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CBC
24-07-2025
- CBC
Hockey Canada trial judge: ‘I do not find the evidence of E.M. credible or reliable'N
Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said she did not find the evidence of complainant E.M. 'to be credible or reliable' in the sexual assault trial of five former Team Canada world junior hockey players. E.M.'s full name is protected by a publication ban.
CBC
24-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Justice begins delivering decisions in Hockey Canada sexual assault trial
Judge to deliver decisions in Hockey Canada sexual assault trial Started 1 hour ago Live Justice Maria Carroccia is expected to deliver her decisions in the world junior hockey sexual assault trial — a case that dates back to 2018 and played out over eight weeks in London, Ont., court. Five ex-players are charged with sexually assaulting a woman, known as E.M. due to a standard publication ban, in a hotel room. (WARNING: This livestream references sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone impacted by it.) The Latest Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia is delivering her decisions in the London sexual assault trial of five former players with Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team. The accused — Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote — all pleaded not guilty. The complainant, E.M., whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, testified over nine days during the trial WARNING: Court proceedings include details of alleged sexual assault and might affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected. Updates July 24 9 minutes ago Court is delayed Kate Dubinski There is so much interest in this case that the court has had to postpone starting at 10 a.m. It's now trying to get a second overflow room set up for people who showed up to listen to Carroccia's decisions. The main courtroom has about 50 spectators inside. (I assume family members of the accused men, because that's who was let in first). Of those 50, about 15 are members of the media. Many media members were not able to get a seat, which is why the court is trying to set up a second overflow room. There are already about 150 people in the first overflow room, which is at capacity. 29 minutes ago Kate Dubinski The accused men and their families, along with their lawyers, are now making their way into the courtroom. They were given green cue cards to show the court staff to enter the courtroom first. Each man has come with family members that were present throughout the trial, plus others. Outside the courtroom on the 14th floor, there's a packed lineup of media as well as some members of the public who are hoping to get in. Media will be let in after family, and then the public. At least two of the men, Hart and Dubé, shook hands with a man who has been here every day of the trial. The man has an assistance dog with him and is a men's rights advocate. He was accused of recording some of the proceedings with his Apple Ray Ban glasses, but an investigation cleared him. 1 hour ago Karen Pauls There has also been much discussion and debate about two consent videos McLeod recorded towards the end of the night in question in June 2018. In the videos, McLeod asks E.M. if she is OK with what is happening or consented to the acts that had already happened in the hotel room. University of Manitoba law professor Brandon Trask said 'consent videos after the fact are almost useless' under the law as it stands. Canada has affirmative consent laws, meaning consent must be active and ongoing throughout each specific sexual act as it's taking place. It cannot be granted ahead of time or retroactively. 'The video afterwards is, generally speaking, not going to be given much, if any, weight, in large part because there are all sorts of questions about, 'Were there factors involved? Was there undue pressure being placed [on her]? Things that weren't caught on video?' Trask said. 1 hour ago Karen Pauls Daphne Gilbert, a professor of criminal, constitutional and advanced sexual assault law at the University of Ottawa, says it's possible the judge will find E.M. did not consent, but that some or all of the five accused had an honest mistaken belief that she did. In that defence, the accused must have taken reasonable steps to confirm the complainant's consent, something the Crown argues the players did not do. 'The Supreme Court of Canada has been very clear that the reasonable steps requirement will change depending on the context of the sexual activity,' said Gilbert, who is covering this case in four lectures this coming fall. She said strangers, for example, need to take extra steps to confirm consent. The same goes for situations where intoxication is a factor. Gilbert is hoping Carroccia's decision clarifies what constitutes a 'reasonable step' in situations like E.M.'s, which involved both strangers and alcohol. 'That's the main legal question that I'm looking for,' Gilbert said. The professor said she hopes the judge uses 'strong language' to condemn what happened in that hotel room that night, even if she finds it did not meet the very high legal bar of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. 1 hour ago Consent was at the centre of the Crown's case Rhianna Schmunk During the trial, the Crown argued E.M. did not voluntarily consent to any of the specific sexual activity in question. Prosecutors acknowledged E.M. might have been compliant, or even appearing eager to engage in sexual activity, but told the court E.M. — who was naked, drunk and in a room full of men she did not know — was responding that way because she was afraid. They argued the men should have known the balance of power was in their favour. Defence lawyers said it was E.M. who demanded the group sex and that she only made up the sexual assault allegations after the fact to save face with her boyfriend, friends and family. They contended their clients could not have known she didn't consent because she was participating enthusiastically, with multiple players telling the court she went so far as to mock them if they did not take her up on her offer. In the case, the Crown has the burden to meet the high legal bar of proving their case beyond a reasonable doubt. 1 hour ago Karen Pauls A court staff member just came out of the main courtroom to ask if any family or friends are waiting to get in. They have green passes and will get priority access to limited space. No one came forward. The lobby outside the courtroom is packed and we've heard the overflow courtroom is also filling up. The courtroom doors won't officially open till 9:45 a.m. ET. 1 hour ago Katie Nicholson The area outside the main courtroom is packed with journalists and members of the public waiting to get inside. They will first have to make space for friends and family of the accused. There is also an overflow courtroom that will likely be very busy. I talked to one father who says he is here because he has daughters and they have been talking a lot about the trial and issue of consent. He said he really wants to see for himself how this trial ends and the reasoning behind the decisions. 1 hour ago Kate Dubinski Close to 100 supporters of E.M. are outside the courthouse holding signs and chanting. They are from sexual assault support centres around Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Midland, Guelph and North Bay. The chanting gets louder as the accused men and their lawyers make their way into court. There are also two men here shouting their support for the accused. As Formenton made his way into the courthouse, one of the men shouted: 'Stay strong.' The men are also yelling 'not guilty' over the shouts of supporters, who are saying that they want justice. 2 hours ago There's intense interest in today's decision Kate Dubinski I'm at the courthouse today in London, Ont., and I'll be reporting from the courtroom. There are a lot of media here this morning, as well as interested members of the public. In fact, the lineup to get into the courthouse started just after 6 a.m. ET. The courthouse doesn't even open until 8:30 a.m. When it does open, every person waiting will have to clear security, which includes a bag X-ray and metal detector. There are also dozens of supporters of E.M. here from sexual assault centres across Ontario. They are shouting: 'What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.'
CBC
23-07-2025
- Sport
- CBC
Judge to deliver Hockey Canada trial decision Thursday. Here's what to expect.
Justice Maria Carroccia is set to deliver the decision in the world junior hockey sexual assault trial. Five former players are on trial for the alleged sexual assault of a woman at a London, Ont., hotel in June 2018.
Globe and Mail
16-06-2025
- Globe and Mail
Consent videos not viable as evidence in court, experts say after Hockey Canada trial
'You're okay with this?' a male voice off-camera asks the woman, filmed from the neck up. 'I'm okay with this,' she replies in the six-second video, shot around 3 a.m. on June 19, 2018. An hour later, a second video shows the woman in a hotel room, shielding herself with a towel. 'Are you recording me?' she asks. 'Okay, good. It was all consensual.' The two videos were submitted as evidence in the trial of five former Canadian world junior hockey players charged with sexually assaulting the woman in the clips, who is known publicly as E.M. because her identity is protected by a publication ban. All five players have pleaded not guilty. E.M. testified that she didn't remember either video being shot, but that she felt intimidated and would have said what the players were coaxing her to say. A Crown attorney in the case argued that the players would have recorded the videos only if they thought there was a possibility that E.M. could later say the sexual interactions weren't consensual. Carter Hart, one of the accused players, pushed back against this suggestion during cross-examination, saying that consent videos are common among professional athletes. Consent videos are recordings usually taken before, during or after a sexual interaction as a means of documenting consent to pre-empt false accusations. Under Canadian law, these videos don't hold up as proof of consent, which needs to be continuing, voluntary and can be revoked at any time. Send us your questions about the Hockey Canada trial 'Because of the strong protections we have courtesy of the Supreme Court around sexual encounters, you're not required to say, 'No, no, stop,'' says Daphne Gilbert, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. 'So having on video a person who's seemingly participating in a sexual activity and not protesting, screaming, pushing the person off doesn't indicate consent,' she says. 'That's not enough to be consent in law.' Yet since the early 2000s, conversations around the necessity of consent videos and other forms of 'consent contracts' have circulated in online spaces, many of which are dominated by young men. Later, the videos gained wider traction as a misguided takeaway from the #MeToo movement. Despite the fact that false sexual-assault allegations are the minority, pick-up artists, dating coaches and men's rights influencers have touted the videos as 'rape insurance' to protect young men. Opinion: To really change the culture around sexual violence, consent can't be taught as a technicality The concept of consent contracts first emerged in the early 2000s, in the aftermath of the felony sexual-assault charges against Kobe Bryant. Enterprising lawyers started drafting 'pre-sex agreement forms' marketed toward professional athletes who feared they could face similar accusations. Mr. Bryant and the plaintiff settled in a civil suit and the criminal charges were later dropped, but the case left a legacy of documenting consent among athletes. Around the same time, comedian Dave Chappelle riffed on the concept, releasing a sketch in which he asks a prospective partner, played by Rashida Jones, to sign a lengthy contract outlining exactly which sexual activities are approved. A decade later, when the Obama administration provided guidance to colleges on preventing and responding to sexual violence, which included introducing policies around affirmative consent, obtaining consent over video or text became a serious option. 'It was considered threatening enough to a lot of misogynists that the idea of the consent video really took off,' says Nicole Bedera, an American sociologist who researches sexual violence. 'The way people talked about it was 'rape insurance,' now I can't possibly be accused of sexual assault because I have this get-out-of-jail-free card, literally.' ' Ms. Bedera says the concept spread on the Reddit community r/theredpill, one of the original building blocks of the manosphere, the network of blogs, podcasts and influencers promoting misogynist beliefs. On other subreddits about dating and relationships, users suggested that men establish a digital footprint, such as consent videos or text messages with a partner. Canadian YouTuber Jack Densmore, who posted videos from university parties and coached men on how to pick up women, preached that obtaining a consent video was a critical step in hook-ups. Last month, Mr. Densmore was sentenced to three years in prison for sexually assaulting a McMaster University student in 2020. Evidence included a video taken by Mr. Densmore during the assault without the woman's consent, which he said proved the interaction was consensual. 'The question that always follows these videos is 'Why did you feel the need to make one? Why would you make a video if everything's going to go the way you describe?'' says Ms. Bedera. In the Hockey Canada case, lawyers representing the hockey players initially sent the videos to The Globe before the trial began, arguing that the footage showed the sexual contact was consensual and that E.M. was not fearful, intimidated or intoxicated as she claimed. The Crown argued in the trial that the videos were evidence that the players were unsure if the interactions were fully consensual. 'I think the people who take these videos don't understand what consent truly means in sexual activity,' said Ms. Gilbert, the law professor. 'They sort of feel like they've got themselves covered, but in law there's no significance to those videos.' Jonathan Reed, the director of programs at Next Gen Men, a non-profit focused on teaching young men about healthy masculinity, says the teenagers he works with often feel fearful when it comes to navigating intimacy. 'There's an increased awareness of the prevalence of sexual violence. There's also this fear about cancel culture and the real consequences of 'getting it wrong,' ' says Mr. Reed. 'They know they're not supposed to be toxic, but they also know they're expected to be stereotypically masculine if they're going to be taken seriously by the girls that they're interested in.' In the wake of #MeToo, the language around consent has become more mainstream, but young men are still struggling to grasp how to initiate these conversations. To find support or validation, young men are increasingly turning to YouTube, podcasts and dating-coach influencers for advice. Those online spaces, however, can push harmful views. Last year, researchers at Dublin City University found that male users are bombarded with anti-feminist and male-supremacist content on TikTok and YouTube Shorts, whether or not they sought out that content. 'That online content around sexuality … it's not necessarily talking about healthy consensual relationships," said Stafford Perry of the Calgary-based group WiseGuyz, which provides a space for young men to have conversations about sex and relationships. 'If young men are turning to the internet, whether that's pornography or Instagram, it's not necessarily about supporting them to have healthy relationships,' he says. YouTubers have dissected and offered commentary on the trial, some of which cast doubt on E.M.'s testimony, and debate the prevalence of false accusations. In the programs he facilitates with young men, Mr. Reed instead offers this advice. 'If you're feeling so unpracticed or intoxicated that you might get it wrong, or you have such a lack of trust within your relationship with that person that you can't be sure how things will go the next day after you've been sexually intimate, then rather than taking a video, you should slow down and work towards reciprocal trust.'
National Post
13-06-2025
- Sport
- National Post
Hockey Canada trial: Fear, not consent, drove woman's actions, Crown says
The 'myth of the ideal victim,' the Crown says, is at the heart of the Team Canada 2018 world junior hockey sexual assault trial. Article content And so is 'why some people feel that victims aren't treated fairly in the criminal justice system,' said Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham during her closing argument at the high-profile Superior Court trial. Article content Article content Cunningham, on the second day of her closing argument, took aim Thursday at the criticisms from the defence teams of five teammates from the gold medal team, that the 27-year-old woman presented herself during her nine days of evidence as someone with an agenda who ultimately can't be believed. Article content 'She can't win,' Cunningham said. Article content Article content 'She's either too emotional – she's combative. If she's not emotional enough, she's rehearsed. If she refuses to agree with suggestions, she's combative and difficult. But if she does agree, she doesn't know her own mind. If she uses the same language at multiple points, it's contrived, but if she uses different language, she's inconsistent.' Article content Cunningham said this strategy by the defence 'finds its roots … in this myth of the ideal victim, that there is a right way for someone to look or sound when they're describing sexual assault, that there's a correct way or a good way for a real victim to testify.' She argued the complainant, whose identity is protected by a court order, has been consistent in her answers and urged Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia to find the woman forthright and truthful. Article content The five players – Michael McLeod, 27, Carter Hart, 26, Dillon Dube, 26, Cal Foote, 26, and Alex Formenton, 25 – all members of the 2018 championship team who went on to professional careers, have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault . McLeod also has pleaded not guilty to a second sexual assault count for being a party to an offence. Article content Article content They were charged in early 2023 after London police reopened its investigation into what occurred in Room 209 of the Delta Armouries hotel in London on June 19, 2018, during a Hockey Canada gala and golf tournament. Article content The woman, then 20, met McLeod at Jack's bar on Richmond Row and returned to the hotel with him for consensual sex. She testified she was drunk and was shocked, after the sexual encounter with McLeod, when several teammates assembled in his room, where she says she was sexually abused and assaulted without her consent. Article content She said she was drunk and had a trauma response that caused her to separate her mind from her body to cope with the sexual demands of the players. Article content The defence contends the woman was the aggressor who begged and taunted them for sexual activity. Some players took advantage of her offers.
