Sask. man says he was forced into remote church-run 'detention centre' as a teen
CTV
Mark Drapak vividly remembers the terror of being taken away from his family as a child to work at a remote bible training centre.
Mark Drapak vividly remembers the terror of being taken away from his family as a child to work at a remote bible training centre.
Drapak is a former student of Christian Centre Academy, now known as Legacy Christian Academy, who attended the private school from 1991 to 1999.
When Drapak was 15-years-old, he was pulled from his classroom and asked to go to the pastor's office — the head of the school.
It was the last time Drapak saw the inside of a high school.
"When I was approached and essentially voluntold that I was going there," he said. "My first reaction was to ask my parent if we can talk about this. They didn't even let me talk to my parent."
Drapak was sent home to pack a bag, where a vehicle picked him up an hour later. The destination was Canaan Land near Big River, which Drapak described as "an intensive one-year residential program designed for men 18 years and older who have had some kind of life-controlling issues or addictions."
Drapak said it was "unheard of" for children to be sent there.