“She wants money:” Hockey Canada accused’s lawyer

Defence lawyers for Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, and Cal Foote delivered closing arguments Tuesday and Wednesday as the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial looms into its final days.

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Defence lawyers for Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, and Cal Foote delivered closing arguments Tuesday and Wednesday as the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial looms into its final days.

Each player faces one count of sexual assault stemming from an alleged 2018 incident in London, Ont., involving members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.

The trial, which has drawn national attention, centres on allegations of non-consensual sexual acts following a Hockey Canada gala in 2018.

Defence strategies varied, with each lawyer focusing on their client’s specific role in the incidents in question.

Daniel Brown, representing Formenton, argued the complainant, identified as E.M. under a publication ban, was motivated by a $3.5-million civil lawsuit filed against Hockey Canada in 2022.

To buttress his theory, Brown struck at the credibility of E.M. as a witness, claiming she “has been demonstrably wrong about many, many, many things” throughout her testimony.

E.M. said, for example, that she did not remember asking anyone for sex during the alleged incidents, but several of the Crown’s own witnesses testified she not only asked for sex but that she goaded and teased the men after they declined her offer.

Under intense cross-examination from the defence, E.M. herself testified it “was possible” she made such demands. However, she claimed that if she did, it was only because she went into “auto-pilot” and had adopted the “persona” of a “porn star” as a coping mechanism.

“Didn’t she also call them pussies?” Justice Maria Carroccia later asked another defence lawyer about E.M.’s alleged behaviour during the incidents in question.

“Yes, I believe she did, and that Brett Howden testified to that effect,” responded Julianna Greenspan, who is representing Formenton’s co-accused, Cal Foote.

For his own part, Formenton’s lawyer pushed hard on his theory that E.M. is participating in the ongoing criminal trial to justify her 2022 undisclosed settlement with Hockey Canada.

“She wants money; she wants a lot of money; she wants 3.5 million dollars; and she’s been told that whatever evidence she’s been claiming about her extreme intoxication doesn’t quite get her there,” Brown said.

The implications of the charges on Formenton’s career have been profound. Once a top prospect for the NHL’s Ottawa Senators organization, he now works in construction, according to court documents.

In November 2024, he filed a $20.5-million lawsuit against his former agency, Newport Sports, and his agent, alleging negligence and breach of contract for failing to secure an NHL contract — a move that underscores the financial and professional toll of the allegations.

Former Kelowna Rockets teammates Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have also seen their once-promising NHL careers head into a steep decline. Dubé, who played 203 games with the Calgary Flames, and Foote, a defenceman with stints in Tampa Bay and New Jersey, have not returned to the NHL since the charges were laid in January 2024.

Outside the London courthouse where the trial by judge is taking place, duelling protests have become an almost daily fixture, reflecting the case’s polarizing nature.

Supporters of the complainant, aligned with the traditional #MeToo movement of believing sexual assault survivors unequivocally, gather in the dozens with signs reading “I Believe You E.M.,” “We Believe Survivors,” chanting slogans like “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”

Counter-protesters, meanwhile, uniting under the banner of a so-called #HimToo movement, hold signs of their own which read: “5 Careers Ruined” and “E.M. Cheated.”

The protests appear to stem from two distinct impulses: advocates for E.M. seem driven by a desire for greater accountability and justice for sexual abuse survivors; whereas supporters of the accused aim to draw attention to the devastating consequences that potentially misleading accusations can have on the personal lives and careers of mostly men.