and discipline processes were administered by membership bodies or the ministry.
The committee decision outlines Beaudry’s and Brunelle’s argument that because the SPTRB didn’t exist at the time of the allegations (1989 to 2013), “they are immune to investigation or discipline for anything occurring prior to 2015.”
The SPTRB’s professional conduct committee argued the board has jurisdiction because the “clear legislative intent” of the act that created the board “is protection of the public.”
In its decision, the discipline committee agreed it does have jurisdiction.
“To accept the teachers’ argument would mean that there is blanket immunity” for any alleged misconduct prior to 2015, the decision said.
“Public confidence in the profession depends on the assurance that all teachers remain accountable to an effective and continuous regulatory framework,” it said. “If teachers could avoid discipline because of a transition between regulatory authority, this would create a regulatory gap inconsistent with that expectation.”
The decision on jurisdiction is dated March 20 and was posted on the SPTRB’s website a month later.
The SPTRB’s registrar, Markus Rubrecht, said that because the matter is still ongoing, the board would not be responding to any inquiries for further information.
Fourie said Brunelle will be applying to the Court of King’s Bench for a judicial review. He maintains the position that the board does not have retroactive jurisdiction and he will be asking a judge to squash the discipline committee’s decision.
