WARNING | This story contains details of child sexual abuse.
Details included in recently filed court documents raise questions about the timeline of sexual abuse accusations against disgraced hockey coach Graham James, dating back to his work as a substitute teacher in Winnipeg in the early 1980s.
In a statement of claim filed last November, a now 50-year-old man alleged James began to abuse him in May 1983, when the plaintiff was 10 years old and attending Strathmillan School, in the St. James-Assiniboia School Division. The abuse continued into the summer of 1983, the statement of claim says.
A 2023 police report — included in two affidavits submitted to Court of King’s Bench by James’s defence lawyers, in May and June — indicates police determined James had been employed by the St. James-Assiniboia School Division as a substitute teacher from September 1980 to June 1983.
However, the man accusing James of abuse initially told investigators he “only started attending school in Winnipeg in the fall of 1983,” according to the January 2023 police report, which was heavily redacted in each affidavit.
“He noted in 1984 when he was 10, he was a student at a school Strathmillan Elementary School in Winnipeg,” the report says.
In his lawsuit, the man claims James took a particular interest in him at Strathmillan and would single him out to stay after school. In one instance, James put his hands up his shorts and molested him, the man alleges.
A female teacher saw what was happening, entered the classroom and told James she was going to report him, according to the lawsuit. Not long after, the boy was called into the principal’s office, where he was questioned about the incident while James was present.
The abuse continued into the summer of 1983, according to the lawsuit, after James learned where the boy lived. It alleges James went to his home, and the boy awoke to find James encouraging his sister to touch him, with James later forcing sexual acts on him.
The man’s suit also says the St. James-Assiniboia School Division had a legal duty to prevent the abuse and was negligent in its hiring and supervision of James.
He’s seeking over $6 million in damages.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
James never taught elementary school: lawyers
The police report filed in the affidavit by James’s lawyers says investigators learned that the school division only kept student attendance records for seven years, and that even if the man had been a student at Strathmillan in May 1983, he would have been in Grade 3 and would not have had James as a substitute teacher.
James “was never a substitute teacher at Strathmillan School during the time frame” of the alleged abuse — which the complainant initially told police was 1984 — with James’s “time as a substitute teacher ending the year before,” the police report says.
There are also no records to show that James ever worked as a substitute teacher at Strathmillan, according to the report, and it’s unclear who any of the other substitute teachers may have been at the school at that time due to limited paper trails left under outdated documentation systems.
The police report says that with “a number of witnesses deceased” and “different report documentation back in the 1980s,” there are “limited avenues to pursue in this investigation.”
No criminal charges have been laid against James based on the man’s complaint.
James, now 71, is a convicted sex offender who spent several years in prison for sexually assaulting multiple young players he coached in the 1980s and 1990s. However, he wasn’t charged until 1996, when Sheldon Kennedy and another player came forward.
James later pleaded guilty to assaulting other players as well, but was granted day parole in 2016.
James denies the allegations in the man’s November lawsuit, calling them “fabricated, false and without foundation or merit” in his statement of defence, which was filed in February.
James also says he has no recollection of teaching at Strathmillan.
“He only ever taught junior and senior high school classes and never elementary school,” according to his statement of defence.
Division files cross-claim against James
In its own statement of defence, also filed in February, the St. James-Assiniboia School Division says that since it has no record of him being a substitute teacher at Strathmillan, it “denies that James had the opportunity to commit the acts alleged.”
The division denies it would have known at the time of the alleged abuse that James was not qualified to teach and had been previously accused of sexual crimes against a minor.
The division also denies responsibility or liability for James’s alleged abuse at the then 10-year-old’s home, as it took place off of school premises and outside of school hours, the statement of defence says.
It denies any intentional wrongful conduct or liability for damages, and says the man’s allegations against the division are “unjustified, frivolous, vexatious, and merit an award of solicitor and client costs against him.”
The division also filed a cross-claim against James, arguing he is liable for its costs in defending itself against the man’s lawsuit, and for any damages the division may be found liable for.
For anyone who has been sexually assaulted, there is support available through crisis lines and local support services via the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.