Michael Joel-Hansen, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
A 45-year-old University of Saskatchewan employee accused of voyeurism during a convocation ceremony last week was a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit alleging abuse at a controversial private Christian school in Saskatoon.
Mark Drapak appeared in Saskatoon provincial court on June 5 after being arrested the day before. He was released from custody and is set to return to court on July 6.
The U of S confirmed Drapak worked at the university and has been suspended, but declined to comment further during the ongoing police investigation. A LinkedIn profile indicates Drapak is an IT specialist who has been employed since October 2008.
In an internal memo, the school confirmed the incident took place at Merlis Belsher Place the morning of June 4. Police said they were called around noon after campus security had detained a man accused of taking “inappropriate” photos of women without their consent.
He was charged with voyeurism, defined in the Criminal Code of Canada as an offence where someone “surreptitiously observes — including by mechanical or electronic means — or makes a visual recording of a person who is in circumstances that give rise to a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
The definition goes on to state that includes if “the person is in a place in which a person can reasonably be expected to be nude, to expose his or her genital organs or anal region or her breasts, or to be engaged in explicit sexual activity” or if the observation or recording is done for a sexual purpose.
The StarPhoenix has confirmed, through information from court records, that Drapak was a plaintiff in the $25-million class- action lawsuit alleging various forms of abuse at Legacy Christian Academy, formerly known as Christian Centre Academy and now Valour Academy, and its affiliated church, formerly called Mile Two Church.
The lawsuit was stayed last June over a legal rule regarding the obligation to immediately disclose settlement agreements. The plaintiffs filed a notice of appeal shortly after.
In Drapak’s publicly-available affidavit, sworn in March 2025, he alleged being “isolated” for 26 months against his will at Canaan Land, a faith-based rehabilitation facility in Big River. He said he was sent away “without any explanation” and was told it would be good for him.
The document states Drapak did not receive an education during this time, but was forced to perform manual labour for free to help maintain the facilities.
In an interview with the Regina Leader-Post in 2023, Drapak, who attended Christian Centre Academy from 1991 to 1999, said he was frequently hit with a wooden paddle and developed post-traumatic stress disorder as a result.
Drapak spoke about those experiences on the Legacy of Abuse Podcast, which he co-hosted with Caitlin Erickson, one of the representative plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit.
A statement shared on the podcast’s patreon page, attributed to Erickson, announced she would no longer be collaborating with Drapak, who she referred to as her “former podcast co-host.”
The statement indicated she was still processing the news of Drapak’s arrest.
“I want to be unequivocal: there is no place for this kind of alleged conduct and I stand firmly with those who have come forward.”
Although none of the allegations made in the lawsuit were proven in court, four former school administrators were charged with historical criminal offences that proceeded through court.
Duff Arthur Friesen and John Olubobokun were convicted of assault for hitting students with paddles as a form of “scriptural discipline.” Aaron Travis Benneweis, the school’s former athletic director, also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting an underage student.
