A woman who alleges Michael Thompson sexually assaulted her at a Muskoka cottage two summers ago has rejected his lawyer’s suggestion the pc28city councillor ensured she was content with what he was doing, because she did not tell him to stop.
“I just wanted it to be over,” the woman, who can’t be identified, testified Wednesday at the Bracebridge courthouse, about a half hour’s drive from the Port Carling cottage where she alleges Thompson touched under her bathing suit while applying sunscreen to her body.
“I think I went to a place of ‘just let it happen,’” she said.
Earlier this fall, she told the court, “I believe at some point that he asked if it was OK, and I can’t recall if I nodded or said yes.”
The woman and her friend allege they were sexually assaulted by the now 65-year-old politician at the cottage over the 2022 Canada Day long weekend. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault at an Ontario Court of Justice trial spread out over months; the second complainant was supposed to testify this week but is sick.
During cross-examination on Wednesday, pc28defence lawyer Leora Shemesh asked the women, who is in her 30s, about the incident on the dock on the afternoon of July 3. Her friend — the second complainant — and a university student who was also a guest that weekend were also there when Thompson, then a deputy mayor, came down and asked to apply lotion to the woman’s back — not the other way around as Shemesh suggested.
“He asked me,” the witness said curtly, adding that her friend had already put sunscreen on her back.
Shemesh did a double take, noting this was the first time the witness had mentioned that detail.
“You still obliged Mr. Thompson to apply suntan lotion to you, instead of saying ‘I just had the suntan lotion applied?’”
“Cǰ.”
At the time, the woman had had six or seven alcoholic drinks and smoked some pot. She was wearing a two-piece bathing suit, and agreed when Shemesh said it was not a “grandma bottom” but disagreed that Thompson only applied the lotion to the side of her already exposed buttocks.
“He went underneath my bathing suit,” she said.
The witness told the court that when Thompson asked her to turn over, she complied, disagreeing with Shemesh’s suggestion that she didn’t turn over in the lounge chair and remained on her stomach the entire time, which is what the university student said she saw during her testimony in October.
“That would be incorrect,” the witness stated, adding that when she turned over, he massaged her breasts beneath her top.
“You don’t ever move his hand?” Shemesh asked, noting she told police he had been “handsy.”
“N.”
Earlier at trial, the student testified that the woman told her that Thompson had “digitally penetrated” her on the dock. On Wednesday, she denied saying that, nor did it happen.
While the second complainant won’t testify until next year, Shemesh asked the witness questions about her friend’s interactions with Thompson that weekend.
The witness agreed with Shemesh that at the end of the evening, her friend briefly got into the witness’s bed naked, and that the following morning she told her Thompson had wanted to have sex with her, and rather than having intercourse she performed oral sex because she was tired and wanted to go to sleep, Shemesh said repeating what the witness told police.
The lawyer then asked the woman if her friend told her that she had asked Thompson if he had a condom, told him that she did not want to get pregnant, and that they had walked around the cottage, taken a shower and hung out together.
“Nope,” the woman responded. (Court has heard the second complainant told police she did not consent to have sex with Thompson, and that he “forced himself” on her after telling him no.)
Nor, did the second complainant tell the witness about having a drink with Thompson in the middle of the night, watching the sun come up together or that she confided in him about her background and her child.
Shemesh continued, “You don’t recall her ever flirting with him,” nor being “handsy with him?”
Again the woman said she did not recall that, nor could she remember later posting casual photos from the weekend online. She explained if she had done that, it was because there “were moments at being the cottage that were fun,” that involved hanging out with the two other women. As for why she didn’t stop drinking so they could leave, “that didn’t cross our mind as an option,” because of the remote location.
Ontario Court Justice Philop Brissette adjourned the case until Feb. 21, when the second complainant is scheduled to be the third and final witness. Once her testimony is done, Shemesh told the judge she plans to call a “host” of witnesses.
He has sat on city council since 2003 and represents Ward 21, Scarborough Centre.
