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On Monday, London police will address the public for the first time since charging five members of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team with sexual assault in connection with a 2018 incident in which a young woman said she was sexually assaulted by Several players in a hotel room in London, Ontario, after a Hockey Canada celebration in honor of their championship.
Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Dillon Dube have been charged with one count of sexual assault, and McLeod faces an additional count of sexual assault, according to court documents obtained by The Athletic. Lawyers for the five players appeared before the Ontario Court of Justice in London on Monday morning for a hearing that lasted about 15 minutes.
The court ordered a ban on publication of the identities of the alleged victim and two witnesses. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for April 30.
Hart, Formenton, McLeod, Foote and Dube have all made public statements acknowledging the charges and denying any wrongdoing. The charges have not been proven in court.
The young woman, who has only been identified in court documents as EM, filed a lawsuit in 2022, which Hockey Canada later settled out of court. When news of the deal emerged in May 2022, the national governing body came under intense scrutiny for the way it handled the allegations, with the news prompting parliamentary hearings and condemnation from the highest levels of the federal government, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Following public outcry and national interest in the case, the London Police Service reopened its investigation into the matter, which began immediately after the alleged incident. That initial criminal investigation was closed in February 2019.
London police have remained silent about the renewed investigation, although a 2022 court filing, first reported by The Globe and Mail, provided insight into the department’s efforts in the case. In that court file, which was submitted to the court seeking judicial authorization for a search warrant and multiple production orders, police said they believed EM had been sexually assaulted by five players, whose names were redacted in the file.
“I believe that by taking a global view of the evidence, EM believed he had no choice but to engage in specific sexual acts. Additionally, I believe each of the suspects knew or should have known that EM had not given consent,” said Sgt. David Younan wrote in the application to the court.
In EM’s initial lawsuit, she said eight players had assaulted her over several hours in a London, Ont., hotel room. She said that she had met with the group of players at a local bar the night of the alleged incident and that she had voluntarily gone home with a player. She said she had consensual sexual relations with that player, but that he invited several of her teammates to his hotel room without her knowledge or consent. She said she did not consent to any of the sexual contacts or acts that followed, during which, she said, she was spit on, slapped on the buttocks, laughed at and degraded. According to her initial claim, she spent part of the night crying in the bathroom and wanting to leave, but several players convinced her to stay in the hotel room. She noted that several of them had golf clubs in the room and that she felt physically intimidated and unable to leave.
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In the 2022 court filing, police wrote that they believed up to 12 players were involved, witnessed or might have some information about the alleged incident. According to that document, EM said in a police interview that the players told him to lie on the floor and placed a sheet under him during specific sexual acts. He said he felt like “the object of the group’s entertainment” and that the group “was making fun of her and laughing at her expense.” EM told police that “the group of boys were talking around her and about her, but not with her. …say things like ‘You do this and you do this.’
She said that at one point during the night during the alleged group sexual assault, the player she initially went home with was sitting up in bed eating chicken wings he had ordered. She described him “in the background” after specific sexual acts (which were redacted).
EM told police that the same player asked him before leaving the room: “Aren’t you going to go to the police?”
The next day, after EM’s mother reported the alleged incident to police, that player initiated a conversation with EM, which then progressed to a text message. According to still footage reviewed by police, EM told the player: “I was fine going home with you, I wasn’t expecting everyone else afterwards.”
The player told him: “you have to talk to your mother right now and fix things with the police before it goes (sic) far away. This is a serious matter that she is misrepresenting (sic) and could have significant implications for many people, including you. What can you do to make this go away?
According to the file, police interviewed several players, received written statements from others and discovered the existence of a group chat for the world junior team. Several players also provided USB sticks to police containing text message exchanges in connection with that group chat. In the filing, police also sought records from Uber, a ride-sharing app, to identify and locate the driver who took EM home in the morning hours of June 19, 2018.
It remains to be seen whether London police will share additional details of their investigation and charges.
A trial is unlikely any time soon, given the complexity and sensitivity of the case and the significant court delays that could lead to delays. In Canada, a charge of sexual assault carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.
All four NHL players: Hart (Philadelphia Flyers), McLeod (New Jersey Devils), Foote (Devils) and Dube (Calgary Flames) have been absent from their NHL clubs. Those four players have contracts that expire at the end of this season. Formenton, who previously played for the Ottawa Senators, is also on personal leave from his team in Switzerland.
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The NHL has conducted its own investigation into the matter, but when pressed on the issue during an NHL All-Star news conference, commissioner Gary Bettman said the league will not consider any discipline until it is complete. the judicial process. Bettman also indicated his reluctance to share any findings before the matter is resolved in court.
“All of the NHL players who appear to be the subject of indictments are no longer with their teams, so at this time, the most responsible and prudent thing we can do is wait for the conclusion of the judicial process, at which time we will do so” . respond as appropriate at that time,” Bettman said.
The NHL Players Association, which has provided guidance and representation to players during the league’s investigation, will also be waiting to see what happens with the court proceedings.
“It’s an investigation that will now go to court,” said union boss Marty Walsh. “And I’m going to leave it there and see what the court process is. Obviously I’ve experienced this in my career over time where charges have been brought against someone and it’s become a judicial proceeding and I’ve always been advised to keep it that way.’”
Hockey Canada, which has been embroiled in controversy since the lawsuit became public, has not responded to requests for comment on the impending charges.
Amid the fallout from its mishandling of the allegations, including the revelation that the organization had created multiple cash reserve funds to pay settlements on unsecured claims, Hockey Canada overhauled much of the national governing body’s leadership. The organization installed a new board of directors and a new executive director and said it became a signatory to Abuse-Free Sport through the Office of the Commissioner of Sports Integrity, a federal agency charged with preventing and addressing abuse, discrimination and harassment. Nike announced in July 2023 that the company would permanently end its sponsorship of Hockey Canada, which dated back to 1999.
Hockey Canada initially investigated the 2018 incident by hiring prominent Canadian law firm Henein Hutchison (now Henein Hutchison Robitaille) to conduct an independent investigation. The organization later reopened the investigation in July 2022. In November 2023, Hockey Canada told CHL governors that an independent arbitration panel found that members of the 2018 world junior team violated the governing body’s code of conduct during the gala weekend, according to a send an email to that The Athletic obtained.
After the panel disclosed its findings to Hockey Canada and other involved parties, an undisclosed party filed a notice of appeal, according to a statement from the organization.
Hockey Canada declined to make the findings public while an appeal on the matter was ongoing, saying it did not want to “interfere with the integrity of the appeal process.”
Players from the 2018 World Junior Hockey Championship team will not be eligible to appear in Hockey Canada’s international competition until the matter is resolved.
“Earlier this year, Hockey Canada made the decision that until the investigation and adjudication process into the alleged incident in 2018 is complete, no players from the 2018 National Junior Team will be considered for participation on Team Canada,” he said. Hockey Canada in the statement. . “This has been communicated to Team Canada’s management group at the 2023 IIHF Men’s World Championship.”
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(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos: Jana Chytilova / Freestyle Photography, Ethan Miller, Leah Hennel, Michael Reaves, Kevin Sousa / Getty Images)