Monday morning, five high-caliber hockey players, including four playing in the NHL, are expected to cross the threshold of the courthouse in London, Ontario. It is expected that they will be formally accused of having committed a collective sexual assault on a 20-year-old young woman in 2018. The police must then reveal in the afternoon more details in this affair, the ramifications of which have shaken the foundations of the powerful sports organization Hockey Canada and called into question the culture of Canadians’ national sport.
What can we expect today?
The affair came to light two years ago, but it was only last week that the identities of the players were revealed.
They are two players from the New Jersey Devils, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote, Carter Hart, who is a goaltender for the Philadelphia Flyers, Dillon Dube, who plays with the Calgary Flames, and Alex Formenton, who plays with a team in Switzerland. In 2018, they were all members of the Canadian team that won the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship.
Monday morning, they are expected at the courthouse in London, the city where the attack was committed according to the complainant.
At that first court appearance, they could decide — but are not required — to immediately respond to the charge by pleading guilty or not guilty. However, the suspense is not very great, since they indicated, through their representatives, that they were going to contest the accusations. All have been granted “indefinite leave” from their team in recent days.
According to court documents, each of the five players is charged with one count of sexual assault. These charges are punishable by 10 years in prison, and even more if a weapon was used, for example. McLeod also faces another charge of participating in the offense of sexual assault.
After this appearance Monday morning, the criminal proceedings will take their course, and it may be a few years before a trial date is set. The five men will not be detained during the proceedings.
The young woman’s version
We do not know everything that happened on the night of June 18 to 19, 2018, but we should learn a little more on Monday afternoon, during the press conference that the London police held. announced to provide an update on its investigation.
What we know for the moment is the version of the complainant – whose name is withheld, as is almost always the case in cases of sexual assault. She detailed it in a civil suit filed in April 2022 for $3.55 million against eight players, Hockey Canada and the Canadian Hockey League.
That evening, it was a party: a Hockey Canada fundraising gala took place in London, and the hockey players were congratulated for their conquest of the World Championship. The complainant said she met a player at the hotel bar and spent part of the evening with him, drinking alcohol. She claims to have then consented to certain sexual acts with him, but not with seven of his teammates who burst into the hotel room where they were. They inflicted degrading sexual acts on her, she said, also claiming to have been penetrated, while she was too intoxicated to consent. According to what she alleges in the suit, she wanted to leave the room on more than one occasion, but was prevented from doing so.
The suit was settled out of court according to sports network TSN, which made the suit public in 2022, triggering a series of consequences for Hockey Canada. Because TSN also reported that the sports organization had tried to cover up the affair by paying the complainant.
Then, subsequent revelations that the national organization maintained a fund, drawing on minor hockey players’ dues, to pay for various things, including sexual assault lawsuits, sparked an unprecedented firestorm against the governing body Sport.
Police were notified of the young woman’s allegations, but closed the file in 2019 without laying charges. Faced with public outrage, the police investigation was reopened in July 2022.
The version of the accused
Very little is known about their version of events. Additionally, the five players do not have to reveal how they intend to defend themselves against the accusations against them. In fact, they are not even required to testify at trial. Like all defendants, they are presumed innocent until proven guilty.
What little is known stems from a CBC article, which got its hands on police search warrants filed in court. We learn elements of the investigation from the police who spoke to some of the players – the article does not, however, specify which players they are. These facts have not yet been tested by the courts.
According to their version, everything that happened in the hotel room that evening was consensual, police report in court documents.
The police also refer to two very short videos in which the young woman appears – first revealed by the Globe and Mail — which were allegedly filmed by the player with whom she consented to sexual activities. In the first, we hear him asking if she’s “OK with that.” She answers yes. In the second, the player orders him to “say it.” » “OK, everything was consensual,” she retorts.
It is not specified in the CBC article whether the video was taken before or after the other seven players entered the room.
These details, however, suggest that this criminal case will partly revolve around the question of consent and that this defense could be raised.
Another thing remains unknown: while the young woman sued eight players civilly, the police only recommended the filing of charges against five. What happened to the other three? It’s not known at this time, but some of the accused players could potentially argue that they were confused with others, often referred to as the “identification defense.”
Hockey Canada, which was caught in turmoil — its leaders had to appear before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa, the organization lost private sponsorships and, for a time, federal funding — will likely follow the unfolding of the criminal case from close.
On Friday, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said the league would not consider any punishment for the five defendants until the conclusion of criminal proceedings.
With The Canadian Press