Saskatchewan Housing Authority steps up campaign to drive elderly lay missionaries out of their home

Saskatchewan La Ronge Housing Authority’s intent to drive lay missionaries John and Gay Caswell out of their home of 11 years took a draconian turn for the worst today. As they worked in their garden, the Brabant Lake residents and founders of Our Lady of the North School, found a note left under a rock for them, which officially gives them “a couple of days notice” to clear out.

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“Please be advised that Lot 2 Block 1 will be boarded up in the next couple of days. Please consider this our final notice to have you remove all of your possessions. Should you not comply with this advisement we will be sending a moving van to remove your possessions without further notice,” stated the notice. “The signature, I believe, is that of Vaughn Skogstad,” Gay Caswell told Canada Free Press (CFP) on the telephone. As the offices of the Housing Authority were still open at the time of Mrs. Caswell’s telephone call, CFP immediately called Skogstad’s office. “He is not here and will not be returning until Friday,” said an employee who said her name was Sherry. Sherry gave CFP the telephone number of an executive at the Authority’s Prince Albert office. The executive did not respond to the message left by CFP on his voice mail by press time. Skogstad has apparently gone off on another government course or with a case of diplomatic flu and will return on deadline day for the Caswells, should the Authority follow through on its threat to board up their home of 11 years “in the next couple of days”. The letter left under the rock followed by one day SaskPower cutting off the couple’s electricity on Tuesday. The Caswells had been only been back in their home for a week when the power was cut. After locking them out of their home and boarding up its windows in April, Housing Authority employees told the RCMP that the Caswells had made no effort to purchase their home and were behind in the rent, which the Caswells deny. Supporters insist that the Caswells are being persecuted because they run a Catholic, pro-life school. John and Gay Caswell founded the mission school, Our Lady of the North, in March of 1996. Since then they have been “teaching, catechizing, and spreading the faith.” They recently began an organization to fight for the pro-life cause in Northern Saskatchewan, called “North Star Pro-Life”. “The goal is to wreck the school. This was stated very clearly at the September 17 Appeals hearing. The two people from La Ronge Housing emphatically said that we cannot have a school That is why they are after our house to stop and punish us. The hearing is recorded and the words were blatantly and bluntly stated,” said Mrs. Caswell, a former elected member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly. The Caswells, parents of seven children, three of whom are in religious life in the United States, drove home through a snowstorm after a seven-hour trip for supplies on April 24. Upon their arrival home, they discovered their locks had been changed by SHC employees and there was an Eviction Notice stapled to the door. Since they needed to put their groceries away, John broke a window to get inside. Vaughn Skogstad, chairman of La Ronge Housing Authority and an officer of the South-end RCMP Detachment soon arrived to tell the couple that they had committed an unlawful entry to their house, and ordering them to leave the premises. The couple was taken to the police station, and were later released with no charges laid. They hitchhiked home and having no place else to go, camped out at their school, with no access to their food and clothing. They were told they had 15 days to get their possessions out of the house. When they next saw their home of 11 years, the windows had already been boarded up. Mrs . Caswell says that today’s note “contradicts” what Roger Parenteau of Saskatchewan Housing Corporation said at a meeting on Monday, May 25. He said that until the money is in, (the $20,000 they are raising to purchase their home) the “status quo” would be maintained. “We are depositing the money we have at the lawyer’s office. We are doing so electronically because we can’t afford any two-day trips to Prince Albert,” Mrs. Caswell explained. She asked CFP to send this message to supporters: “If you intend to give, please call us or email us as to the amount. We know sometimes it takes up to to weeks to actually get the money in our mail or in the account. We only have mail delivery twice a week. That is okay. It eventually comes. We have lots of money promised and we know that people mean it. “We have 36% of the promised amount at this hour. Don’t give up. Don’t think it is useless.” One of the groups trying to help the Caswells is an American parish led by Brother Nathan, one of the three Caswell children serving in religious orders in the USA. “We are having a book sale at our Parish. Brother Nathan is an amazing young man (he’s the one on the left in the photo of the three Caswell kids),” a parishioner wrote CFP. He (as are all the Society of St. John Cantius Seminarians) is expert at Gregorian Chant and they make Masses extra special!” The Caswells can be reached at the following telephone numbers: 306-758-2041; 306-758-2046. Their email address:mission@ourladyweb.com.