‘No humanity’: James accuser’s claim rejected third time

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This article was published 25/01/2024 (589 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THE St. James-Assiniboia School Division has rejected for a third time a request from Greg Gilhooly, who says he was molested by notorious hockey predator Graham James at one of its schools when he was a child.

Gilhooly has written about the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of James while he played hockey as a teenager in St. James more than 40 years ago. One of those incidents of molestation, Gilhooly says, took place in a school in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division, where James was a substitute teacher.

In November 2023, the Free Press reported James, now 71, and the school division, were named in a $6.15-million lawsuit over allegations James abused a different boy while working as a substitute. After that story was published, Gilhooly asked the school division to settle with him out of court.

It marked the third time since 2011 he sent such a request to division administration and trustees.

Gilhooly, a 59-year-old Ontario lawyer and author, asked for $125,000 to pay for therapy and medication.

He also asked that the library at John Taylor Collegiate be named in honour of a librarian who comforted him after the incident. In addition, he wanted the opportunity to speak with administrators and teachers about grooming.

On Wednesday, the school board declined his request.

“The request … has been given due consideration by the board of trustees,” reads an email to Gilhooly, reviewed by the Free Press, from lawyer Bernice Bowley. “I am instructed to advise you that the board declines your proposal.”

Gilhooly said the response has angered and upset him, particularly because it came from a lawyer, not the board members.

“This is an institution that refuses to accept responsibility … I simply do not understand why the institution’s first instinct is to lawyer up and deny, deny, deny. There is no humanity involved in the process,” he said.

The lawsuit was filed in the Court of King’s Bench on Nov. 7, 2023, on behalf of a different man who is now in his 50s. He alleges he was 10 when he was sexually abused by James, who was a substitute in the St. James division, despite not having a university degree.

James’s criminal history of abusing his players while working as a junior coach in Saskatchewan and earlier, in Winnipeg is well known, but the November civil lawsuit is focused on alleged abuse while James worked for the school division. It claims St. James-Assiniboia knew about his predatory behaviour and alleges a teacher caught James fondling the victim.

Neither the division nor James has filed a statement of defence.

On Wednesday, division superintendent Jenness Moffat said: “The division cannot provide commentary on legal matters.”

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James has been convicted of sexually assaulting five former hockey players, some of whom he abused hundreds of times, while they were youths. Former high-level hockey players Sheldon Kennedy, Theoren Fleury and Todd Holt have all publicly shared their ordeals; the identities of two others are protected by publication bans.

In 1998, James pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault and was paroled in 2001.

He agreed in 2011 to plead guilty to sex abuse charges involving Fleury and Holt — if Crown prosecutors did not proceed with a charge alleging the sex abuse of Gilhooly. James was released on day parole in 2016.

In 2012, shortly after James’s 2011 plea bargain, Gilhooly sent his first letter to the St. James-Assiniboia School Division. He sent a similar letter in fall 2021, after news broke about former professional hockey player Kyle Beach, who alleged he had been sexually assaulted by a Chicago Blackhawks coach and Gilhooly was asked to comment in the media.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.