by Dave Salter
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jan 27/97) - Sexual abuse by those in a position of power: It's a common theme in news headlines such as the Mount Cashel orphanage scandal in St. John's, Nfld., and more than a few Hollywood movies.

That coaches have been exerting sexual pressure on athletes for years shouldn't come as a surprise. But it has.

When the sordid story of junior hockey coach Graham James hit newspapers and television screens last month, Canadians were shocked and dumbfounded.

How could such abuse occur in the great Canadian bastion of machismo -- hockey?

The answer: simple ignorance.

Those who knew turned a blind eye to the problem and victims were afraid to come forward as they felt it threatened their manhood.

James, the former Swift Current Broncos coach, has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail for his 300-plus counts of sexual abuse. But how can we identify other potential sex predators in the hockey world?

Dennis Bedard of the NWT Amateur Hockey Association hopes to find an answer to that question at the Canadian Hockey Association meetings this weekend in Toronto. The Fort Simpson resident will be accompanied by Bill Othmer of Sport North.

Bedard says the NWT association was quick to act on the issue as soon as news of James' despicable acts came to light.

"We held a conference call at the beginning of the month with our entire executive," said Bedard.

"We discussed the situation and plan to work closely with Hockey Alberta. They'll be putting together a manual and guidelines for selecting coaches and sexual abuse issues," he said.

"Alberta's goal is to put together an information package to hopefully weed out the oddball few that slip through the cracks."

Bedard has been involved with the Northern hockey community for eight years and says he's never heard of sexual abuse cases involving coaches and players. He hopes that the storm of controversy doesn't scare away the majority of coaches who are upstanding citizens.

"We don't want to paint a wide brush and scare away good people.

Education, Othmer said, is the key. "We need to educate players coaches and volunteers to ensure their safety and identify the potential hazards out there," he said.

"We want to take a player-centred approach so they'll know the warning signs and can stop potential problems early on."

Othmer said he wasn't completely surprised when news of the James incidents surfaced.

"You hate to see something like that happen but unfortunately it occurs in all walks of life with people in a position of power," he said.

"However we have to be careful not just to label hockey coaches. There's a lot of good ones out there, but some bad ones have slipped through."