Former students of the Christian Centre Academy in Saskatoon, now known as Legacy Christian Academy, met with Education minster Dustin Duncan on Wednesday to talk about the physical, sexual and psychological abuse allegations against dozens of staff members. Caitlin Erikson says they asked for Minister Duncan to shut down the school and de-fund it. The school currently receives $700,000 in annual taxpayer funding.

Erickson says, “When you have four decades of abuse victims that have come forward, I would say it’s time to close that institution and stop publicly funding it, because publicly funding it could be construed as enabling abusers”. In her opinion, Duncan was not very responsive in the meeting, and was reluctant to answer questions.

A $25-million class-action lawsuit has been filed against some of the school’s staff members. Saskatchewan’s advocate for children and youth, Lisa Broda, announced last month that her office was launching a full investigation into the services and oversight of registered independent schools, in the wake of the abuse allegations. (with files from CKRM)