Hockey Canada trial: Judge explains players’ absence

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Pre-trial motions began Thursday morning in the trial of five members of Canada’s gold-winning 2018 world junior hockey team, all charged with sexual assault in connection with an alleged incident at a downtown London hotel.

The players – Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote, all now between ages 24 and 26 – were not present. The usual practice is that accused parties are in court for these types of hearings.

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But Acting Regional Senior Justice Bruce Thomas said at the opening of court that he made the ruling to excuse the players a month ago.

“It’s a decision I made,” he said, explaining that the five players won’t be required to attend unless in-person evidence is required. “I decided they didn’t need to be here, particularly for the arguments we need to (hear) today.”

All pre-trial motions are subject to a court-ordered publication ban.

This is the first set of application hearings and it’s expected to last two days. Three weeks of hearing are slated to begin later in November.

The charged players, who were in London for a Hockey Canada gala at the time of the allegations, had been sidelined professionally since they were charged in January. Four of them played in the National Hockey League and all their contracts expired in June, essentially marking an exit, at least for now, from the NHL.

All five are all charged with sexual assault. McLeod faces an additional charge of sexual assault “by being a party to the offence.” All the players were put on leave from their professional hockey clubs at the time the charges were laid in January.

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The charges stem from a revived London police investigation into an alleged sexual assault of a woman, then 18, at the Delta Armouries hotel in June 2018.

The players were in London for a Hockey Canada fundraising gala months after winning world junior gold. The allegations were that a woman met the men at a Richmond Row bar, became separated from a friend and went to a hotel room with one of the players for consensual sex. Others were invited into the room and the allegations are she was sexually assaulted by several men.

The initial police investigation was closed in 2019 and no charges were laid. The woman launched a $3.5-million lawsuit, which was settled by Hockey Canada. That settlement was publicized, sparking public outrage and a reopening of the case leading to charges laid by London police.

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