Former Christian Centre Academy director John Olubobokun is appealing his sentence and some of his earlier convictions involving the physical discipline of students in the early to mid-2000s.
In July, Olubobokun was found guilty of nine counts of assault with a weapon for paddling students at the Private Christian School in Saskatoon, which has since changed names to Legacy and now Valour Academy.
He pleaded guilty to another five counts in December.
He was initially given an 18-month conditional sentence to be served in the community and had another five months tacked on after his plea in December.
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His lawyer, Ron Piché, says they are now appealing the July conviction due to the belief that the judge was selective on which testimonies had weight. He says Olubobokun was punished for corporal discipline handed out before it was banned in Canada in 2004.
“We take the view that the court didn’t properly weigh the fact that there was clearly a policy at the school that permitted this type of corporal punishment.” Piché said, adding, “In our view, the judge was fairly selective in the way she viewed Mr. Olubobokun’s evidence, in fact defence evidence generally, whereas the same scrutiny, if I can put it that way, was not applied to the Crown witnesses.”
He went on saying parents consented to this type of punishment at the time. “We’re also suggesting that the court did not weigh significantly the fact that the parents consented to this type of discipline.”
While Olubobokun did apologize for the impacts of his actions in his December sentencing, that is now being appealed, with Piché arguing for a conditional discharge that would keep the charges off his criminal record.
The appeal will be heard in the next few months, with submissions from both the Crown and defence expected by spring.
Watch for more on the Olubobokun trial and what Piché wants reconsidered.
