Former traditional Cree healer Cecil Wolfe pleads guilty to sexually assaulting 12 women in his care

Warning: this story contains details of sexual assault.

A former Cree medicine man and respected elder has admitted he sexually assaulted a dozen female patients with maladies ranging from cancer to depression under the guise of performing traditional healing practices.

Cecil Wolfe, 63, pleaded guilty to the 12-count indictment Wednesday before Justice John Morrall at Court of King's Bench in Saskatoon. Prosecutors Lana Morelli and Maria Shupenia, and defence Harvey Neufeld, presented a 23-page agreed statement of facts.

The court imposed a 24-hour interim publication ban on the guilty pleas so the victims could be told of the development. Wolfe's judge-alone trial had been scheduled to begin next week.

The pleas ended a convoluted court process that began in 2022.

Wolfe had pleaded guilty to the allegations in 2022, but at his sentencing hearing in 2023 he successfully applied to have the pleas expunged.

Wolfe said at that hearing that he would not have pleaded guilty if he knew the jointly proposed sentence would be nine and a half years. Judge Sanjeev Anand ruled that Wolfe's lawyer did not properly explain the consequences of pleading guilty to the charges. Wolfe had "ineffective assistance of counsel" at his sentencing hearing, Anand said. 

This week, Wolfe pleaded guilty to effectively the same allegations. Morelli and Neufeld said there would be no joint sentencing submission. Justice Morrall told Wolfe that he would be facing a federal penitentiary sentence.

The offences

The agreed statement of facts detailed how Wolfe presented himself as an elder with knowledge of traditional healing practices. He had been employed as such by the Saskatoon Tribal Council and the White Buffalo Youth Lodge, in addition to working in various First Nations communities.

He would instruct the women to come wearing a skirt and, in some cases, to remove their bras in advance. He would stroke their arms, legs and torsos, quizzing them on drug use and their sexual histories. He would also digitally penetrate them for between one and four minutes, the statement said.

"There's something down there and I need to take it out," one victim quoted him as saying before penetrating her.

After the assaults, Wolfe would produce trinkets, snakeskins, cat claws and ribbons, all "bad medicine" that he claimed to have extracted from their genitals.

The victims described their fears of speaking out against a respected healer and powerful member of the community. Many spoke of how they had sought out Wolfe because they wished to engage in cultural practices.

On Wednesday, Justice Morrall went through an hour-long "plea comprehension" hearing, quizzing Wolfe through a Cree interpreter to make sure he completely understood the elements of the offences to which he was pleading guilty and the consequences of entering the guilty pleas.

Morrall then accepted the pleas.

Wolfe, who remains free on bail, is scheduled to return to court in March for sentencing submissions and to hear the victim impact statements from the women he assaulted.

If you or someone you know have been affected by online sexual violence or harassment, here are some resources to report the incident or get support. There are supports available:

• Saskatchewan RCMP: 310-7267
• Saskatchewan Crime Stoppers: 1-800-222-8477
• A Survivor's Toolkit by the Saskatoon Sexual Assault and Information Centre, or a crisis line: 306-244-2224.
• The Regina Sexual Assault Support Centre also offers counselling services or a crisis line: 306-352-0434.
• Canada's Suicide Crisis Helpline: Call or text 988.
• Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868. Text 686868. Live chat counselling on the website.
• Crisis Services Canada: 1-833-456-4566, or text 45645.
• Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime: 1-877-232-2610 or text 613-208-0747