The National Parole Board has granted full parole to former hockey coach and convicted sex offender Graham James following a hearing at a penitentiary in Quebec.
The 64-year-old appeared at a hearing on Thursday in Laval, north of Montreal.
In 2012, James was sentenced to seven years for sexually assaulting young players he coached in the 1980s and 1990s.
The players were with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League and included former NHLers Sheldon Kennedy and Theoren Fleury.
James was already on day parole and has been living in a half-way house in the Montreal area since January.
Parole board members determined that James has shown progress over the past few months and that he is a low risk to reoffend and is ready to move to the next phase of his rehabilitation.
James told the hearing that there were about 20 victims and that most were "one-time touching."
He said that he was able to justify the acts to himself and that "rational thinking went by the wayside."
"I feel ashamed, I feel that I failed the people for whom I had the greatest responsibility and to whom I was closest," James said.
Board member Marc Gold read some of the victim statements: one said James took away his "soul and dignity," while another said the assaults left him a "broken and battered" man and another was ready to commit suicide.
Sheldon Kennedy spoke to the media from the Child Advocacy Centre in Calgary and said he is disappointed with the decision.
“We pretty much knew it was coming but I think when we look at any of the sentencing or any of the decisions that surround the Graham James case or any other case such as that, I think there’s such a lack of understanding of the impact of this crime and what we know today is the impact is real and life-long. So if we make decisions based on the severity of the crime, right? I think we’re missing the mark,” said Kennedy. “If you look at the people that he manipulated in his world to have access to kids, and the shame and the guilt that they carry of that betrayal of trust, it’s real. It’s real and people carry that with them for most of their life if they don’t do any work on it.”
He says it’s easy for someone to show up for counselling sessions and say all the right things in a controlled environment and many know how to play the system.
“I’ve been in treatment centres. I know people that have been in there because of having to go in there because of court or whatever and you learn how to say the right things and it’s easy to stay sober in a treatment centre but it you look at Graham James, I mean, he said all the right things last time when he got full parole and where did we find him? We found him in Spain working with young kids,” he said. “So what is going to be different this time?”
Kennedy says the centre does 125 investigation per month and that 98 percent of the kids know their abuser.
“Kids that have been abused are 26 more times likely to experience youth homelessness, I mean, the list goes on,” he said. “For 20 years now we’ve been fighting to try to have the systems understand the impact of Graham James and now we’ve had six people, six victims of Graham’s come forward and there’s more out there.”
Theoren Fleury released a statement saying…
As the news came in today that a repeat offender was granted full parole, we are again asking questions as to how this is possible? I say again, "Canada is the Disneyland for pedophiles."
At this point we as the 1 in 4 who experience sexual abuse in our lifetime are left to once again be re-victimized by the system, media included.
With this judgement we are now as always to continue to focus on the path of healing and forgiveness. If you are looking for closure from the justice system, this in many cases will never happen.
Today as I am speaking to three high schools in Vernon BC, I will be reminded that my path and our path should be focused on healing. What we are missing here is that trauma, mental health and addictions should be the main focus of the media's attention; not that another offender manipulated the consequences of their offences.
So today will be like any other day in my new life, focused on helping. Helping is healing and healing is possible! There is no anger, only hope that we may touch another’s life, someone who has been silenced and shamed because of their trauma. We will always encourage people to find their own voice and admire the courage it takes to do that. "The Power of Me Too".
The decision means James will serve the remainder of his sentence in the community and he cannot be in a position of trust with minors and cannot communicate with his victims or their families.
He has since changed his name to Michael James and the conditions of his release will remain in place until his sentence expires in 2019.
(With files from The Canadian Press)
