Documents cast doubt on claims against predator Graham James

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This article was published 17/07/2024 (416 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Documents filed on behalf of sexual predator Graham James cast doubt on allegations of abuse made in a lawsuit against the disgraced former hockey coach.

The lawsuit, filed in the Manitoba Court of King’s Bench by Thunder Bay-based lawyer Natalie Gerry on behalf of the alleged victim in November, named James and the St. James Assiniboia School Division as defendants.

The man, who is now 50, is seeking $6.15 million in damages and lost ability to earn a living, as well as court costs and interest. The man said James, now 71, molested him while working as a substitute teacher at Strathmillan School in the spring and early summer of 1983.

James, a notorious former junior hockey coach criminally convicted of sexually assaulting five former players, denies in court filings teaching at any school during that time frame. His lawyer said James began assistant coaching and scouting full time for the Winnipeg Warriors junior hockey team in 1983-84 and subsequently stopped substitute teaching for the St. James division.

That assertion is seemingly backed up by Winnipeg Police Service sex crimes investigators. They found no evidence of James teaching for the division at the time of the alleged abuse, heavily redacted police documents filed by the defence in the lawsuit show.

The criminal probe, which has not resulted in charges, began in January 2023.

Police also found the claimant did not attend Strathmillan in the spring of 1983. He moved to Winnipeg that summer and would have begun attending classes that fall, the police document suggests. The man initially told police investigators he believed the abuse occurred in 1984.

A longtime teacher in the school division who has since died previously told the Free Press he recalled James working as substitute at Silver Heights Collegiate in St. James in 1983-84, the year he recruited later NHL star and abuse victim Theoren Fleury to play for the midget St. James Canadians. That indicates James would have still been substituting in at least one division school at the time, even if school records are not available to confirm it.

James’s lawyer, Stephan Thliveris, asked the judge in a pre-trial brief to allow his client to make a motion seeking a summary judgment, which can be granted when there are no issues that can be tried in court.

“The plaintiff’s critical inconsistencies, in conjunction with evidence provided by James and the school board, warrants this honourable court granting leave for a motion for summary judgment disposing of this matter in its entirety,” the May 22 brief states.

A later supplement to the brief filed in June indicates the defence has received an unredacted copy of a police document that it claims, when also taking earlier police documents into consideration, makes it clear James did not teach at Strathmillan while the plaintiff attended.

The defence also said there are significant credibility difficulties in the case, with a number of potential witnesses now dead. James had previously asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed with costs, claiming no recollection of working at Strathmillan at the time, nor of meeting the boy.

The man alleged multiple incidents of sexual abuse beginning in May 1983, when he was 10 years old.

The man alleged a female teacher once witnessed James touching the boy, but that woman is presumed to be dead. It was also alleged in the lawsuit that the principal called the plaintiff into the office, along with James, to ask if anything had happened. The principal is dead.

It was also alleged that James encouraged the plaintiff’s sister to touch the boy’s genitals while at a relative’s place. The sister has since died.

The man claims he has suffered significant mental health issues and emotional turmoil.

Former high-level hockey players Sheldon Kennedy, Fleury and Todd Holt have all publicly shared their ordeals of abuse by James. The identities of two other players are protected by publication bans. Police estimate James had between 25 and 100 victims.

Most of the assaults occurred in Swift Current, Sask., during the eight years James was coach and general manager of its Western Hockey League club.

James’s formative teen years were spent in the St. James area. He began coaching minor hockey and substitute teaching in the suburban neighbourhood in the late 1970s before moving on to the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, and later, the WHL.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca