Pastor Michael Welch
A Rockland couple is suing their former church in Ottawa, alleging that it falsely led them to believe an educational program in which they enrolled their children met Ontario educational standards and would prepare their two sons for college and university.
Yvon Largess and his wife, Louise Pronovost, allege they were later told the Word of Life Church’s “Dominion Christian Academy” was operating illegally and wasn’t recognized as a school under the provincial Education Act, forcing their eldest son to enrol in an adult high school to obtain three years of missing credits.
In their statement of defence, the church and co-defendant Michael Welch, the church’s pastor, deny that they ever represented the academy – which they describe as a “self-directed, home-schooling learning program” – as a private school or program registered with the Ontario Ministry of Education.
They say the church created a new ministry in 2001 for parishioners who wanted to home school their children but couldn’t afford to leave their jobs. Church members whose children participated were asked to pay “a modest amount” toward the cost of operating the academy, they say.
The church operated the academy at a loss for almost a decade before shutting it down in June 2011, the statement of defence says.
According to the Canada Revenue Agency’s website, the Word of Life Church became inactive in 2013, when its assets were transferred to the Capital City Church at 1123 Old Montreal Rd.
In their civil lawsuit, Largess, Pronovost and their sons name both the church and Welch individually as defendants. Welch and his wife, Lynda, co-founded the Capital City Church in 2012 and the two are now lead pastors there.
They allege negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and negligence on the part of Welch and the church.
The case has yet to come to trial and none of the allegations has been proven in court, but key elements of the statements of claim and defence are summarized in two Superior Court decisions dealing with an application by the church to dismiss the action against Welch.
In a judgement released in November, Superior Court Judge Liza Sheard said Largess and Pronovost, then members of the church, decided to enrol their sons, Alexandre and Antoine, in the academy in 2007, paying tuition of $495 a month.
In their statement of claim, the couple alleges the church promised that the academy program met Ontario educational standards and would prepare their sons for post-secondary education – something the defendants flatly deny.
The matter came to a head in February 2011, after Alexandre applied for the Canadian Army Reserve. His application was rejected by the Canadian Army, which informed him that the courses he had completed at the academy “were not recognized and his credits did not satisfy their requirements,” according to Sheard’s written judgement.
Pronovost then contacted the Ministry of Education and alleges she was told the academy was unregistered and was operating illegally, Sheard’s judgement states.
“Yvon and Louise assert that they believed that they could trust Welch and that they were misled and betrayed,” it says.
The couple and their sons are seeking out-of-pocket losses for the tuition they paid and general damages for the loss of three years of Alexandre’s schooling life, which he had to repeat, Sheard writes.
The church and Welch say the church was operated by a board of directors, of whom Largess was one, and that Largess “had full knowledge of all aspects” of the academy. “His statement of claim is essentially, and legally, a claim against himself,” they assert in their statement of defence.
Preliminary legal skirmishing in the case has focused on the attempt to dismiss the action against Welch. Sheard rejected the church’s attempt to do so, but in a decision this month, a different Superior Court judge, Catherine Aitken, granted leave to appeal Sheard’s judgment to the Divisional Court.
No trial date has yet been set in the case.
