Hanes: Sexual assault trials involving hockey players raise questions about locker-room bro culture

Montreal Gazette

5 days ago

Before E.M.'s sexual encounter with five members of Canada's 2018 gold-medal-winning world junior hockey team in Room 209 of the Delta Armouries Hotel in London, Ont., a 15-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by three players in her bedroom back in 2016, including two teammates from the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
And after London police initially closed their investigation into the after-party of the world junior team's gala but before E.M.'s lawsuit against Hockey Canada came to light, a 17-year-old was sexually assaulted by two members of the championship-winning Victoriaville Tigres in 2021.
The three sexual assault cases have many troubling similarities but drastically different outcomes.
In the Drummondville case, two of the players — minors during the sexual assault — pleaded guilty in youth court. And Noah Corson, the son of former Montreal Canadien Shayne Corson, was found guilty last year after a trial. He was sentenced in May to two years less a day behind bars, although he is appealing his conviction.
In the case involving the Victoriaville players, Nicolas Daigle and Massimo Siciliano pleaded guilty to sexual assault, but have appealed their sentences.
And as everyone knows, the heavily publicized trial in London ended in acquittals last week for the five former world junior players: Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote.
So one case can no longer be called a sexual assault.
One victim was not believed.
The complainants in the Drummondville and Victoriaville cases were saluted for their courage and determination to encourage other sexual assault survivors to speak up and come forward.
But E.M. was eviscerated by Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia, who found her neither 'credible' nor 'reliable,' due to inconsistencies in her testimony about such matters as her weight, how drunk she was that night and her propensity for describing her recollections as 'my' truth, rather than 'the' truth. Her gruelling experience — including nine days on the witness stand and being cross-examined by five defence lawyers, then being so thoroughly discredited — is likely to deter victims from seeking justice, even in the #MeToo era.
This may be the only conclusion the judge could reach given the evidence without breaching the inviolable principles on which the criminal justice system is based — innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
But these three cases have many circumstances and much conduct in common that warrants deeper examination.
All involved young men at the top of their game and on the cusp of promising careers — world junior champs, Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League winners, draft picks. All arose when a woman found herself alone in a room with multiple members of the same team and emerged feeling used, wronged and exploited. Two cases were linked to victory celebrations.
The facts, which have now been tested in a court of law and widely publicized, resulted in starkly different verdicts. But they all raise serious questions about locker-room bro culture, and the sense of entitlement cultivated in elite-level hockey players and other athletes.
Even if the actions of the five world junior teammates didn't meet the court's high benchmark for a crime, it doesn't mean that no harm was done or that what happened was OK. As the NHL itself said in responding to the acquittals: the 'behaviour at issue was unacceptable.'
The crux of the London trial was whether E.M. consented to all the sexual activities that occurred once she and one player left a bar where members of the world junior hockey team had been partying. She willingly had intercourse with McLeod. But she said she was surprised when several other men arrived later and that she didn't agree to sex acts with his teammates.
In police statements, text messages after the fact, as well as the insinuations of the defence during cross-examination, E.M. was portrayed as the instigator who egged the men on.
She testified she felt she had no choice but to comply, adopting a 'porn star' persona to cope.
But it wasn't just her word against his; it was her word against theirs.
Not surprisingly, there was ample reasonable doubt to rule out guilt. But Carroccia went further, ultimately deciding that E.M. did, in fact, consent, and that her participation in the sex was not 'vitiated' by fear.
As with the world junior team scandal, charges in the Drummondville case were only laid years after the fact.
In 2016, Corson, then 18, and two 17-year-old players met a 15-year-old girl in a restaurant and later went back to her home. Only one of them had known the teen beforehand.
The young woman testified that she clearly stated she did not want to engage in sex. But at his trial, Corson claimed she was flirtatious and an enthusiastic participant.
'We all asked ourselves if we should have a new experience,' he said. 'We asked (the complainant) if we could all sleep together. She said 'Yes, go!''
Corson described her during the group relations that followed as 'excited.'
'She wanted to be there,' he said. 'She was the one that offered us condoms. She was the one that was making movements. Clearly she wanted it.'
One of the men, after pleading guilty, testified for the Crown. He said that while he was in the bedroom with the victim, Corson walked in, undressed, and penetrated her.
When they left, the younger player said she was crying and distressed. Then 17, he felt bad enough that he apologized.
This corroborating evidence probably helped Quebec Court Judge Paul Dunnigan accept the complainant's account.
The judge called out Corson for failing to make 'reasonable' efforts to find out her age, since she was just 15 at the time. He also offered a scathing indictment of locker-room mentality for shaping Corson's warped and degrading attitude toward women.
'The internal culture (of hockey) tainted his way of thinking. He had known popularity and success. We can assume he'd developed a certain sense of impunity, ' Dunnigan said upon sentencing in May.
In 2021, the Victoriaville Tigres were revelling in their President's Cup win when two members sexually assaulted a 17-year-old in their Lac-Beauport hotel room.
Daigle kissed the young woman in the parking lot. She departed, but he lured her back to the hotel via Instagram messages.
Daigle asked her if his friend could join them. She explicitly stated she was not interested in a threesome. But when she showed up at Daigle's room, his teammate, Siciliano, was there.
Feeling trapped, the teen was coerced into sex with both men. Daigle took a video of her with Siciliano without her knowledge. He then left her alone with Siciliano and went to show the footage to other teammates.
Siciliano and the 17-year-old had sex again, even though the victim told him she didn't want to.
The pair were sentenced to 32 and 30 months in prison after their guilty pleas. They did, however, appeal their penalty because they had been hoping for something more lenient. The Quebec Court of Appeal refused to reduce the sentences. Siciliano is now asking the Supreme Court of Canada to intervene.
These are three situations involving members of three different teams in three separate time periods — but they seem to show an all too familiar pattern.
McLeod sent his pals a message in a group chat inviting them to a '3-way, quick' in Room 209. Several showed up and sat around eating late-night snacks while E.M. was naked on a bedsheet spread on the floor. Some of them received oral sex and one took E.M. into the bathroom for intercourse.
Maybe no one contravened the law in the eyes of the judge, but they passed around a woman like an object, as if she existed solely for the roster's own entertainment. Is this how teams celebrate? Other players who were not charged but testified at the trial said they felt uncomfortable but simply left without voicing concern. This is the dark side of hockey, criminal or not.
And as much as Carroccia focused on the discrepancies in E.M.'s weight — she said she was 120 pounds, but her medical records show she was 138 pounds — she was still a woman alone in a room crowded with muscle-bound men who throw bodychecks for a living.
The women in the other cases, too, were surely no match physically for the hockey players who assaulted them.
Such size differences are no doubt intimidating, with or without explicit threats.
Hockey Canada didn't have much difficulty believing what was alleged when E.M. filed a $3-million lawsuit. The organization quickly settled without the Team Canada players' knowledge.
After the payout came to light, the Globe and Mail revealed Hockey Canada had a multimillion-dollar slush fund drawn from players' fees that was used to pay damages to victims of sexual abuse and assault. Unsavoury incidents were anticipated, even expected, it seems. And many were enraged that money from children and women was used to clean up or cover up elite prospects' messes.
There is a lot of talk in hockey about respect and accountability, but does it extend to women? Hockey moms, absolutely. Wives and girlfriends, most of the time.
What about the puck bunnies who sometimes orbit around up-and-coming hockey stars? Or the unsuspecting young women who happen to cross their paths when they're out exalting a victory? Can young men accustomed to adulation take no for an answer? Or are pretty girls just a prize to be conquered and shared whether they're consenting or not, like some hard-won trophy?
The London case didn't redefine the notion of consent. But it underscores that it remains a fuzzy concept for many, despite schools and sports organizations trying to teach the meaning of consent in the #MeToo era, either to protect the public, safeguard teams' assets or both.
More than 'no means no,' under the law consent must be active, freely given and continuous.
In the cases involving the Drummondville and Victoriaville players, the women's objections were ignored, showing much more work needs to be done.
McLeod made a video of E.M. offering her consent at the end of the wild night in 2018. It turned out to be important exculpatory evidence that the judge relied on to evaluate the complainant's credibility. But the fact McLeod saw fit to obtain such an insurance policy also suggests he knew enough about consent to be worried he and his teammates might run into trouble.
There's also a lot of talk in hockey about consequences. Carroccia told the accused men they were 'free to go' after reading her lengthy verdict.
But can they simply go back to the careers that abruptly ended with the criminal charges? The five remain suspended by the NHL, their lucrative futures hanging in the balance. The players' union contends they deserve another shot since there was no finding of guilt.
Will teams — and fans — eventually welcome them back to the fold with open arms?
The reckoning for McLeod, Hart, Formenton, Dubé and Foote may soon be over, but hockey's moment of truth still awaits.