A welcome sign outside Keeseekoose First Nation in Saskatchewan. Photo: APTN file
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. Call The Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-833-900-1010 for more information.
A First Nations leader and reconciliation spokesperson in Saskatchewan has been accused of sex crimes dating back two decades.
Theodore (Ted) Quewezance, a residential school survivor and former chief of Keeseekoose First Nation, was scheduled to appear in Kamsack provincial court Tuesday charged with four historical sex offences.
Keeseekoose is a Saulteaux community in southeastern Saskatchewan, located about 20 km north of Kamsack.
Court documents obtained by APTN News show Quewezance is charged with single counts of sexual assault, touching a young person under the age of 16 for a sexual purpose, counselling a person under 16 to touch for a sexual purpose, and being in a position of trust while counselling a person under 16 years to touch for a sexual purpose.
The documents show the alleged offences involve a male victim who was a minor on Keeseekoose First Nation between September 1997 and September 2004.
Quewezance did not enter a plea to the charges on Tuesday.
In June, Quewezance was named to the six-member Residential School Documents Advisory Committee at the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in Winnipeg. He was previously a member of the NCTR Survivors Circle from 2017 to 2019, which is a group of residential school survivors that provides advice and guidance to the centre.
Quewezance is also the former chair of the governing senate at the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), a Saskatoon-based organization that advocates for 72 First Nations in Saskatchewan.
The NCTR and FSIN did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Editor’s note: The story was corrected 10/11/23 to say Quewezance is former Senate chair at FSIN
