Ben Levin: Child pornography charges were the least of it

On Friday, former Ontario deputy minister of education, Ben Levin, was sentenced to three years in the penitentiary. In March, Levin pleaded guilty to one count each of possessing child pornography, making child pornography, and counselling the commission of a sexual assault. Four other child porn related charges were withdrawn by the Crown.

At the time of his arrest in July 2013, Levin was a world renowned expert in childhood education and was a professor of education at the University of Toronto. At one time he held the position of deputy minister of education in Manitoba. According to the Agreed Statement of Facts [PDF], read in to support his guilty pleas, Levin often frequented Internet chatrooms involving teens and incest. He told others of his interests in having sex with children. In records found by the police, Levin had a list of contacts, many with the word “fake” noted beside the names. Three of his contacts were Jannelle Blackadar, Angela Johnson and Russell Joe Gray. The much praised professor did not seem to think they were fake although he had doubts about Blackadar. All three were undercover police officers. Blackadar is a member of the Toronto Police Force, Johnson is a police officer in London, Ontario while Gray is an investigator in New Zealand. All three posed as mothers with young children. As Ben Levin held high profile positions within the Liberal government of Ontario, most of the media downplayed his crimes. On many occasions when the disgraced educator made court appearances the only media covering it was the former Sun News Network. This was in sharp contrast with the coverage of former CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi who was charged with numerous sex crimes. Police were needed to escort Ghomeshi through the throngs of reporters waiting outside the courtroom. To the extent Levin’s crimes were mentioned, they were labelled as child pornography or child pornography related charges. The non-child porn charge however, the most serious one, was downplayed or ignored.

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Levin is not just a pedophile; he is a sadist who appeared to take pleasure in physically hurting children or at least having other people hurt children

Police found approximately 2,000 images on Levin’s computers. Of these images, only 15 were found to be child pornography images and these were the subject of the possession charge. While 15 images are 15 too many, he was hardly the worst offender when it comes to this crime. The making of child pornography charge resulted after he wrote a story about the violent sexual assault of a 10-year-old child and forwarded it to the undercover officer in New Zealand. Some think this sort of activity should not even be an offence as it does is only a fictional story and did not involve any actual children. The third charge, counselling a person to commit a sexual assault, was the most serious and was found so by the judge. Levin advised Blackader how to groom her fictitious eight-year-old daughter for sex. Even that was not the worst of it. After Blackader told him she had followed his advice and had shown her daughter pornography and sexually assault her, Levin gave her further instructions. This involved hurting the little girl and told the undercover officer it was necessary to make her cry by spanking her and inserting objects into her. At one point he asked the officer if she would hurt her daughter “to please him.” Levin is not just a pedophile; he is a sadist who appeared to take pleasure in physically hurting children or at least having other people hurt children. This would shock the majority of pedophiles who justify their actions on the basis they love children and would never even think of physically torturing or hurting a child. In 2010, former Premier Dalton McGuinty introduced a new sex education curriculum that was later withdrawn after complaints from parents and the public. At the time, current Premier Kathleen Wynne was the minister of education and up until 2009, Levin was her deputy. Levin also formed part of Wynne’s transition team when the latter became premier. Earlier this year, Wynne introduced a new sex ed curriculum that parents and the public are protesting. This curriculum includes teaching young children about such things as masturbation and “gender fluidity.” Although Levin held no formal position within the government, there is evidence that he advised on the new curriculum in an informal way right up until the time he was arrested. Unlike her predecessor, Wynne is ignoring any criticism of her policy set to be introduced in September. She denies Levin had any role in the new curriculum and suggests she hardly knew her former deputy and member of her transition team. Wynne doesn’t care that some Ontarians are upset that Levin was involved in education policy in the province. Her reaction to Levin’s interest in inflicting physical harm on children is to try and distance herself from the former eminent professor and education expert. It is important to remember Levin is not just a person who likes to look at pictures of children having sex; he is a sexual sadist who enjoys at least hearing about pain inflicted upon small defenceless children. Levin is disgusting. And Wynne isn’t much better.