Former Vancouver school trustee sentenced in youth sex sting

A former Vancouver School trustee charged in a 2018 underage sex sting has been sentenced to 18 months’ probation and a conditional discharge.

Ken Clement, 70, was one of multiple men charged for allegedly targeting teens between the ages of 15 and 17.

“I take full responsibility for my actions,” Clement said in a statement, read by his lawyer Sarah Rauch, to Vancouver provincial court Judge David St. Pierre on Feb. 8. “Sexual exploitation of underage persons is unacceptable.”

He said he was embarrassed and has a “deep sense of shame.”

Police originally said the sting was about men targeting girls.

Clement had initially contacted a youth called ‘Kevin,’ who said in a sex ad that he was 19.

Kevin, however, was a police officer and part of a VPD-led operation. The RCMP assisted with the investigation, court heard.

Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Curtis Johnson Jan. 6, Clement confirmed the text communication between he and Kevin began June 23, 2018 at 12:24 a.m.

Clement very soon received a text saying Kevin was almost 17, something that left him confused.

Johnson asked Clement why he had not sought to clarify the age issue.

Clement maintained in his January 2023 testimony that he had operated on the belief Kevin was 19 as per the online ad despite the change of age in the texts.

Believing Kevin was 19, Clement went to Vancouver’s Atrium Inn as arranged and was arrested.

Police seized a number of items, including $300 in cash, a sex-enhancing drug and vodka. All of those items were forfeited at sentencing.

The Crown had been seeking a jail term of six to eight months while the defence sought a discharge.

Johnson said the fact Kevin was fictional was not a mitigating factor.

“That does not go to his credit,” Johnson told the judge. 

Aggravating factors, he said, were the increasing graphic nature of the messages, the sending of genital photos, and Clement showing up at the hotel with alcohol.

He said Clement had time to reflect on the situation before going to the hotel.

“It’s quite clear Mr. Clement anticipated this and displayed an eagerness,” Johnson said.

Impacts

Rauch said delays in the case, the public nature of the case and Clement having attended a residential school near Cranbrook have all contributed to his suffering after the charges were laid.

She said he was seized and taken to the school when he was six and remained there for 10 years, suffering physical, emotional, mental, sexual and spiritual abuse.

Being cornered by police, she said, triggered long-held fears of authority stemming from early childhood.

“The experience continues to be a lifelong journey of reconciliation,” Rauch said.

She said he has lost a high-profile job and has been ostracized in the community. Moreover, at a time he should be retiring, she said he has lost his savings defending himself.

Rauch noted the announcement by police that it was a sting targeting men seeking girls impacted Clement as a two-spirited gay man. She said that isolated him from the gay community, where he was viewed with distrust, as having lived a lie.

“It suggests that maybe you’re being an imposter as a gay man,” she told St. Pierre.

She said Clement wished no harm to any child.

“This was a mistake,” she said. “It was an error in judgment.”

St. Pierre noted Clement had been a community leader in social justice and areas of education.

But, the judge said, it “all came crashing down and he suffered impacts of a very massive fall from grace.”

Political life

Clement was announced as a Vision candidate on June 20, 2018 and dropped out of the race the following week.

At the time, Vision spokesperson Michael Haack said Clement was not running in the upcoming election race due to health reasons.

Clement was the first municipal official of First Nations descent in Vancouver history when elected to the school board in 2008.

The investigation

The VPD said in January 2019 that 47 men were arrested in 2018 following a two-month operation that targeted people willing to purchase sexual services from youth.

“Our detectives led an operation designed to prevent the exploitation of youth. It resulted in the arrest of a significant number of men, from all walks of life,” Laurence Rankin, VPD deputy chief constable, said at the time.

VPD detectives posted decoy advertisements on web escort listings and social media platforms for sexual services.

After prospective consumers made contact via text message, they were advised that the subject of the online advertisement was a girl between 15 and 17 years of age, police said.

The operation was divided into two projects: Project Serrated and Project Steadfast.

The online work of the detectives culminated in nine separate “arrest days” when the men showed up to a hotel.

“I want to make it clear that these projects were not about sexual activity between two consenting adults. The suspects were actively seeking sex with teenagers,” Rankin said.