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New warrant issued for hockey coach/sexual predator Graham James

Graham James

FILE - In this undated file photo, coach Graham James talks to players on the Swift Current Broncos junior hockey team. James pleaded guilty to sexual assault after two of his former players told of the abuse they suffered at his hands from 1984 to 1995. A previously unknown accuser has since stepped forward to expose what he and others consider no less of an injustice: the National Parole Board’s decision three years ago to pardon James. Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said the government was “shocked” to learn of the pardon. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, File)

AP

If you’re not familiar with the story of former hockey coach Graham James you’re likely better off for not knowing about him and his disgusting past as a man taking advantage of being a leader to young boys of an impressionable age. James has been pointed out by former NHL players Theo Fleury and Sheldon Kennedy as being a sexually abusive figure in their lives, something that has helped to make each of their lives harder to live and at the root of major personal problems for each of them. Both Fleury and Kennedy have written gut-wrenching and terrifying books detailing their experiences being in the presence of James and being exposed to his horrific ways.

As it turns out, Fleury’s book and the detailed and stomach-turning stories he shared about his experiences with James have helped Canadian authorities in Winnipeg, Saskatchewan seek a new warrant against James, and it’s a warrant they’re going to get as they look to bring the sexual predator to justice. Both Fleury and Kennedy are grateful for the stepped up efforts by authorities to go after James.

Mr. Fleury said late Tuesday he was relieved to learn an arrest warrant will be issued for his former coach.

“I’m grateful to the Winnipeg Police for responding to my complaint,” said a statement posted on Mr. Fleury’s website.

“I know it took a while, but these things have to be done right.”

Police notified people involved in the case against Mr. James that the new warrant would be issued, but a Winnipeg Police Services spokesman refused to comment publicly Tuesday.

“When they (police) did my investigation they said there were probably 75 to 100 victims out there – which I believe to be true,” Mr. Kennedy said in an interview Tuesday night.

“To me, abuse kills. You can’t take what Graham did lightly.”


Meanwhile, Graham James is a man in hiding, doing so in Guadalajara, Mexico. James was hiding out so well that Globe and Mail reporter Greg McArthur was able to track him down and interview him about his self-imposed exile after
receiving a hush-hush pardon from authorities in 2007.

Clearly, James knew his time would come and that justice would eventually be served if he stayed in Canada or the United States and he ran like a scared dog. With Canada now expected to issue a new warrant for his arrest, James’ time to hide from the police is running short and justice will be served. For the sake of the world and all the people whose lives he’s destroyed, we can only hope that he’s taken into custody sooner than not.