Convicted hockey sex offender Graham James finally found

This could probably go over on the Journalism board because finding this guy was a joint effort by the Globe & Mail and CBC's Bob McKeown CBC. McKeown also did a superb ongoing series on Mike Danton and scumball agent David Frost as part of CBC's regular doc show "The Fifth Estate".

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/bruce-dowbiggin/graham-james-has-been-found/article1566086/

Bruce Dowbiggin used to cover sports for CBC and his reports were instrumental in bringing down Alan Eagleson.

It's interesting because the article doesn't mention the city or country where they tracked James down. According to globe.com, they'll release more info at 5:00 today

McKeown says, “Our putting him on TV after all these years is going to throw his world as it exists upside down. Sometimes in this job, you feel sorry for the people you put on TV in this fashion. I have no such feeling for Graham James.”

Amen to that.

 

Now that they've found him, let's put a bullet or three in his fucking head.

And then go after David Frost with the same intent.

 

Good old Starman Justice, Canuckistan version.

 

It's the only fitting punishment for both of those lowlifes, seriously.

 

Why has it been so hard to find him? He has been playing the role of Kevin on The Office for the last 5 years.

 

Former LA Kings owner Bruce McNall did some of his time in a minimum-security prison an hour or so from where I live. When the Graham James story broke, I did a column on how James was going to serve LESS time for stealing the innocence and psyche of kids entrusted to him than McNall was going to do for defrauding banks.

Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this compare-and-contrast conclusion.

 

Why did James receive a pardon?

If he did, in fact, receive a pardon, isn't that the legal procedure in such cases? If so, while we may disagree with what he did and the government's decision, isn't he considered a free man?

 

Why? Because, under Canadian law as it stands right now, a pardon cannot be reasonably denied an offender who has completed their sentence and has not re-offended for a specific period of time after the completion of the sentence (I don't remember if it's three or five years).

The pardon can be revoked if it is found the person has misrepresented themselves somehow when applying for it.

Yes, he is absolutely a free man - but he was never tried for the alleged assaults of several victims, including Theo Fleury. He could conceivably be tried and convicted for those offences and be right back to Square 1. That's probably why he's hiding in Mexico, where they have no idea he's a kiddie diddler.

Meanwhile, the federal government is working on a plan to tighten up pardon eligibility. The highlight is that anyone convicted of a sex crime against a child would never be eligible, nor would anyone with three criminal convictions.

 

Thanks. Interesting that pardons are automatic. Maybe the US should adopt that as well. The road runs both ways, of course. Lots of people get convicted of one thing and it's like a ball and chain for their entire life, which has always struck me as unfair.

 

I don't think pardons should be automatic. I wouldn't want to see something hang off someone for the rest of their life if they made a mistake and have honestly reformed, but let's not hand pardons out like candy after three years.

Shit, car accidents continue to affect your insurance rates for three years afterward. Bankruptcies stay on your record for, I think, seven years. Pardon eligiblity shouldn't kick in for at least five or seven years after your sentence is complete, depending on what you did. In some cases, like Graham James or other child molesters, a person should never be eligible for a pardon.

 

I'm pretty much with you. Somewhere in the middle of the road. Not that pardons should be automatic, but not that they should be unattainable, either. Not sure what the best time frame would be.

 

James would have been found long ago but no one really tried. It would have cost money. They found him simply because someone told him where he would be and what time he got off work.