Trial date set for Hockey Canada players charged with sexual assault

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The much-anticipated trial of five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team charged with sexual assault at a gala in London is expected to begin in 13 months.

An eight-week Superior Court jury trial is slated to begin in London on Sept. 8, 2025.

The trial date has been in place for several weeks. The case was supposed to be addressed Tuesday for a possible trial date at the Superior Court of Justice’s monthly scheduling court after it was adjourned at the June court.

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But the case hasn’t been languishing in the criminal justice system, with steps already in place to move it along at judicial pre-trials throughout the summer. Most of them had been in front of Justice Renee Pomerance, who was recently elevated to the Ontario Court of Appeal. In recent weeks, Acting Regional Senior Justice Bruce Thomas, who had been assigned to preside over the case, has taken over the closed-door trial management hearings.

Scheduling decisions were made during those summer sessions. A review of the court indictment mapped out the most recent developments, notably that at a pre-trial appearance before Pomerance in early July, the trial dates were selected and then confirmed at the monthly July scheduling court. The August scheduling court appearance was vacated.

The pre-trial motion dates remain in place for early next month, Sept. 5 and 6, when all five players are expected to make their first in-person court appearances in London.

More pre-trial motions are scheduled to begin Nov. 25 and are expected to last three weeks. Any further applications are to be heard on Jan. 20 and 27, 2025.

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There is a possibility that the trial could start even sooner. At the July scheduling hearing, Justice Michael Carnegie indicated the trial could  “possibly” start in the spring if the eight weeks set aside for pre-trial motions slated to start on April 22, 2025, have been sorted out.

All of the information at those hearings is subject to a court-ordered publication ban.

The charged players, who were in London for a Hockey Canada gala at the time of the allegations, have 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.

Dillon Dube, 26, of the NHL’s Calgary Flames; Carter Hart, 26, goaltender for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers; Michael McLeod, 26, and Cal Foote, 25, both of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils; and Alex Formenton, 24, a former London Knight and NHL Ottawa Senator who spent last season playing in Switzerland, 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 five men sped up the court proceedings by waiving a preliminary hearing in the Ontario Court of Justice within weeks of being charged. But it has taken time to nail down suitable trial dates that will involve five defence teams and a team of Crown attorneys.

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 allegation 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 re-opening of the case leading to charges laid by the London police

While the trial date may seem far off, the case has moved with relatively break-neck speed through the normally turtle-like justice system. All five players selected a trial by judge and jury.

Under rules set down in the Jordan decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, Superior Court cases have 30 months to complete. This case has a Jordan date – the arbitrary date for when it must be completed failing unforeseen circumstances – of July 30, 2026.

jsims@postmedia.com

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