The trial of five members from Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team charged with sexual assault began April 22 in London, Ont.
Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, Michael McLeod and Cal Foote have all been charged with sexual assault in connection to an alleged incident following a Hockey Canada fundraising event in 2018. The five players were charged with one count of sexual assault, with McLeod facing a second charge of sexual assault for “being a party to the offense.”
The allegations became public in late May 2022, when it was reported that Hockey Canada settled a lawsuit with a woman — referred to as E.M. in previously filed court documents — who said she was sexually assaulted by several members of the 2018 national junior team.
In E.M.’s initial lawsuit claim, she said that eight players assaulted her over several hours in a London hotel room. She said she met the group of players at a local bar the night of the alleged incident and had willingly left with one player. She said she engaged in consensual sex with that player, but that he invited several of his teammates into the hotel room without her knowledge or consent.
E.M. said she did not consent to any of the sexual contact or acts that followed, during which she said she was spat on, slapped on the buttocks, laughed at and degraded. According to her initial claim, the woman said she spent part of the night crying in the bathroom and despite wanting to leave, was coaxed by multiple players to remain 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.
No charges were laid after the initial London police investigation, which was closed in February 2019. However, news of the settlement sparked such public outrage that it prompted parliamentary hearings with the Canadian federal government, and London police reopened the case.
According to police, new evidence was gathered and additional interviews were conducted after the investigation resumed in 2022. The charges were announced by London police in February 2024.