All five players found not guilty in Hockey Canada trial

All five players in the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial have been found not guilty.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

All five players in the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial have been found not guilty.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia delivered her ruling on Thursday afternoon in front of a packed London, Ont. courtroom, which included all five defendants and their defence counsels, both Crown prosecutors, and dozens of onlookers.

Each of the five defendants in the case—Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote and Michael McLeod—faced a single count of sexual assault, with McLeod facing an additional charge of being party to an offence.

Originally planned as a jury trial, the matter was converted to a judge-only trial following the unusual dismissal of two different juries.

The players’ charges stem from an incident in June 2018, in which the complainant—known as E.M. under a standard publication ban—claims she was sexually assaulted by five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior Hockey team.

The allegations came into public view following a report by TSN’s Rick Westhead, who revealed that Hockey Canada had previously settled a civil lawsuit with the same woman who, at that time, alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight men from the 2018 Canadian World Junior Hockey team.

In response to the report, the former minister for sport, Pascale St-Onge, froze the federal government’s funding of Hockey Canada and called for an investigation into whether public funds were used to fund the settlement.

London police then made a surprise announcement in February 2024 that they were pursuing criminal charges in the case against the World Junior hockey players, even though authorities had previously neglected to do so, even when first made aware of the allegations.

Chief Thai Truong of the London Police Service cited a discovery of “new evidence” for reopening an investigation, although it was never made clear during the trial what “new evidence” they were referring to at the time.

In the aftermath of the London police’s announcement, all five players—once considered some of the NHL’s top prospects—either moved on to lower-tier competition overseas or moved on from playing hockey altogether.

The judge’s not guilty verdict came at the end of an exhaustive review of evidence presented at trial, along with a thorough explanation and reasoning for her decision.

In particular, as noted in her opening remarks, Carroccia’s decision was largely underpinned by her belief that the complainant in the case, E.M., was unreliable and lacking credibility.

Conversely, Carroccia reviewed the hockey players’ “group chat” evidence presented by the Crown at trial, which demonstrated or at least suggested some attentiveness to consistency and the truth.

“Don’t lie,” one message said.

“We had consent,” one player wrote.

“She‘s the one who got naked and started begging everyone,” said Brett Howden, who was called to testify as a witness.

“We didn’t do anything wrong,” another player wrote.

In addition to having difficulty with the testimony of the Crown’s key witness, Justice Carroccia also found “it difficult to reconcile” how E.M. was coherent and able to engage in what she described as consensual sex with McLeod, but then wasn’t able to consent with Formenton “moments later.”

As such, Carroccia told the court she was not satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that any of the defendants were guilty of sexual assault.

“The accused are free to go,” Carroccia said after delivering her final verdict.