A disgraced Cree medicine man has been sentenced to 8 years in federal prison for several counts of sexual assault.
Cecil Wolfe plead guilty in February to assaulting 12 different women over a 9 year period while working as a traditional healer or medicine man.
The assaults occurred in the areas of Saskatoon, Muskeg Lake Cree Nation, and Onion Lake Cree Nation between 2013 and 2021.
The road to Wolfe’s guilty pleas and sentencing was long and winding with the first allegations coming forward in 2021.
Wolfe would initially plead guilty, then following a sentencing hearing in late 2022 he would change lawyers and seek to have his guilty pleas expunged. Meaning they would be erased from the record.
A judge would grant Wolfe that request and a trial was set to take place earlier this year, but on the eve of the trial, Wolfe would change his mind again officially pleading guilty to the 12 allegations of sexual assault facing him.
At the Court of Kings Bench in Saskatoon on Wednesday afternoon, a judge handed Wolfe his sentence in a packed courtroom.
The defence was seeking a sentence in the 4-5 year range while the crown was arguing for nearly 11 years.
In the end, the Judge would fall somewhere in the middle in his decision of 8 years.
While reading the decision, the judge noted several factors in the matter that weighed both for and against Wolfe.
The judge noted Cecil Wolfe’s personal situation, his health conditions, his Gladue considerations as an Indigenous offender, and his lack of education as areas they may have reduced his moral culpability.
However, the judge noted Wolfe’s position of power and trust over these women carried significant weight calling Wolfe’s actions “reprehensible and vile.”
The judge compared Wolfe’s actions to medical doctors who offended in a position of power, but says the spiritual and cultural relationship between Wolfe and his victims was even more damaging.
The judge also noted that 10 of the 12 victims were Indigenous saying “(Wolfe) created more victims in an already victimized community.”
In addition to his sentence, Wolfe will be registered on the national sex offender registry for life.
He was taken away from the courtroom in handcuffs.