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A Calgary man says he was forced to provide his fingerprints or give up a 12-year career of coaching youth hockey, all because he shares the same date of birth as a pardoned sex offender.

And after a fruitless five-year odyssey for an explanation for what he feels is a violation of his constitutionally protected Charter rights, retired oil engineer Jim Besse is now suing the RCMP, Calgary police, the Calgary police commission and Chief Roger Chaffin.

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“I have always been upfront, saying, ‘Take five minutes and tell me why you think this is a reasonable search and I will go away.’ For five years, nobody’s been able to take that five minutes,” Besse told Postmedia.

“They weren’t going to issue a clean criminal record check for myself unless I submitted myself for fingerprints, and that is still the policy.”

For more than a decade, Besse had served as a dedicated volunteer as his two sons grew up, serving as a minor hockey head coach, a leader with their Beavers and Cubs troops, and at schools. Over that time, he estimates successfully being screened eight to 10 times through a vulnerable sector search, necessary for adults working with children to ensure there are no red flags on their records.