TORONTO — Pardoned sex predator Graham James has been tracked down in Mexico.
CBC News and the Globe and Mail say they located the disgraced former junior hockey coach in the city of Guadalajara, where he’s reportedly working and living in a gated community.
“I’m impressed that you found me,” both outlets quoted James, now 58, as saying when he was confronted on a city street. He refused a request for an interview, and referred questions to his Winnipeg lawyer.
Footage that has already aired on CBC promoting the story shows James looking thinner and older than he did in 1997, when he pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges stemming from allegations levelled by two of his former teenaged players, including ex-NHLer Sheldon Kennedy.
Another high-profile player, former Calgary Flames star forward Theoren Fleury, came forward earlier this year to allege that he, too, had been abused by James. Those allegations have not resulted in any charges, but are under investigation by police in Winnipeg.
James, who was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison, was quietly pardoned three years ago, but the pardon wasn’t made public until it was disclosed last month in a report by The Canadian Press.
The news touched off a firestorm of controversy, culminating in the federal government’s promise Tuesday to revamp the system and make it more difficult for repeat, violent offenders to get pardons.
Mexico doesn’t have a registry for sex offenders, and because of the Canadian pardon, there is no official means for Mexican authorities to learn of his criminal history, the CBC reported on its website.
Asked if he would return to Canada in the event of additional charges, James said: “I have a lawyer already in Winnipeg, so it’s not like I’m running away.”
On Tuesday, the federal Conservative government responded to the revelations about the pardon with a pledge to replace them with harder-to-get “record suspensions,” and to make it impossible for anyone convicted of sex crimes against children to even apply for one.
Under the new legislation, people convicted of minor crimes would have to wait five years before applying for a record suspension; those guilty of more serious offences will have to wait 10 years.
It would be up to the criminal to demonstrate that a record suspension would contribute to his or her rehabilitation.
”The pardon of convicted sex offender Graham James was deeply offensive to Canadians, to victims and to our government,” Justice Minister Vic Toews told a news conference.
Kennedy, who spoke at that news conference, said he was unfazed at the prospect of seeing James surface again.
”It’ll be interesting,“ he admitted. ”You get to a point where part of moving on in your life, where that individual doesn’t have the power over you any more.
”There would have been a time in my life if that interview had come up that I would have been a little skittish in my boots just to see it.”