Paul Leroux has been convicted in an indecent assault and gross indecency case that dated back more than 50 years.
Leroux, a former dormitory supervisor at Beauval Indian Residential School in northern Saskatchewan, was convicted of eight counts of indecent assault and two counts of gross indecency, in connection to alleged incidents involving preteen and teenage boys between 1959 and 1967.
Six other counts of indecent assault and one count of gross indecency were dismissed in the decision in the case, which had been tried by judge alone in Queen's Bench Court in Battleford.
There were a total of 14 alleged victims and convictions were entered for the counts that involved eight of them.
The decision from Justice Murray Acton came down Tuesday afternoon. After the decision was read in court Leroux, who had acted in his own defence and had denied the charges throughout the trial, said "I'm not guilty of these offences my Lord, that's all I have to say."
A return date of Dec. 5 at 10 a.m. was set for sentencing, with Leroux possibly facing a lengthy jail term.
Leroux was remanded in custody until that date. That ruling was made on the urging of Crown prosecutor Mitch Piche, who made known his "great concern" Leroux would not show up for the sentencing.
The gallery at the court house was filled with Beauval residential school victims, their families and supporters.
Immediately after the decision to remand Leroux came down and court recessed for the day, most in the gallery stood and spontaneously broke out into applause.
Afterwards, Leroux was transported away from the courthouse, away from the numerous cameras and TV crews that had gathered at the scene.
Outside the court house Piche expressed satisfaction with the judge's decision, saying the judge did "a good analysis of the credibility of the witnesses."
Piche also noted the ruling was what he expected, though rulings on a couple of counts did not go quite the way he anticipated.
"There was one count I thought we would get a conviction on, and there's one I thought we wouldn't," Piche said.
He also explained to reporters why he urged the court to keep Leroux remanded in custody until sentencing.
"My concern is that he would run," said Piche. "I certainly wouldn't want all this effort, all this emotional expense of all the witnesses and the work in the trial, and all of a sudden he's gone."
The chief of Waterhen Lake First Nation, Carol Bernard, said she was pleased with the outcome.
"Our community was in complete support with our members, and I know this is just a first step to our own healing in our community because of the generational impacts … [on] our community in some form or another," said Bernard.
Bernard acknowledged it was hard for those band members to come forward with their stories of abuse in court.
"They had to relive their past, a past that they had buried so deep. And they had to relive it, and I find it was probably extremely hard and emotional for them."
Standing with Bernard was one of the residential school victims who had testified in the case. His name is protected under a publication ban.
"I'm very pleased with the outcome. This is after 50 years of living in denial, and I believe what today brings is a fairness to us as victims."
He does believe, however, much more needs to be done to heal the generational impacts.
"I think today is a new dawn and for us and for our leadership it's the beginning of our journey of healing."
