Not two hours after I posted a blog about Graham James not being in police custody yet, there was a Facebook update awaiting me when I got home. James turned himself in at the Toronto airport to Winnipeg police yesterday afternoon.
It was an eruption of emotions, a bittersweet version of the chaos that exploded after news of his pardon broke: relief that James is cut off from society, sympathy for his victims, admiration at their strength through all these years that they’ve survived, and leftover anger that someone could be such a monstrous human being to harm children that way.
There is, believe it or not, good that comes out of the darkness and into the light of this arrest. James’ victims are no longer victims. They are survivors. Graham James will never again harm another child or living thing. He will also never get another pardon should this one be revoked.
Sheldon Kennedy started the Sheldon Kennedy Foundation for abuse victims. In spite of its controversy and finally being handed over to the American Red Cross, Kennedy has since continued to be a voice for victims who cannot speak for themselves.
He co-founded Respect Group Inc. to provide online education in prevention of abuse, bullying and harassment. He wrote a book in 2006 titled “Why I Didn’t Say Anything,” the account of his silence as a sexual abuse victim. Kennedy is also an Executive Board Member with the Canadian Society for the Investigation of Child Abuse.
To go from victim to survivor to advocate are three huge strides, the first being the longest. Just last year, former fellow Calgary Flame and a victim of similar abuse Kennedy endured, Theo Fleury released his co-written book, “Playing With Fire,” describing the abuse and dark hours he experienced at James’ hands as a teenage boy with a simple dream to play hockey.
I only hope that the other unnamed former players who came forward have found a similar content in their lives. Those who grow to become advocates for change in our society are the true heroic angels. It takes a victim to know a victim.
The arrest of Graham James is a triumphant one for the survivors of his torture. But there are still many sex offenders out there, both convicted and those who remain shrouded in the secrets they bind their victims in.
This should be precedent to future sexual abuse cases. Monsters walk our streets every day and often we don’t see them until childhoods like those of Kennedy’s and Fleury’s are destroyed.
Instead of waiting until it’s too late to salvage that life, we all should be watching the world with open eyes and preventing the abuse. Prosecution and jail time is what the abusers deserve. But the children never deserve to experience the horrors these monsters inflict in the first place.