Manitoba judge tosses lawsuit against disgraced former hockey coach Graham James

Graham James, accused sex offender, arrives at court in Winnipeg Tuesday, March 20, 2012 for sentencing. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

WINNIPEG — A Manitoba judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Graham James, a convicted sex offender and former junior hockey coach.

The suit alleged James sexually assaulted a Winnipeg man over two weeks in 1983, when the man was a student at an elementary school where James worked as a substitute teacher.

Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Sarah Inness ruled this week that the complainant believes James abused him as a child but the evidence presented in court was unreliable.

“The issue in this case is more about the reliability of (the complainant’s) evidence in identifying James as the perpetrator, as opposed to the credibility of his complaints of sexual assault,” Inness said it a written decision Tuesday.

The lawsuit, filed in 2023, also named the St. James Assiniboia School Division, claiming it failed in its duty to protect students.

James admitted to being a substitute teacher in the division in the early ’80s but denied teaching at the school where the complainant was enrolled the year of the alleged abuse, the decision said.

The defendants used income tax records, school records and police reports to argue James was not working at the school at the time.

James has numerous convictions of sexual abuse against players while a coach, and the cases from the mid 1990s to 2015 rocked the hockey world.

The Canadian Hockey Association banned him from coaching for life in 1997. He was granted full parole in 2016.

Inness acknowledged the previous crimes in her decision.

“James is a notorious child sex offender. It is for that reason that care must be taken in fairly assessing (the complainant’s) claims, while guarding against the improper use of bad character propensity reasoning,” she said.

There was no civil trial, as the defendants argued for a summary judgment. The judge said she was satisfied the suit could be fairly decided based on the evidence and arguments presented.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press