Rich Pereira, a bartender at The Scot’s Corner, says when coverage of the trial comes on TV in the bar it always sparks conversation among patrons.Nicole Osborne/The Globe and Mail
Rich Pereira can’t help but stay up to date with what’s happening inside the nearby courthouse in London, Ont.
The bartender at The Scot’s Corner, a dimly lit pub a few blocks away, says he’s constantly bombarded by sports broadcast on multiple TVs affixed to walls throughout the bar. Whenever the hosts flick to the news, coverage of the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial is inevitably a main feature.
“You see them talking from the courthouse and you’re like, ‘Wait, that’s down the street,’” he said.
Since late April, five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team have been on trial for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room in downtown London in June, 2018. The alleged events took place following a night of drinking and dancing at a local bar after a Hockey Canada celebration of their championship win.
The men – Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote – have all pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Pereira grew up in London. He describes the local junior hockey team, the London Knights, as an “epicentre” of the town, emphasizing the importance of the sport to locals.
When coverage of the trial comes on TV, he said the allegations always spark conversation among patrons at the bar. Mr. Pereira said he wishes he was more surprised upon learning of the assault that allegedly took place nearby. “But it’s London, we’re a hockey town.”
Knowledge of the sexual assault trial happening in their backyard was varied among locals on Friday, as news broke that the judge had dismissed a jury for the second time. The case is now proceeding by judge alone.
Mike Angelstad, a back-of-house worker at The Church Key Bistro-Pub, just around the corner from The Scot’s Corner, said many locals, including himself, were upset to learn of the allegations.
But it’s not a shock to him that the alleged events occurred in London, with its strong hockey culture and night life.
“We have this great bar scene in London that attracts young men, young women, and unfortunately, you mix those two with alcohol and sometimes things don’t happen the way you think they should,” he said.
Chatting with others around town, Mr. Angelstad said opinions are mixed on what the outcome of the trial should be.
“I think most of them are thinking about the woman, E.M., and expressing support for her. But I’ve also talked to a couple of people who still think Hockey Canada is on trial, and that it’s not necessarily fair.”
A short walk away from the pubs, Clara Romano works as a barista at Commonwealth Coffee. Outside of work, she studies arts and humanities at Western University, where posters about what defines sexual consent plaster the back of stall doors in women’s washrooms across campus.
She said she’s had a lot of conversations about the trial with her female friends at university. Videos about it also often pop up on her TikTok.
Down the street from the courthouse, Joelle Fugere, a student at Fanshawe College, works as a restaurant hostess at Moxies. She said she also talks about the case with her peers, including her best friend who is a criminology student at Western.
She said it was “a little scary” that the trial was going on mere steps away, and it was unnerving that the alleged incident being scrutinized by the court took place at a local hotel, the Delta Armoury, where she stayed only a few months ago.
Emily Konrad, a bartender at the London Ale House, which is next door to Scot’s, said he hasn’t been paying much attention to the trial. Whatever the outcome is, she said she hopes it doesn’t make it harder for other women to come forward in the future.
“If it’s true that it shouldn’t have happened, then you feel obviously horrible for the girl,” she said.
The fact that the trial and the events it is probing unfolded in her hometown reflects concerns she has about the city.
“I do feel like London is just getting worse and worse,” she said, adding that allegations of sexual assault seem to be becoming more prevalent.
James Wright, a business student at Western, said he’s relieved that the case is being heard in court.
As someone who’s been playing hockey since he was young, he said it was disappointing to see how Hockey Canada handled the scandal.
An initial police investigation into the incident was closed without charges in 2019, but three years later, TSN reported that Hockey Canada had quietly settled a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed by the woman relating to that night without the players’ knowledge. A Globe and Mail investigation then revealed the existence of the National Equity Fund, a special multimillion-dollar fund built through player registration fees that Hockey Canada has used to settle sexual-assault complaints.
Mr. Wright said he hopes the attention being paid to this trial might help the sport shift away from its “old boys club” mentality.
Within his intramural hockey team, Mr. Wright’s friends are also paying attention to the case. Ben Whalen, a fellow Western student and team member, said updates about the case are often sent throughout the team’s group chat.
“We’re following it for sure.”