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Two more victims of alleged historical sexual assault have come forward in Ontario, leading to additional charges there against a Penticton city councillor and newspaper editor.
Police allege James (Jim) Matthew Miller, 59, has been identified by two people during an investigation into offences in the late 1980s and early ’90s in Sarnia, Ont., when he was a youth basketball coach in that community.
Police said it received a complaint early this year and had issued a Canada-wide warrant.
Miller was arrested by B.C. RCMP on Nov. 8 and charged with two counts each of sexual interference and sexual assault of a person under age 16, related to alleged offences in 1989.
Miller now faces a total of seven counts of sexual interference, three counts of invitation to sexual touching and one count of sexual assault, police said.
Miller appeared by internet in a Sarnia court on Nov. 8 and was released in B.C. on conditions.
Sarnia police ask anyone with information to contact Det.-Const. Andrew Veale at 519-344-8861, ext. 6231.
After Miller’s arrest back in late July, the City of Penticton issued a statement saying Miller had been placed on a “mandatory leave of absence” because of the criminal charges.
In 2023, news of the historical sexual charges surfaced in Sarnia and B.C., and Penticton Mayor Julius Bloomfield said Miller was asked to step aside from public events on behalf of the city while staff looked into the charges. Miller was reinstated to active participation on city council soon after.
In the early 2000s, Miller was charged and acquitted of similar offences in Sarnia related to allegations from 1986. At the time, a judge in Windsor, Ont., ruled there was insufficient evidence against him. It’s not clear how any of the new charges relate to that investigation.
Miller’s biography at the Penticton council website indicates he came to the city from Spruce Grove, Alta., in 2008. He was elected in a 2021 byelection and won a full term in 2022.
Miller continues to be listed as the editor of the Penticton Herald and has also worked for the Kelowna Daily Courier, Spruce Grove Examiner and Stony Plain Reporter.
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