Former Saskatchewan members of secretive sect speak out on widespread allegations of abuse

Insiders claim the group’s leaders have protected abusive ministers by pressuring victims to forgive, transferring the ministers to new locations, and ignoring pleas to report the incidents to police.

“It’s been going on for generations, but they were able to keep it on the down low. It’s actually the internet that made it explode, and that’s why they’ve been telling all followers to stay off the internet,” said Trevor Pihrag, who was motivated to speak out after a childhood friend came forward with his story of abuse.

Pihrag was raised in a Two by Twos family in Saskatoon, but now calls Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta his home. Many members of his family are still active in the church, but he left it two years ago.

“As far as beliefs, it’s very high control, like raised without a TV, you don’t dance, of course you don’t party, you don’t ever drink,” he said.

Followers believe they are the only true church and trace their origin directly to Jesus.

“They think they’re the only people going to heaven.”

History, however, shows the group was founded in Ireland in the late 19th century by a Scottish evangelist named Willian Irvine.

The Two by Twos have a global presence with about 100,000 members worldwide. They believe salvation is only attained by accepting the preaching of their workers or ‘ministers’. The ministers take a vow of celibacy, must travel in same sex pairs, and own no property. Instead, lay members are required to meet the needs of the travelling ministers by allowing them to stay in their homes.

“They are well looked after. There’s incredible wealth amongst them,” said Pihrag. “Some are major businessmen, and donations aren’t a problem. I’ve even heard of ministers accepting estate money.”

There’s no single, official leader of the church. Instead, it’s governed by regional ‘overseers’ who possess absolute authority over local ministers or workers. One of Pihrag’s cousins, whom he grew up with in Saskatoon, is an overseer in France.

Trevor Pihrag left the sect two years ago after more allegations of sexual abuse within the church surfaced. (Image Credit: Submitted/Trevor Pihrag)

He explained you join the faith by standing up at a gospel meeting and ‘professing’ or committing publicly to their way of life.

“I was kind of the rebel in my family. There were three boys, and I didn’t start in this ’til I was 15 years old, but my brothers started at seven and nine years old,” Pihrag said.

Annual conventions take place during the summer. In Saskatchewan, they’ve happened in rural communities like Smeaton, which is 70 kilometres east of Prince Albert, and Aylesbury, a village north of Moose Jaw, or Theodore near Yorkton. Pihrag estimates there are about 2,000 active members in the province today.

As a longtime follower, his father often hosted worship meetings in his home. Pihrag recalls at least 14 different members or ministers who came through his house over the years, whom he claims have now either been convicted or accused of sexual abuse. One of them is Robert Corfield.

Corfield was a Two by Twos minister who admitted to a BBC News reporter he sexually abused a child in Canada in the 1980s. That child was Pihrag’s friend Michael Havet from Prince Albert. They spent time together in the summers at Makwa Lake Provincial Park.

“It just makes you sick to your stomach. My cousins and I, and some friends, were vacationing at Loon Lake, but we were older than Michael then, so maybe we were out of Robert Corfield’s radar by then,” Pihrag said. “We were out on the lake learning new water skiing tricks and then we hear stories now about how Corfield would round up these boys and take them back to his trailer for his afternoon massage.”

Corfield, top right, with Two by Twos followers. Members, particularly women, adhere to strict, conservative modesty standards, often wearing long skirts or dresses, with long hair kept in a bun and no makeup or jewelry, including no cut hair. Men typically wear conservative suits, white shirts, and slacks, often with no facial hair. (Image Credit: Submitted/Trevor Pihrag)

ALLEGATIONS SURFACE

After the 2022 death of Oregon overseer Dean Bruer, a prominent and long-serving leader within the Two by Twos, serious allegations surfaced within the church. Bruer spent 46 years working with the group across six U.S. states and was widely respected.

Following his death, his successor authored an internal letter claiming Bruer’s past involved abuse, including allegations of rape and the mistreatment of minors. Although the reason for writing the letter remains unclear, it was leaked and eventually spread online via Facebook, TikTok and websites created to support victims.

Its circulation prompted others to come forward, sharing their own accounts of abuse.

In 2024, BBC News published an investigative story examining claims of child sexual abuse spanning decades within the secretive church that is sometimes referred to as ‘The Truth’, ‘The Way’ or simply 2x2s. The news agency set up a hotline for victims to call, and Corfield was among the hundreds of names of alleged perpetrators they received.

Journalist George Wright spoke to both Corfield and Havet. A portion of his piece, published Jan. 27, 2024 reads:

“People called me ‘Bob’s little companion’ – I just felt dirty and still do,” says Mr. Havet, speaking from his home in Ottawa.

After abusing him, Mr. Havet says Mr. Corfield would force him to kneel beside him and pray.

“I had to work hard to get past that and find my prayer life again,” he says.

When confronted about the child abuse allegations by the BBC, Mr. Corfield admitted that they had taken place for about six years in the 1980s.

“I have to acknowledge that’s true,” he said.

While the BBC interaction was the first time Corfield publicly admitted to child abuse, he wrote two private letters to Havet in 2004 and 2005. Within the correspondence, Corfield asked for forgiveness and said he was in a “treatment program sanctioned by the State of Montana” which is where the church reassigned him after Havet’s allegations surfaced.

paNOW has obtained copies of those letters. In one of them, Corfield said he was compiling a list of victims and asked Havet if he could recall anyone who should be included, writing, “We don’t want to miss anyone who has been victims of my actions.”

When asked by the BBC about that, Corfield said there were no other victims “in the same sense that Michael was,” and that he had given two or three other teenagers ‘massages.’

Robert Corfield, left, told the BBC he sexually abused Michael Havet, right, for six years. (Image Credit: BBC News/George Wright)

The BBC reported Havet discussed his abuse in 1993 to Dale Shultz, who was Saskatchewan’s overseer at the time. But Havet said Shultz didn’t go to the police and instead confronted Havet, upset he may have disclosed the abuse to others.

paNOW reached out to both Dale Shultz and Robert Corfield by email and phone, however, neither responded to a request for comment by the time of publication. The allegations against them have not been proven in court.

“He [Havet] is the one that told me about Dale Shultz pinning him up against a wall in the Regina airport, smacking his head against the wall and made him bleed, like threatening him,” said Pihrag, adding it was difficult to hear about the incident since his own family held the overseer in such high regard.

“That’s one of the biggest problems in the whole organization is they put these men on such high pedestals. It’s like they can’t do anything wrong, which leads me to the question of Robert Corfield up at Loon Lake when we holidayed,” Pihrag said. “There’s my aunt and uncle, my mom and dad, and then there was another divorced man that was my mom’s cousin… so there’s five adults there while Corfield is there, and I’m like, ‘over the years, did you guys not see any red flags?’ There’s a possibility, but they don’t question because these guys can’t do any wrong. Like, you’re not supposed to question spirit-led men, right?”

EXPOSING ABUSE

Pamela Walton said that culture still exists today.

She’s one of the administrators of a Facebook group called Exposing Abuse: 2x2s. Born into a fourth-generation family of Two by Twos followers in Oregon, she said she was sexually assaulted as a child by her father and left the church in 1993 before moving to Hawaii. Her father was never formally charged and died in 2017.

“I didn’t like the hypocrisy I was seeing, especially by my Dad, when he would go into church services, our Sunday morning meeting, and he’d give us testimony about how great he was and how he wanted to do better, and then come Monday, he would be sexually abusing me,” Walton said. “I had a hard time with that, and I’m an atheist, so I decided it wasn’t for me and I walked away. I just quit.”

Walton said others in her family, including her cousin, were abused by workers. She said it was common for overseers to sweep allegations under the rug. She tried to tell her mother about her own abuse when she was an adult, but said her mother didn’t believe her.

“People still protect the workers. They think they can do no wrong.”

She explained it’s hard for members to question the faith; if they were born and raised into it, that’s all they know, and the circle is kept ‘really tight.’

“The box we lived in was very small. Growing up, I couldn’t go to a friend’s house. I couldn’t go to birthday parties. I couldn’t go anywhere. If you did any socializing, it was with people who went to the church. So, when you have that mindset, and that’s all you know, you can’t think outside the box when the box has been so small for so many years.”

Nowadays, Walton works with private investigator Cynthia Liles, also a former Two by Twos member, to help track alleged perpetrators.

Pamela Walton (left) and Cynthia Liles are both former Two by Twos members, who have now dedicated their work to assisting victims of abuse within the sect. (Image Credit: Submitted)

Liles, who is based in Oregon, opened a hotline for abuse survivors and compiled a database of more than 1,200 names.

When a survivor comes forward, she interviews them and then speaks with witnesses or other survivors to corroborate the information. From there, she’ll either help clients file reports with law enforcement or connect them with trauma therapists, provided through funding from non-profits. Liles has worked in law since 1982. She has two retired FBI agents and a retired corrections counsellor on her team, and support from a lawyer.

Liles said only about 80 people within her database have actually been convicted. The majority are allegations and have not been tested in court.

Walton posts some of the alleged abusers’ last known locations in the Facebook group so current members of the church can be aware of them. They’re able to follow people by identifying them through photos from various conventions and ‘field lists’ they’ve intercepted. The lists, which are supposed to be confidential within the church, show which locations the workers have been reassigned to preach in every year. It can be a different city or country.

One of the group’s last posts follows Corfield’s travels between 1971 and 2024. It claims he proselytized across North America and beyond to Venezuela, Sri Lanka, Mongolia and Japan among other countries. The post claims the majority of Corfield’s trips happened after Havet’s allegations surfaced.

A map illustration of Robert Corfield’s travels from 1971-2024 according to the data in his timeline compiled by Pamela Walton. (Image Credit: Exposing Abuse: 2x2s/Facebook)

Walton said there’s almost 100 alleged abusers who are still actively involved in the church. In Saskatchewan, Walton believes two convicted offenders and three others who have been accused of abuse still attend gospel meetings or conventions. paNOW attempted to contact two current overseers of Saskatchewan and Manitoba for comment, but did not receive a response.

Walton said it’s important for her to do this work because she didn’t have a voice when she was being abused.

“For me, it’s always been about protecting the children of today who are in meetings, so they don’t become victims tomorrow,” Walton said. “If they’re old enough, and they’re looking back or searching the web, they’ll see documentation out there that they can look at to say they were around perpetrators, and if their parents chose not to tell them, they have that information themselves, and they know there are people out there fighting for them.”

Speaking to paNOW from his home in Ottawa, Michael Havet said he was shocked when he heard how many people have come forward with allegations of abuse within the Two by Twos sect.

“I didn’t think I was the only one, but I didn’t think it was that high,” he said. “You should be able to go to church meetings…religious freedom…that should be the safest place, but it’s not, and that’s heartbreaking to me.”

Havet said it’s the result of generational policies of the overseers that ‘just won’t change.’

“That blows my mind. It’s so easily corrected, and it goes against every instinct to protect, love and nourish children,” he said. “Yet these overseers, this ministry, what did they do? They hid it. They weren’t transparent about it. These are children of the families that support their lives… the leadership of this faith were enabling the criminals who hurt the children of the membership of this faith.”

Havet said he isn’t saying people like Corfield should lose their faith, only that they should be accountable for the crimes they committed.

“You’re not going against your faith; you’re taking a pedophile out of it. But they don’t see it that way,” Havet said.

INVESTIGATIONS UNDERWAY

The FBI in Omaha, Nebraska launched a probe into the church about a month after the BBC published its article in early 2024. Despite his admission of guilt, the BBC reported in an updated article in February 2026 that Corfield remains free in Montana.

To assist in the investigation and to be provided with information on resources available to victims, the FBI is asking people to contact tips.fbi.gov or call 1-800-CALL-FBI. (Image Credit: Screenshot/www.fbi.gov)

When paNOW contacted the FBI for an update on the case, spokesperson Hailey Spencer confirmed there is an investigation into abuse and/or criminal behaviour that occurred within the religious group known as Two by Twos (or 2×2) and the FBI is seeking the public’s help in identifying potential victims.

“In order to preserve the integrity and capabilities of the investigation, I cannot share any details of the ongoing process. I cannot confirm or deny the involvement of specific individuals,” Spencer wrote to paNOW. “The FBI encourages reporting from anyone who thinks that they may be a victim, or from anyone who may have information on this investigation. We also encourage victims outside of the United States to contact the FBI.”

Saskatchewan RCMP also would not confirm or deny who may be the subject of an investigation. That information is acknowledged if or when charges are laid.

“However, with public interest in mind, we can confirm that Loon Lake RCMP received a report in May 2022 of historic sexual assaults that occurred in the early 1980s near Loon Lake, Saskatchewan. These reports were investigated by Saskatchewan RCMP’s Loon Lake Detachment. Investigation findings were sent to Crown Prosecutors for their assessment,” the RCMP wrote in an email to paNOW.

A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Ministry of Justice said public prosecutions does not comment on whether it’s reviewing cases under investigation by the police, but added, “To move forward with a prosecution, Public Prosecutions must be satisfied that there is a reasonable likelihood of conviction and that it is in the public interest to proceed.”

Public interest in the case is global, and it’s growing. Secrets of the 2×2 Church is a documentary by ABC Nightline that features stories from survivors who allege abuse by Two by Twos ministers at a young age. There are also countless podcasts, YouTube interviews, books, social media posts and news stories from Australia to Newfoundland.

SEEKING JUSTICE

Pihrag left the sect a few years ago. He’d always had questions about the doctrine, but it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when he really started to see the red flags.

“We were taught all our lives that you just serve by faith and everything’s good and all this. And then all of a sudden, they were saying we couldn’t meet together, we couldn’t do this, we couldn’t do that, and we’re like, well, you know, if it’s God’s will, how come we can’t?”

Then he asked the overseer in Alberta about the abuse allegations that were coming out and got ‘crickets.’

“We’ve got zero answers, like no accountability, no transparency whatsoever.”

He said the overseers appear to be more worried about protecting ‘their way’ than they are about the victims.

“The first thing they say is, ‘Oh, they’re lying.’”

Pihrag said when he challenged a long-time member about the abuse allegations that were surfacing, they replied, “Until I see one of these so-called abusers in jail, I won’t believe you.”

There’s been some isolated cases in Canada where Two by Twos members have been either charged or convicted in recent years for offences including child pornography or sexual assault and sexual exploitation of a minor. A recent trial in New Westminster, B.C. involved a female worker facing criminal charges.

Pihrag said a friend of his in Alberta, who is also a victim, told him work was being done to extradite Corfield back to Canada. However, paNOW could not confirm that information through the RCMP, the FBI or Corfield, who did not respond to requests for comment.

There’s been a mass exodus of members across the globe since the abuse allegations surfaced, but Pihrag said it’s difficult for some members to leave for fear of alienation.

“I know for a fact that some are staying in it because a lot of their [business] customers are their own people, right? You pull the pin, and that’s like shooting yourself in the foot for your livelihood. It’s kind of sad,” Pihrag said. “You’re worried about your eternal salvation type of thing, but you’re sticking with it because you got to make a living.”

He thinks Saskatchewan will be one of the last places to see members leave the sect because “it’s so ingrained” in the followers here.

While Pihrag managed to avoid any abuse growing up in what he now refers to as a cult, he said nine members of his family did not. By calling out the Two by Twos to show support for the victims, he knows he’ll be shunned by the members of his family who are still deeply connected to the sect in Saskatchewan. But he said staying silent made him feel like he was complicit in the cover-ups taking place.

“I was raised in this, and we heard from these ministers all the time about the steps when you sin, what you have to do, and the very first one is repentance. You have to be sorry that you sinned. Then there’s forgiveness. So, now they’re spinning it saying, ‘Oh, you just have to forgive them’ … but they’re not saying they’re sorry first. They’re missing that part.”

Michael Havet with his emotional support dog Yuna. (Image Credit: Michael Havet)

Despite being a victim of abuse at the hands of a Two by Twos minister, Havet said he has nothing against the faith and the membership overall. He said the majority of the group are just trying to live a Christian faith with good intentions.

“Not every minister, brother and sister worker is a pedophile or an abuser… but man, in some shape or form, they’re enabling this system… because they’re refusing to stand up and make this change.”

—

More resources for victims and survivors of sexual assault within the Two by Twos church can be found on the Advocates for the Truth website.

They also operate a 24-hour confidential hotline: 1 (503) 386-4634

–With files from BBC News, George Wright

by paNOW Staff

Former Saskatchewan members of secretive sect speak out on widespread allegations of abuse

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