Sex crimes | Ex-coach obtains a stoppage of the legal process

A former hockey coach found guilty by Ontario justice for sex crimes committed in Ontario and Quebec has benefited from a stoppage of the legal process in Quebec. The Court of Quebec ruled that the acts committed in the two provinces had already been punished. The victim, now 60, believes, however, that he has been abandoned by the criminal justice system.

Henri Ouellette-Vezina
The Press

Judge Dominique Slater had to decide whether Nicolas Cadorette, a man from British Columbia who pleaded guilty in 2017 to sex crimes against a boy in Ontario during the 1970s, should appear in Quebec.

The events occurred between October 1974 and March 1976, when Cadorette was coaching a men’s hockey team in Vaughan, Ontario. An investigation was opened by York police in 2014 after a complaint was filed. The victim was sexually assaulted from the age of 12 by Cadorette, who, while accompanying the boy home on his return from the arena, would have sexually assaulted him on several occasions. Assaults also allegedly took place in the coach’s family home in Victoriaville and during a stay in a private chalet.

It is precisely these assaults committed in Quebec for which the victim said he wanted justice. M^e Michel Dussault, lawyer for Nicolas Cadorette, however pleaded under section 607 of the Criminal Code that his client “has already received a sentence which he has served”. He had been sentenced to two years less a day in the community in Ontario.

Thus, the defense argued that “the entire work was settled in Ontario”. “He cannot be punished twice for the same matter. And it’s clearly the same case, ”hammered M^e Dussault. An argument to which the Crown prosecutor, Mr.^e Jean-Philippe Garneau, said he could not oppose legally.

During the hearing, Mr.^e Garneau nevertheless denounced the vagueness surrounding the facts committed in Quebec, in the decision rendered in Ontario in 2017. The judge, he said, did not directly mention that he condemned Cadorette for his crimes in Quebec, did not having no jurisdiction in the province. But faced with an admission by the Crown of the lack of evidence to thwart the defense, Judge Dominique Slater still ordered a halt to the judicial process, ruling that the events that occurred in Quebec were “implicitly” contained in the decision rendered in Ontario. .

The “abandoned” victim

Following this verdict, The Press spoke with the victim, whom we can only identify by his initials, J.R. The man in his 60s has agreed to return to the “path of recovery” he has been following for several years.

“My process started 8 years ago, nearly 45 years after I was assaulted. I had at that time in my life a break down complete. I couldn’t work anymore, my life and my family fell apart. I knew then that I had two choices: to face this trauma of youth, which gnawed at me from the inside, or simply to die”, explains this man.

He believes he was “abandoned” by the authorities. “After the verdict in Ontario, which I obviously considered insufficient, I did exactly what I was told, which was to bring the proceedings to Quebec. At the start, I was promised that we would do everything to obtain a conviction, ”says the victim.

Gradually, the man claims that the Crown has completely “changed its position”, instead arguing that “a solution had to be found”.

A civil law lawyer, Mr.^e Elena Dimitrova, supports these remarks. “Communication with the Crown was very difficult. They didn’t do what they originally said. And that doesn’t happen often: the Crown is supposed to help the victim, in their best interest,” says Ms.^e Dimitrova, who supported the victim in his efforts in Quebec.

Running out of options, JR now says he wants to “get the truth out”. “This man took my life when I was 12 years old. I want it to be known. This man should be in jail, and he isn’t. It must be denounced. And I want us to send a strong message: no child should have to deal with such mental and physical trauma,” he concludes.