NHL
Hockey
Canada Trial
The fifth and final defense attorney in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial accused the complainant of having “an agenda” for using the term “men” to refer to the five hockey players accused of sexual assault and other members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team.
Throughout the trial, all five defense attorneys have referred to the accused, who were all at least 18 at the time of the alleged incident, as “boys.” Julianna Greenspan, lawyer for Cal Foote, suggested Tuesday that E.M. referring to the players as “men” was intentional.
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“I’ve been calling them men because that’s what they were,” E.M. said.
Foote, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Carter Hart are all facing sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged incident in which E.M. said she was sexually assaulted over the span of several hours in a London, Ont., hotel room while players were in town for a Hockey Canada event celebrating their 2018 World Juniors championship. All five players have pleaded not guilty.
E.M. has appeared in the witness box by CCTV since May 2. Tuesday was her final day of cross-examination; she will be back Wednesday for re-examination, when the Crown can ask her to clarify things brought up during the cross-examination.
She has testified that after a night of drinking and dancing at Jack’s bar, she returned to the hotel with McLeod and engaged in consensual sex. Afterward, she said, men showed up in the hotel room without her consent and she was scared. E.M. said that she was asked to lay down on a bedsheet on the floor, and did so because she felt she had no choice. Over the next couple of hours, she said she was coaxed into performing oral sex and vaginal sex, and was slapped and spit on while players yelled out directions and encouraged each other. She said the experience left her feeling degraded and humiliated.
On Tuesday, Greenspan brought up the first statement E.M. made to police in June 2018, in which she uses the word “boy” to describe her interactions with the men she met at the bar that night. Greenspan emphasized that E.M. did not use the term “man” in her statement in June 2018.
“Not one single time did you use the reference ‘man’ or ‘men’ in June 2018 to refer to these individuals, right?” Greenspan said.
“That’s right. That’s not how I spoke back then,” E.M. replied. “That was seven years ago.”
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Greenspan again suggested that E.M. used the term boys in 2018 because it described “who they were” and “what they were.”
“Pretty obvious,” Greenspan said.
“Just because I used ‘boys,’ because that was the only way I could really articulate this and get this out to the officer, doesn’t change the fact that their age made them men,” E.M. replied.
Greenspan continued to press the point.
“The reason you have so carefully changed your language is that you have come into this trial with a clear agenda,” Greenspan said. “Isn’t that right?”
“No, absolutely not. I’m older. I understand more,” E.M. said. “They were men.”
Greenspan suggested that E.M. was likely aware of who the World Junior players were because she had family members who played and coached hockey at various levels. Greenspan also noted that the London Knights are a popular OHL team. The Knights play at Canada Life Place next door to the London Courthouse, and just a few blocks away from Jack’s bar and the Delta hotel.
“I knew of the London Knights team … I couldn’t tell you a single player on the team,” E.M. said, adding that she had never been to a Knights game at that point.
Greenspan said that in December 2018, the Canadian World Junior team played an exhibition game at the Knights arena, then known as Budweiser Gardens. E.M. said she was not aware that the team played there. She has previously testified that she did not share her family’s interest in hockey.
Greenspan spent part of the morning and afternoon showing videos from the night of the alleged incident to the court; however, the livestream was shut down due to technical difficulties.
According a CBC report from inside the courtroom, Greenspan returned to a specific claim E.M. made about what happened in the hotel room — that Foote did the splits over her as she was lying down, and put his penis on her face.
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Greenspan said her client was wearing shorts at the time, which E.M. disagreed with.
“I think I can clearly remember having a penis in my face,” E.M. said. “It would not have been as shocking in my mind if he had shorts or pants on.”
During her cross-examination, Greenspan also questioned E.M. on when she realized the people she was with at the bar were on the national team, whether she told the truth about how drunk she was the night of the alleged incident and whether she was seeking attention from the men in the hotel room, among other topics, according to the CBC report.
— The Athletic‘s Dan Robson reported remotely from Toronto, and The Athletic‘s Kamila Hinkson reported remotely from Montreal. The Athletic‘s Katie Strang contributed additional reporting.
(Photo of Cal Foote arriving at the London, Ont., courthouse on May 8 with his lawyer Julianna Greenspan: Geoff Robins / The Canadian Press via AP)
