Calgary man who lost sons in bobsled crash ignites prayer at Saskatoon breakfast

An emotional Saturday morning in Saskatoon as Jason Caldwell delivered a powerful speech at the annual prayer breakfast.

The Calgary native lost his twin sons, Jordan and Evan, in Feb. 2016, when they snuck onto Canada Olympic Park’s bobsled track and died after crashing into a barrier.

“I’ve never felt more powerless in my whole life than the moment that I fell to my knees between the lifeless bodies of my sons,” he said to over 1000 people who packed Prairieland Park Saturday morning.

Caldwell said prayer and faith helped his family cope with the loss.

“But on that February morning as I kneeled on the concrete floor at the medical examiner’s office in Calgary, I had no power and no options,” he said.

Caldwell said his son Jordan’s last act in life was praying for his friends to survive down the track.

“After the accident, the boys on sled two testified of a miraculous unexplainable intervention that kept them from hitting the barrier,” he said.

The Saskatoon Prayer Breakfast is a non-profit project that gathers the community together in prayer for civic, provincial, and federal governments.

Before this year, it was referred to indirectly as the Saskatoon Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, but Mayor Charlie Clark addressed the name change during his speech.

“It’s not just about one member of the community, it’s about everybody,” he said.

In 2013 the name was officially changed because of religious controversy.

Local atheist Ashu Solo filed a complaint with the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission after city councillor Randy Donauer’s Christian prayer at a volunteer’s appreciation gathering in 2012.