According to a police search warrant, Burnaby elementary school principal William Bennest liked his male prostitutes young— the younger the better. As recounted by a police informant (a male prostitute who regularly serviced Bennest), the now-disgraced educator had a routine for his sexual encounters. The veteran hooker would phone ahead to announce he had a fresh boy to bring over to Bennest's Vancouver home. Both parties would arrive at the door and go to the kitchen where marijuana and beer were provided to help them relax. A note would then instruct the new boy, always in his teens but never younger than 14, to go upstairs to the bedroom and have another beer and joint. At that point the new recruit would remove his clothing and lie on the bed to await Bennest's arrival. The note always told the new prostitute that no talking was allowed. Meantime, the older prostitute would remain downstairs. In about 30 minutes, Bennest would come downstairs and pay them each $100 before they departed.

Generally, any exchange of money makes such adult-child sex illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada, which forbids the "obtaining" of sex by an adult from anyone under the age of 18. Sex between an adult and child 14 or older is permitted only when that contact is consensual. However, while Bennest was charged with two counts of making and possessing child pornography, one count of sexually procuring a boy under 18 and two of sexually touching a boy under the age of 14, he struck a deal with prosecutors that saw him plead guilty only to the pornography charge. Three weeks ago, Provincial Court Judge William Kitchen handed Bennest a suspended sentence under which he escapes any incarceration.

Police, parents, school groups and community organizations are outraged over the soft sentence. But more important, they note that while an offender such as Bennest gets headlines too large to be ignored, lax treatment of child molesters seems more the rule than the exception. Indeed, critics charge that government officials willingly go the extra mile to accommodate pedophiles, working to maintain their privacy and insisting that employers not refuse to hire them. Furthermore, while they say the drift to succour pedophiles is national, a permissive attitude toward sexual offences by prosecutors and judges seems more prevalent in B.C. than elsewhere in Canada.

Kimberly Daum, author of a recently published research paper prepared for a Vancouver youth advocacy group on the provincial government's failure to curb child prostitution, reports a frightening new perversion: fathers are now hiring prostitutes and having sex with them in front of their own children. "There's only one reason for such behaviour," Ms. Daum says. "They want to be able to say to their kids, 'Now, you and I can do that too.'"

Critics say an examination of B.C.'s most recent convictions of pedophiles leaves little doubt that some are getting an easy ride. Two years ago, 28-year-old Martin Gordon Monds sexually assaulted a 13-year-old girl in Williams Lake. Last month the girl's outraged father heard Provincial Court Judge Jakob deVilliers give Monds a one-year conditional sentence to be served in the community. "I don't even think angry is the right word [for how I feel]," the father, who cannot be named, told the Williams Lake Tribune. "I don't think this crime deserves grounding, which is what the offender got."

Judge deVilliers added to the father's aggravation by stating that even though the girl was not old enough to give legal consent, Monds' guilt was mitigated by her willingness to participate in the sexual activity that occurred. "They forgot who the victim was," the father said, "and apparently this is the norm rather than an isolated incident."

Also last month, family and community members were frustrated when Ian Cocker, a Mayne Island teacher who had been found guilty of sexually assaulting three former students, was set free. Allegations against Mr. Cocker, 50, included fondling a 12-year-old girl and removing her clothing, stroking the leg of another girl and kissing her, and pushing his thumb into the mouth of a third girl. Mr. Cocker was found guilty, but the B.C. Court of Appeal decided the case had taken too long to come to trial and issued a stay of proceedings, even though six months of the delay was caused by the defence lawyer's schedule. That decision was allowed to stand by the Supreme Court of Canada.

At first glance, the case of 47-year-old Donald Poslowsky looks like an exception. The Princeton resident was found guilty last month of assaulting a nine-year-old girl and sentenced to six years in prison by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Selwyn Romilly. But since the judge took into account the 15 months Poslowsky had already served, he could be eligible for full parole in two years. In addition to assault, Poslowsky was charged with attempted murder and could have received a life sentence. He lured the young girl into a vacant house and strangled her with enough force to kill an adult. Two doctors testified that only the more elastic nature of a child's larynx saved her. Poslowsky then partially stripped the girl and attempted penetration before dumping her body in a field.

Beyond light sentences, sex offenders are protected in other ways. In June the Coquitlam Library Board was told by arbitrator Anthony Hickling that it had to rehire a convicted pedophile it had fired in November 1996. Mr. Hickling determined the library had acted improperly because at the time the sex offender was hired, he had not been asked if he had a criminal record. The library is appealing the decision.

In Prince George, pedophile Robert Saunders, convicted of assaulting a two-year-old, created a stir last year when he moved into a basement suite in a house where another two-year-old lived. When the girl's angered grandmother went public, probation officials said they had made a mistake and moved him.

Then there is the case of Paul Leroux, a former employee of both the Canadian Human Rights Commission and the B.C. Human Rights Commission, who was charged in Vancouver this past April with possession of child pornography. Leroux was convicted in 1979 of molesting a boy in Inuvik while he was a supervisor at the Inuvik high school's Grollier Hall student residence, but then obtained a pardon and entered public service again. Outrage over this only intensified in June, when police charged Leroux with 32 counts of sexual assault involving 15 young boys from Grollier Hall.

The judicial system's willingness to go easy on pedophiles appeared to reach a nadir last year when Provincial Court Judge Brian Saunderson handed Coal Harbour resident Vernon Logan an absolute discharge after he had pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. Mr. Logan's discharge was upheld by B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kirsti Gill, even though police had seized magazines from the North American Man-Boy Love Association, which advocates legalized sex with prepubescent boys. Judge Saunderson even wrote Mr. Logan's lawyer and offer him advice on how to conduct the defence

But critics say it is Bennest who highlights the way the judicial system leaves citizens wondering if pedophiliac predators are being punished adequately. Unbeknownst to most of the parents and teachers he worked with, Bennest, an active member of Vancouver's homosexual community, was an avid purchaser of male prostitutes. In a September 1996 raid at Bennest's home, police seized 47 videotapes, including 23 commercially made tapes and six homemade tapes of young boys engaging in sex, five audio cassettes and numerous photos, posters and magazines. The tapes included images of a 12-year-old student from his school, Clinton Elementary. Bennest had spliced the boy's face onto the body of an unidentified young male who was masturbating at Bennest's direction. The pre-teen told police that he never had sexual contact with Bennest, and Burnaby school board chairman Ron Burton says, "We have been assured that no current student was sexually molested." However, this statement "leaves open the possibility that some may have been molested in the past," Mr. Burton admits.

Information contained in a police search warrant enlarges the picture of Bennest's hidden life. The prostitute-informant had a five-year relationship with Bennest that continued until Bennest's arrest in 1996. During that period, he provided between 10 and 15 street children for Bennest's sexual use. He also participated in making pornographic videos. Though much of the material described by the male prostitute never made it to court, a police official confirms that "the material described in the search warrant was recovered."

The informant told police that throughout their relationship, Bennest was persistent in asking for new and younger boys. He also said he believed Bennest had made the same request of others. Bennest used to demand, "Get me fresh meat."

A major variance exists between the informant's version of how much Bennest was involved with children in his school and what was finally agreed to in court. The search warrant states that the informant told police he had regularly viewed videotapes with Bennest that showed young children in school gym outfits "bearing the elementary school's name."

The filming took place in what appeared to be a counsellor's office. The children were not known to the informant, who told police that he is familiar with all the male prostitutes in the Vancouver area. Furthermore, in the informant's opinion, the children depicted in the videos were definitely inexperienced. He told police that Bennest said he got them from "his school." The children were observed performing masturbation and oral sex by the informant. Bennest also instructed the children to describe their genital areas and compare them to his.

When asked by police why he had volunteered so much information, the informant said he believed Bennest was too involved with younger children from within the school and that this activity was unacceptable.

In court, however, crown counsel Chris Webber referred only to the 12-year-old, while conceding to the defence that Bennest had not used the picture outside his household. Mr. Webber also suggested a conditional sentence would be appropriate for Bennest.

In Bennest's defence, lawyer Peter Leask called three character witnesses: Beverly Phillips, a counsellor with the Burnaby school board who said Bennest was effective in dealing with children with severe behavioural problems; Michael Jeffares, a real estate agent who was Bennest's student in Grade 7 in 1976; and Richard Dopson, a registered psychologist who is co-chairman of the Family Court in Vancouver and who worked with Bennest to organize the city's Gay Games in 1990.

Only Mr. Dopson was cross-examined, even though Mr. Jeffares claimed to have maintained a close relationship with Bennest, a relationship that began after school hours when Mr. Jeffares was still a student and that includes ski trips and volleyball games today. Mr. Jeffares told the court that Bennest was "a teacher who cared about his students and put kids in the forefront." In a later interview, Mr. Jeffares said the relationship was not sexual. "I didn't even know he was gay until Grade 10," Mr. Jeffares says. But that knowledge did not bother him then. "I already knew that I wasn't gay," he says.

In passing sentence, Judge Kitchen described Bennest as an exemplary citizen whose only "flaw" was his sexual interest in young children. The judge acknowledged that the pictures proved Bennest was "obsessed with one 12-year-old boy" but said the obsession was mitigated by the fact that Bennest was "most careful not to expose these pictures" to others." The judge went on to compare Bennest's transgressions to simple possession of marijuana and he characterized Bennest's pornographic pictures as "not as extreme as many items...we see."

The judge's comments outraged the public. So widespread was the clamour that two weeks ago, Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh announced the case was being reviewed with an eye to an appeal. He also said that even if the Crown decided not to appeal, as the province's A-G he could still override that decision. He later urged people to write to him or the courts if they are unhappy with the sentencing of criminals.

For researcher Daum, there is much in the justice system with which to be dissatisfied. She maintains there is "no difference between a pimp who abducts a girl from a bus stop and a teacher who takes a kid to lunch for [oral sex]." She complains that, despite the existence of numerous child prostitutes in Vancouver, police charged only 13 men with attempting to procure sex from a minor between 1988 and September 1997, and only three of those charges resulted in convictions. In contrast, Saskatchewan laid 15 charges and got one conviction in 1994 alone. Also in 1994, Quebec laid 57 charges and obtained 16 convictions. Furthermore, 13 of the 16 convicted men went to jail, some for up to two years, whereas two of the men convicted in Vancouver escaped a jail sentence altogether and the third was incarcerated for only a month.

"Arresting tricks [customers] is the only effective way to stop sex crimes against children," Ms. Daum declares. "It's a proven fact that once arrested, customers are so embarrassed that only 2% ever reoffend." But until B.C. gets serious about sexual assaults on children, she argues, sex crimes will continue to increase.

So why are B.C.'s politicians and judges so inept at dealing with the province's youth prostitution trade? "Maybe the politicians are complicit," Ms. Daum concludes. "Maybe they are tricks. How else can I explain it?"

No evidence exists of that, but there is further proof that the provincial government is not serious about cracking down on sex offenders. Last week, the Vancouver Sun reported it had used the freedom-of-information law to look into the NDP government's vaunted criminal record screening program. That law forced some 285,472 teachers, doctors, social workers and others who have regular contact with children to submit to criminal record checks. So far, however, only four have been declared a risk to children and reassigned to other jobs. Among those allowed to keep their jobs was a pimp who sold child prostitutes, a person who had sex with a minor, someone who was guilty of indecent exposure and others who were guilty of indecent acts.

Attorney General Dosanjh pronounced himself "extremely concerned" that so few were found to represent a risk to children and said a prominent British Columbian would be appointed to review the program.

That fails to satisfy critics such as Gwen Landolt, a lawyer and national vice-president of REAL Women of Canada. "Until judges change their basic attitude toward the law," says Ms. Landolt, "Canadians should not expect to see any improvement in the government's abysmal record of protecting children."

She says that across Canada, an unholy alliance between judges who "believe they exist to redesign society to fit their agenda," and the homosexual lobby has combined to create a judicial climate where sex with children is hardly considered a crime.

Ms. Landolt explains that it is her belief that initiatives from homosexuals are paving the way for legalized pedophilia. "Breaking down moral resistance is a three-stage process," she explains, "involving media stories to soften public resistance, court challenges to expunge the law of inhibiting statutes, and legislation that recognizes the changes already wrought." She notes that the Globe and Mail, as well as other leading media outlets, have published articles praising pedophilia. She also points out that in 1995, in a case involving a pedophile refugee from New York, Federal Court Judge Barbara Reed effectively lowered the legal age for homosexual acts to 14 by ruling that, because 14 is the legal age for heterosexual activity, the charter's guarantee of equality before the law had been violated.

Officially, the legal age for sodomy is still 18, but according to Victor Janoff, regional board member for Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, EGALE has vowed to work to amend the law so that the lower limit is in place for all sexual acts.

EGALE has allies in the highest ranks of Canadian politics. In an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail last month, F.L. Morton, professor of political science at the University of Calgary, revealed that EGALE and LEAF, the Women's Legal and Education Action Fund, had been allowed to vet the federal government's short list of candidates to fill the Supreme Court of Canada vacancy after the retirement of Justice Gerard La Forest.

But while EGALE is working to lower the age of consent, delegates to the annual convention of the Union of B.C. Municipalities voted overwhelmingly last week to ask Ottawa to raise the age for everyone to 16. Supporters of the resolution said the idea is to remove the defence of consent from adults who have sex with minors.

Another positive sign comes from London, Ont., where police Chief Julian Fantino has mounted a successful child-porn dragnet called Project Guardian. Since 1994, the project has netted 61 arrests for sexual assaults against 84 children. Significantly, Project Guardian boasts an 87% conviction rate with an average sentence of four years.

Homosexuals complained that the project singled them out for what they claimed were consensual sex acts, but the chief remains unmoved. He reports that at a conference sponsored by Canada's solicitor general in early November, more than 200 educators, judges and children's workers will gather at the Ontario Police College to examine the success of Project Guardian. "There is a profound awakening in the country as to what's happening to our children," he says. "But most judges still have a complete lack of appreciation of how children are victimized by sex crime."

Chief Fantino promises that his work is far from done. "Until we turn the justice system upside down," he says, "people like me aren't going away."

While legal reforms are clearly needed, some critics say what is vital is to reverse a generation-old trend towards evermore sexual permissiveness. Paul Johnson, pastor of Royal Heights Baptist Church in Delta, says he has been preaching for 20 years and in that time he has watched society become increasingly tolerant of all forms of sexual expression, "and less able to discern between what used to be called good and evil." Says Mr. Johnson: "We used to look at ancient Greece, where men had their 'boy toys.' Twenty years ago, I would have thought it unbelievable that we would be facing the same thing today."

—Shafer Parker Jr.

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