For third time, school board rejects request of man who claims abuse by Graham James
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2024 (603 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WINNIPEG — 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 Winnipeg Free Press reported that 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 that 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.
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. The lawsuit 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.”
James — who has been convicted of sexually assaulting five former hockey players, some of whom he abused hundreds of times, while they were youths — agreed in 2011 to plead guilty to sex abuse charges involving Theoren Fleury and Todd Holt, provided Crown prosecutors didn’t proceed with a charge alleging the sex abuse of Gilhooly. He was paroled for those offences in 2016.
Gilhooly sent his first request via letter to the St. James-Assiniboia School Division in 2012, and made a similar request again in 2021.
» Winnipeg Free Press