Former NHL players Cal Foote, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Michael McLeod and Carter Hart arrive at the courthouse in London, Ont., on April 23.The Globe and Mail/The Canadian Press
The sexual assault case against five former world junior hockey players will challenge the public’s understanding of what constitutes the offence, Crown attorney Heather Donkers said at the start of the trial in London, Ont., Monday.
In her opening statement, Ms. Donkers told the jury, “this is a case about consent – and, equally, about what is not consent.”
She said the Crown’s anticipated evidence in the case “may not match up with expectations you have about what a sexual assault is or looks like.”
Justice Maria Carroccia instructed the jury, which was selected on Friday, to keep an open mind.
“Jurors must decide cases based on evidence,” the judge told them. She said the Crown’s opening remarks are not to be considered evidence.
Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton are each accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a hotel room after the Hockey Canada fundraising gala in June, 2018. Mr. McLeod also faces a second charge of being a party to sexual assault.
Each player has pleaded not guilty.
The case has served as a reckoning for Canada’s beloved game.
During Monday’s hearing, jurors were shown some photos and videos recorded on June 18, 2018, just hours before the alleged sexual assaults occurred. The evidence included a social media post from Hockey Canada featuring a photo of that year’s winning world junior team showing off their new championship rings in London. The caption read: “Canada’s golden boys.”
Ms. Donkers told the court that the five accused were among the hockey players celebrating that evening at Jack’s, a bar in London.
The bar was packed that night, with young people drinking, dancing and playing pool, according to security-camera footage played in court.
The footage shows a 20-year-old woman, known publicly as E.M., arriving at Jack’s with a female friend at about 11 p.m. E.M. is the complainant in the case. Her identity is protected by a publication ban. A large group of young men, including some of the accused, can be seen arriving at around 11:30 p.m.
Ms. Donkers said the Crown’s case will centre on what happened at the bar and in a nearby hotel room.
The prosecutor said E.M. left the bar with Mr. McLeod and went to his hotel room, where they had consensual sex.
But Ms. Donkers said he then allegedly texted his teammates in a group chat and asked: “Who wants to be in a three-way quick?”
She told the jury that, “before long, more and more men began arriving in room 209.” She added that at one point “there were up to 10 men inside the standard-sized hotel room.“
The five accused are charged with engaging in sexual activities that E.M. did not consent to. “She was going along with what the men in the room wanted and what she felt they expected of her,” Ms. Donkers said.
The evidence in the case will not be that E.M. said no or physically resisted, Ms. Donkers said. However, the Crown will seek to prove that the woman was coaxed and compelled to stay in the room and that she felt she could not leave.
E.M. will testify that “she was in this hotel room, at age 20, intoxicated,” Ms. Donkers said. She alleged that the defendants “took no steps to ensure there was affirmative consent when they touched her.”
“Instead, they just did what they wanted,” the prosecutor said.
The trial is scheduled to run as long as eight weeks and could include testimony from a number of NHL players – men who were also members of the 2018 world junior team.
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. Hockey Canada entered the settlement without the players’ knowledge or involvement. 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 had been using to settle sexual-assault lawsuits.
Amid national uproar about the case, London police reopened their investigation in the summer of 2022.
At the time of their arrests in January, 2024, all five of the accused were playing professional hockey.
Mr. Dubé was a member of the Calgary Flames, Mr. Hart was with the Philadelphia Flyers, and Mr. McLeod and Mr. Foote were playing for the New Jersey Devils. Mr. Formenton, who had previously been a member of the Ottawa Senators, was playing for the Swiss club HC Ambri-Piotta.