As dozens of former Christian Centre Academy (CCA) students come forward with allegations of abuse, NDP Education Critic Matt Love and Human Rights Critic Meara Conway held a press conference to call on the education minister and Sask Party government to get more involved. .“This story broke to the public a week ago. The Minister’s office has known about these allegations for months, but the Minister has been missing in action. He’s neither faced the media to answer questions nor signalled any remedy from his Ministry,” said Love. .Dustin Duncan, Education minister, released a statement that he is waiting for the criminal investigation to finish before dealing with the Legacy Christian Academy, the new name for the CCA..Love said that Saskatchewan students deserve a better school environment..“I hope the Minster understands his duty … leaving this to the criminal justice system means he’s setting the bar for quality education pretty low,” said Love. .“Students deserve much better than ‘not illegal’ in the classroom.”.The CCA has been accused by over 30 students of violent discipline, traumatic rituals, and solitary confinement..READ MORE Alleged abuse revealed at Saskatchewan Christian school, including exorcisms.Students are still required to do mandatory political campaigning..Duncan did not commit the government to take any action against the CCA..In the spring legislative session, Love said the Sask Party government increased the independent school funding while not prioritizing funding for public schools..Conway called on the government to take action so all students can attend school without fear of abuse or an unsafe education environment..“Criminality should not be the litmus test for an ethical education,” said Conway. .“The Minister should be taking action to ensure no student in Saskatchewan goes into an abusive, unsafe, or intolerant classroom next month. The failure to demonstrate in words or in action that the human rights of all students will be upheld in publicly funded schools is unacceptable.”.READ MORE NDP calls for a freeze of school funding at allegedly abusive Sask Christian school.The NDP called on Duncan to answer four questions..“Why has he not offered any solutions yet?”.“Does he take any responsibility as the Minister of Education to address allegations of exorcisms, paddling, and solitary confinement in publicly funded Saskatchewan schools?”.“Is school-mandated partisan activity and political campaigning appropriate?”.“Why are independent schools not subject to the same access to information and transparency mechanisms as public and separate schools?”.The government and Duncan have not responded to any requests to answer questions or issue a comment beyond the press release.
