Indigenous healer admits to sexually assaulting 12 women in Saskatchewan

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (289 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

SASKATOON – A Saskatchewan man has admitted to sexually assaulting 12 women while under the guise of being an Indigenous healer or medicine man.

Cecil Wolfe, 63, entered guilty pleas Wednesday in Saskatoon court and is to have a sentencing hearing next month.

An agreed statement of facts says Wolfe touched the breasts, buttocks and genitals of the women who lived in Saskatchewan and Alberta between 2013 and 2021.

He told them he was removing “bad medicine” from their bodies and showed them “trinkets” as evidence of his work, including cat claws, hair and snake bones, says the document.

The women, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, hoped Wolfe would help their ailments.

Instead, they left sessions with Wolfe feeling scared, confused and violated.

“It is not appropriate, in the Indigenous tradition, to touch a female body during doctoring, especially private areas such as the buttocks, vagina or breast,” the document says.

“The only acceptable places to touch a female are the middle of the back, head, feet and shoulders.”

Wolfe doesn’t remember all the victims or details of what happened, but he accepts the facts in the document, it says.

The first woman came forward in April 2021.

At an appointment, Wolfe knelt in front of her and prayed. He asked her to pull her pants down then put his hand in her underwear, the document says.

She felt he was “trying to pull something from her.” Wolfe then stood up and told the woman that he “got it” and showed her a ball of hair and snake bone. 

Other women were told to wear ribbon skirts and remove their underwear, the document says.

One woman refused to take off her underwear but Wolfe pulled her panties aside and sexually assaulted her, says the document. She feared going to police until she saw news that he had been arrested on another assault.

“(She) would not have consented to the treatment had she known it was not traditional,” the document says.

In another case, Wolfe asked a woman if she had previously been sexually assaulted. She said she wasn’t, but he insisted something had been done to her as a child.

The document says he sexually assaulted the woman and, as pulled his hand from her body, held up two small trinkets.

“He advised her that she could now have children,” the document says. “She was not comfortable with (Wolfe’s) doctoring after this and did not see him again.”

Other women complied with Wolfe’s requests, the document says, because he was highly regarded and they didn’t feel they could question his authority.

One woman, while battling cancer, told Wolfe she was uncomfortable when he fondled her breasts. He persisted and moved to touch her vagina, says the document.

“She was not comfortable with the treatment and began to cry,” it says. “She had not gone to another medicine man since this incident because of her fear of treatment.”

Wolfe pleaded guilty to the charges in 2022, but they were expunged a year later. A judge ruled Wolfe wasn’t properly informed of the consequences of his pleas.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2025.

— By Jeremy Simes in Regina