Hamilton to hold rally for NBA MVP and champion Gilgeous-Alexander
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was born in Toronto but claims Hamilton as his home, will be recognized on Thursday Aug. 7 at 'Shai Rally Day' in Hamilton.
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Gilgeous-Alexander was named NBA MVP after finishing second last season (Steve Nash was the only Canadian to previously win the award), and helped Oklahoma City win its first NBA title last month after a stirring playoff run. He was also named NBA Finals MVP and led the league in scoring in the regular season.
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Later he'll make an appearance at the Canadian Football League game between the Tiger-Cats and B.C. Lions.
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'I'm absolutely thrilled to bring Shai Rally Day to Hamilton,' Horwath said in a release. 'This is our city's official celebration of NBA Champion, NBA MVP, NBA Finals MVP, NBA Scoring Champion, ESPY Best Athlete — Men's Sports, and proud Hamiltonian, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.'
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Toronto Sun
an hour ago
- Toronto Sun
Videos in hockey players' trial highlight misconceptions about consent: Law experts
Published Jul 22, 2025 • 4 minute read A composite image of five photographs show former members of Canada's 2018 World Juniors hockey team, left to right, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart as they individually arrived to court in London, Ont., Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Photo by Nicole Osborne / The Canadian Press As five former Canadian world junior hockey players await a ruling in their sexual assault trial, legal experts say videos shown in court of the complainant saying she was OK with what had happened highlight a broader misunderstanding of consent and sexual assault law in Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Two cellphone videos in which the woman says she's 'OK with this' and that 'it was all consensual' were presented as evidence during the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote. All five men have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault after an encounter in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is expected to deliver her ruling on Thursday in the case that saw consent emerge as a central issue. Prosecutors have argued the complainant did not voluntarily agree to the sexual acts that took place, nor did the players take reasonable steps to confirm her consent. The Crown has dismissed the videos taken of the woman that night as 'token lip service box checking,' arguing she felt she had no choice but to go along when a group of men she didn't know started asking her to do things inside the hotel room. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Defence lawyers, meanwhile, repeatedly challenged the complainant's credibility and reliability as a witness, arguing she was an active participant in the sexual activity and made up the allegations because she didn't want to take responsibility for her choices that night. Video statements such as the short clips shown in this trial aren't necessarily evidence of consent, said University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert. 'Legally speaking, they have very little relevance because consent has to be ongoing and contemporaneous with the sexual activity and you have to be consenting to every single thing that is happening to you,' said Gilbert, who researches sexual violence and abuse in Canadian sports. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There's no such thing as advance consent. And there's no thing as after-the-fact consent, either. So just because you say, 'Yeah, it was all consensual' doesn't mean that makes it so.' Lisa Dufraimont, a law professor at York University, said such videos could also be seen as hearsay because they don't contain statements made under oath in court. 'If the complainant got on the stand at the trial and testified that they consented at the time, that would be evidence that they consented at the time,' said Dufraimont, whose research focuses on evidence issues in sexual assault cases. But she said the videos could be used for other legal arguments, including those that may rely on a description of how a defendant or complainant was acting at the time. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It may be that if the video is taken close in time to the alleged sexual assault, that the video shows something about the person's level of intoxication or their emotional state, which may or may not be consistent with what they later reported their emotional state was at the time,' said Dufraimont. During the trial, the Crown argued that the videos shown in court weren't proof that the complainant voluntarily agreed to what had taken place. 'The recording of that video is not getting her consent to anything. Everything's already happened,' prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham said about the video in which the woman said it was 'all consensual,' adding that consent must be communicated for each specific act at the time it takes place. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Only one of the accused, Hart, took the stand in his own defence, and court heard or watched interviews three of the others _ McLeod, Formenton and Dube — gave police in 2018. People accused of crimes are not required to testify, nor is the defence required to call any evidence, as it is up to the Crown to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In McLeod's 2018 interview with police, he told a detective that he recorded one of the videos because he was 'just kind of worried something like this might happen.' On the stand, Hart testified that consent videos aren't unusual for professional athletes. Gilbert, the University of Ottawa law professor, said Canada in general still has work to do in educating young people about consent, especially in sports. She's involved in efforts to teach youth about consent through school programming, but said professional hockey in particular is behind on enacting policies to address the issue. Consent should be 'enthusiastic, affirmative, ongoing, coherent' — yes means yes, said Gilbert. 'I think people don't understand that that's actually what the law requires. And so if you know that, if you think about that as the way that we should approach consent, then I think it's easier to understand why those videos don't mean much.' 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Edmonton Journal
2 hours ago
- Edmonton Journal
Hockey Canada's reckoning was heralded three years ago. Instead, its crisis mushroomed
Article content Former executives told a Parliamentary committee in October 2022 that they weren't sure how many of the players on that 2018 World Junior team had even spoken to the investigator they had hired. After the 2022 lawsuit, Hockey Canada swiftly reached a settlement with E.M., without involving its own insurers or even informing the alleged assailants of the allegations against them. While it looked to the outside world like Hockey Canada had tried to make the story go away quietly, former executives said that they believed the young woman had 'suffered harm' in 2018 and that a quick resolution was in her best interests. Article content But the pattern of a team learning about sexual allegations involving players and looking the other way is a familiar one to anyone who follows sports. Article content Kobe Bryant, the late basketball legend, was accused in 2003 of raping a teenage hotel employee in Colorado. Criminal charges were filed, but later dropped when the alleged victim, whose identity had been leaked, refused to participate in a trial. A civil suit against Bryant was settled, but the 18-time All-Star was never disciplined by the NBA or the Los Angeles Lakers. Former NBA commissioner David Stern said at the time that the league would withhold punishment pending the resolution of the criminal case, and Bryant, then 26 years old, travelled from Lakers games to Colorado to attend court during the 2003 NBA season. Article content Article content Article content DeShaun Watson, the former All-Pro quarterback with the Houston Texans, was suspended for 11 games in 2022 and fined US$5 million (after the NFL and NFLPA reached an agreement) after more than two dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct during massage sessions. The Texans decided to trade him, and after interest from multiple teams, sent him to the Cleveland Browns for a haul of draft picks. The Browns quickly gave him a contract for five years and US$230 million, the largest guaranteed contract in NFL history at the time. Article content Last month, the NFL suspended former Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker for 10 games after 16 massage therapists accused him of improper behaviour during sessions that took place between 2012 and 2016. He denies wrongdoing, and when the Ravens released him in May, with an NFL investigation ongoing, general manager Eric DeCosta said it was a 'tough decision' and thanked him for his contributions to the team. He did not mention the allegations. Article content Article content And earlier this month, police in London, England, announced sexual assault charges against Thomas Partey, formerly a midfielder for Arsenal in the Premier League, involving three alleged victims. Partey was first arrested in 2022, but his name was not made public because U.K. laws prohibit the identification of someone who has not been criminally charged. Arsenal, however, knew of the allegations, through multiple arrests, and he played more than 100 matches for the club until his contract expired at the end of June. Partey denies the allegations. Arsenal has said it will not comment on the case because it is before the courts. Article content The tendency towards a hands-off approach can even be the case when the athlete is an alleged victim. In the spring of 2021, a former member of the Chicago Blackhawks sued the team over allegations that it had failed to properly respond when alerted to an alleged sexual assault perpetrated by a former assistant coach in 2010. A team-ordered investigation found that the Blackhawks let the coach resign after the season concluded, though he took part in Stanley Cup celebrations, otherwise the complaint was ignored. (The former coach was later convicted of sexual assault related to a high-school coaching job.) General manager Stan Bowman resigned, and Joel Quenneville, who was Chicago's head coach in 2010 but was coaching the Florida Panthers in 2021, also resigned after a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.
Winnipeg Free Press
5 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Videos in hockey players' trial highlight misconceptions about consent: law experts
As five former Canadian world junior hockey players await a ruling in their sexual assault trial, legal experts say videos shown in court of the complainant saying she was OK with what had happened highlight a broader misunderstanding of consent and sexual assault law in Canada. Two cellphone videos in which the woman says she's 'OK with this' and that 'it was all consensual' were presented as evidence during the trial of Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote. All five men have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault after an encounter in a London, Ont., hotel room in the early morning hours of June 19, 2018. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is expected to deliver her ruling on Thursday in the case that saw consent emerge as a central issue. Prosecutors have argued the complainant did not voluntarily agree to the sexual acts that took place, nor did the players take reasonable steps to confirm her consent. The Crown has dismissed the videos taken of the woman that night as 'token lip service box checking,' arguing she felt she had no choice but to go along when a group of men she didn't know started asking her to do things inside the hotel room. Defence lawyers, meanwhile, repeatedly challenged the complainant's credibility and reliability as a witness, arguing she was an active participant in the sexual activity and made up the allegations because she didn't want to take responsibility for her choices that night. Video statements such as the short clips shown in this trial aren't necessarily evidence of consent, said University of Ottawa law professor Daphne Gilbert. 'Legally speaking, they have very little relevance because consent has to be ongoing and contemporaneous with the sexual activity and you have to be consenting to every single thing that is happening to you,' said Gilbert, who researches sexual violence and abuse in Canadian sports. 'There's no such thing as advance consent. And there's no thing as after-the-fact consent, either. So just because you say, 'Yeah, it was all consensual' doesn't mean that makes it so.' Lisa Dufraimont, a law professor at York University, said such videos could also be seen as hearsay because they don't contain statements made under oath in court. 'If the complainant got on the stand at the trial and testified that they consented at the time, that would be evidence that they consented at the time,' said Dufraimont, whose research focuses on evidence issues in sexual assault cases. But she said the videos could be used for other legal arguments, including those that may rely on a description of how a defendant or complainant was acting at the time. 'It may be that if the video is taken close in time to the alleged sexual assault, that the video shows something about the person's level of intoxication or their emotional state, which may or may not be consistent with what they later reported their emotional state was at the time,' said Dufraimont. During the trial, the Crown argued that the videos shown in court weren't proof that the complainant voluntarily agreed to what had taken place. 'The recording of that video is not getting her consent to anything. Everything's already happened,' prosecutor Meaghan Cunningham said about the video in which the woman said it was 'all consensual,' adding that consent must be communicated for each specific act at the time it takes place. Only one of the accused, Hart, took the stand in his own defence, and court heard or watched interviews three of the others — McLeod, Formenton and Dube — gave police in 2018. People accused of crimes are not required to testify, nor is the defence required to call any evidence, as it is up to the Crown to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In McLeod's 2018 interview with police, he told a detective that he recorded one of the videos because he was 'just kind of worried something like this might happen.' Thursdays Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter. On the stand, Hart testified that consent videos aren't unusual for professional athletes. Gilbert, the University of Ottawa law professor, said Canada in general still has work to do in educating young people about consent, especially in sports. She's involved in efforts to teach youth about consent through school programming, but said professional hockey in particular is behind on enacting policies to address the issue. Consent should be 'enthusiastic, affirmative, ongoing, coherent' — yes means yes, said Gilbert. 'I think people don't understand that that's actually what the law requires. And so if you know that, if you think about that as the way that we should approach consent, then I think it's easier to understand why those videos don't mean much.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.
