In a still from Code of Misconduct, a goalie waits for teammates to take the ice for a pickup game in London, Ont.URBANIA/Supplied
When the cop cried, I cried, too.
I was watching the new documentary Code of Misconduct, about the 2025 criminal trial of the London Five, the former world junior hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a woman (known only as E.M.) in a London, Ont., hotel room in June, 2018.
Many thought the case would be a referendum on hockey culture itself. Instead, Justice Maria Carroccia ruled that E.M.’s testimony was not “credible or reliable.” All five players – Michael McLeod, Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton and Carter Hart – were acquitted and reinstated into pro hockey, and the culture skated away unchanged.
That’s what makes Detective Lyndsey Ryan choke up. The lead investigator who reopened E.M.’s case after an initial 2018 investigation was hastily closed is a stoic but savvy presence in the documentary.
Hockey Canada trial is over, but conversations about the sport’s culture continue
She’d amassed a mountain of evidence, some of which the first investigation ignored: video footage from the bar where E.M. met and decided to accompany McLeod back to his hotel for consensual sex. The text he sent afterward to 18 of his teammates, “Who wants to be in a 3-way?” The players’ conflicting accounts of what happened when 10 of them came knocking. She believed E.M., and the verdict clearly crushed her. “I wanted to get her the right answer,” she says, swatting away tears.
While filming that moment, Sébastien Trahan, the documentary’s Quebec-based director (It’s not Funny Anymore: Vice to Proud Boys), cried with her, he told me in a recent video interview. And when Code of Misconduct has its world premiere in Toronto on April 26 and 27 at the Hot Docs festival – followed by a run on Super Channel and on demand beginning May 8 – I suspect others will as well.
Trahan will attend those Hot Docs screenings alongside Rick Westhead, a guiding figure in the film, who was also on my video call. An investigative sports journalist, a senior correspondent with TSN and the author of the 2025 book We Breed Lions: Confronting Canada’s Troubled Hockey Culture, Westhead broke the story of E.M.’s civil lawsuit, which inspired Ryan to reopen the case.
The documentary shows Rick Westhead recording a post-verdict press conference outside the London courthouse last year.URBANIA/Supplied
E.M. declined to appear in the film, but her attorneys do, along with former players, coaches and other reporters who covered the trial – whose twists we experience in real time. It adds up to a compelling picture of how hockey culture shapes its players, how beloved national institutions close ranks when there’s money at stake and how old-school journalism can still speak truth to power.
“If we want to solve a problem in our culture, we have to shine a light on it,” Trahan says. “Only moles like darkness.”
“Very few people who are sexually assaulted come forward,” Westhead adds. “This story shows some reasons why.”
Allegations of sexual abuse arise in every facet of society, of course: Jeffrey Epstein, Harvey Weinstein, politicians, artists, chefs, other amateur and professional sports. But in Canada, where hockey is practically the national religion, its strutting culture seems stubbornly resistant to change. “Not a week has gone by in the last five years that someone hasn’t come to me with credible tips on stories like E.M.’s,” Westhead says.
Glancing at his notes, he reads out a half-dozen instances within the past year of former hockey players facing charges, including ex-Canucks Ryan Kesler and Willie Mitchell, adding, “And I have 10 other examples here. So yeah, there are issues all over the place, but there is a big issue in hockey.”
Some hockey fans don’t thank him for his reporting. During the London Five trial, a man showed up at the courthouse in a T-shirt printed with Westhead’s photo and a foul epithet, and followed him around hollering threats. Westhead’s socials are flooded with comments he calls “too disgusting to even show to you.” But he persists because, “I think it will only make us better as a country if we ask, ‘How did we get here? Why is this happening? What can we do about it?’”
To that end, Trahan includes in the film stories of people who are effecting change in hockey culture, including Catherine Laroche, a sexual assault survivor who teaches players and teams about awareness and accountability.
“We have to stop being mad at the players. We have to find the root, which is all the pressure these young men are under,” she says in a separate video call. “We dehumanize them by asking them to ignore their injuries, repress their emotions, to be machines. So I try to teach them ways other than alcohol or sex to handle the pressure, and how to talk to each other.
“The players I work with, from midget hockey to NHL, want things to change,” she continues. “It’s the people above them who don’t want it – the owners, the organizations. If we want to create lasting change, we have to work together.”
In Code of Misconduct, Catherine Laroche is seen leading a workshop for young hockey players on self-esteem, performance anxiety and harmful behaviours.URBANIA/Supplied
When the London Five verdict came down, Trahan’s heart sank, for E.M., for all sexual assault victims and, on a more personal level, for his documentary.
“I believe in the idea of the criminal justice system, and my biggest fear is that this film might discourage other women to come forward,” he says. “So we try to show how coming forward can be empowering no matter the verdict. That’s why I was really touched when Lyndsey Ryan cried. Because a lot of people in the system do work hard to help victims.”
“This is a horrible story,” Westhead says, “but it was good to have our faith reaffirmed that these stories matter.”
As the film ends, many of its subjects look into the camera and speak directly to E.M., thanking her for her bravery. “I did that to ask something of viewers: ‘Now it’s your responsibility to talk about this,’” Trahan says. “Talking is the only way a culture changes. I use all the time the seatbelt example. When I was a kid, we never wore them. Now it’s not possible to not use them. A lot of things can change in society if we talk about them.
“But change isn’t one a-ha moment,” he concludes. “Change needs hard, steady work. I hope this documentary is one stone in that wall.”