Leroux Trial Wraps in Battleford

By John Cairns
The News-Optimist
October 30, 2013

http://www.newsoptimist.ca/article/20131030/BATTLEFORD0101/310319977/-1/battleford0101/leroux-trial-wraps-in-battleford

Crown prosecutor Mitch Piche speaks to reporters following the end of the Paul Leroux trial in Queen’s Bench Court, Battleford. Leroux faces several charges of indecent assault for alleged incidents at a residential school in Beauval in the 1960s.

A trial for a man accused of several indecent assaults involving former residential school students has wrapped up in Battleford.

Closing arguments in the case against Paul Leroux wrapped up Tuesday at Queen’s Bench Court.

The trial, which ran from Oct. 15, was conducted by judge alone. A decision in the case is expected to come down Nov. 5.

Leroux was a dormitory supervisor with the Beauval Indian Residential School and faced over a dozen counts of indecent assault, with the allegations stemming back to the 1960s. The incidents were alleged to have taken place over a period of about seven years.

Leroux refused a lawyer and had acted in his own defence during the trial, denying all the charges throughout.

In speaking to reporters after closing arguments Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Mitch Piche was asked about Leroux’s closing address, in which Leroux had alleged inconsistencies in the Crown’s case.

“There are inconsistencies that matter that go to the core of the actual credibility of the witnesses, and there are other things, other inconsistencies that are minor points,” Piche said.

He pointed as an example to a question Leroux posed in court where he asked a witness to remember specifics about the name of the father/principal at a location where they were smoking cigarettes.

“To me, to ask a young boy who’s nine, 10, 11, 13 to remember that name is an irrelevant inconsistency. Now the judge has to decide what is a relevant inconsistency and what isn’t,” said Piche.

The biggest challenge for the Crown, Piche admits, was that the alleged incidents happened so long ago.

“It’s precisely where the challenge is — the length of time that has passed,” said Piche.

But the Crown prosecutor adds he was surprised “at a lot of the memories of the men who were just boys at the time that this happened. Their recollection of the place, times, the school and the culture of the place was remarkably consistent with the hard evidence we had in this trial.”

Some of that evidence, Piche said, included a videotape showing the activities at the school in 1963-64, as well as a newsletter that named the participants.

On the same day, a protest march involving several survivors of Indian Residential Schools and their supporters gathered at the former Government House location in Battleford.

The protest march, which was supported by the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, made its way from that location all the way to Battleford. It was designed to show support for residential school victims and to raise awareness of the issues, and was organized to coincide with the final day of closing arguments in the trial.