pc28Coun. Michael Thompson has vehemently denied sexually assaulting two women at his friend’s cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022, saying one encounter involved the innocent application of sunscreen and the other a complainant who initiated and fully consented to their sexual activity.
In his testimony Wednesday at the Barrie courthouse, the 65-year-old politician appeared composed and relaxed responding to his lawyer’s questions — until the end of the day, when he grew emotional describing a phone call from the OPP telling him he was being charged with two counts of sexual assault.
At first, Thompson said he thought a police officer was playing a joke.
“I was literally shocked and I didn’t know what to do,” he said, his voice cracking mid-sentence as he recalled that he was alone in his car at the time.
It was as if his whole world was “just crushed,” he said, fighting back tears. At this, his lawyer, Leora Shemesh, suggested it was an appropriate time to finish before cross-examination begins Thursday.
Throughout his testimony, Thompson portrayed the long weekend at the Muskoka cottage as a “pleasurable, relaxing time” while sprinkling vigorous denials about his alleged conduct. Several times, he interrupted is own lawyer, politely asking if he could add details he wanted to judge to hear. He stated repeatedly that he doesn’t drink a lot of alcohol, chuckled to convey his opinion of some of the allegations and bristled when asked if his guests were intoxicated.
Thompson also suggested the complainants may have fabricated their claims out of resentment, pointing to what he described as one guest’s disappointment over an expectation he’d help her financially and another over an unfulfilled political favour to a friend.
Here’s a summary of Thompson’s evidence:
Thompson’s response to Complainant No. 1
Thompson testified Wednesday that he met the first complainant at a restaurant in the spring of 2022. She was in her early 30s and knew he was a city councillor and deputy mayor, having worked at city hall as a former staffer. He didn’t know her. (The identities of both complainants and a key witness are covered under a publication ban.)
When she testified last fall at the Bracebridge courthouse, the first complainant said she believed the cottage weekend would be a “good opportunity to meet more people in City Hall circles.” Except when she and a friend arrived, they thought it “odd” to find only Thompson with a young woman, then 22.
The complainant, who is in her 30s, testified that while she and the two other women lay on lounge chairs on the dock, Thompson asked if he could rub lotion on her back. Instead, she testified, he applied it to her buttocks and breasts while she felt like she was having “an out-of-body experience.”
pc28Coun. Michael Thompson speaks with his lawyer Leora Shemesh outside the Bracebridge courthouse on Oct. 7, 2024.
Tannis Toohey for the pc28StarOn Wednesday, Thompson denied this, saying she asked him if he could apply the sunscreen.
“I put a dab in my hand,” he said, rubbing his hands together, “and basically just put it on her back.”
She never turned over, he never touched her buttocks or breasts, legs, arms, and he never wanted to touch her sexually, he said, adding that she thanked him.
Thompson was also adamant that he did not coax her to drink booze or smoke pot, as she’d claimed.
He said during one conversation at the cottage, the complainant mentioned that “her buddy,” was upset Thompson hadn’t been able to help him with a problem. “Why could you have not helped him,” he said she asked.
His response to Complainant No. 2
The second complainant arrived at the cottage with the first; she’d never met Thompson before.
In her early 40s, she testified earlier this year that Thompson woke her up a few hours after she’d passed out drunk, guided her downstairs into her assigned bedroom and became “aggressive, but not rough,” while trying to have sex with her.
In her testimony, she said she repeatedly told him, “No, no, no, I don’t want to, “ but he pulled out his penis and rubbed it “all over my face and my neck” and then ejaculated.
On Wednesday, Thompson painted a much different picture.
The cottage at the centre of the long weekend.
calvinbarrylaw/XDuring the day, he said, she was “friendly,” kissing him on the cheek and lips while they were outside, dancing and gyrating when they moved indoors and telling him, “I wish I had a friend who had a cottage like this.” Another time when they were alone in the kitchen, she “put her hands in my shorts” and said that when the others went to bed, “we should get together.”
Thompson said he went to lie down at 10 p.m. Hours later, he said, the complainant woke him up. She was naked, leaned over his bed and whispered, “are you awake.” They went into the kitchen, where she had poured two shots of tequila, he said. They were kissing, and she led him downstairs to her bedroom, where she gently pushed him onto the bed.
“It was a continuation of what we were doing for most of the afternoon,” he said. “This was more impactful.”
He said she began performing oral sex, but stopped before he ejaculated. She went to the washroom and had a shower, and, when she returned, asked if he had a condom. He said he didn’t and she seemed “displeased,” Thompson said.
Next, Thompson said, the woman told him she was not “for free,” but he could watch while she proceeded to “pleasure herself.”
Earlier this year, the complainant offered multiple denials when Shemesh put this narrative to her.
On Wednesday, Thompson added he found the woman interesting and hoped they would connect again.
His response to ‘grooming’ allegations
Another guest that weekend was a 22-year-old university student. She met Thompson at a Yorkville art gallery weeks before the cottage weekend. Thompson sent her a text message, “trying to get a small group of folks unwinding at the cottage.” She testified he billed the weekend as a “networking” opportunity.
The student testified there were “red flags” at the cottage. She felt both Thompson and his older female friend were trying to get her intoxicated, which he denied on Wednesday. The student, he said, “has been very untruthful to this court.”
Asked if he blew pot smoke in her mouth, or used a massage gun on her, Thompson said: “Never happened.” Nor was his friend trying to “groom” the student. He also denied telling her to “feel free to get naked.”
But he offered a possible reason why the student turned against him. (She isn’t alleging sexual assault, but her evidence supported the Crown’s case that he was a predator.)
Before the two other women arrived, Thompson said the young woman told him about her career goals, her troubles with her father’s abandonment and the challenges she faced funding her education.
“She asked if I would help her with respect to school, helping her with money for school.”
“What did you say?” Shemesh asked.
“I told her I couldn’t assist her. She wasn’t happy about it.”
Thompson said her mood changed after that; she became “withdrawn” and seemed upset.
When she returned to the city, the student sent him a text message asking him to reimburse her $30 for a concert ticket that she didn’t end up using because she went to the cottage. Thompson declined and didn’t communicate with her again.
Ontario Court Justice Phil Brissette is hearing the case.
Thompson has been a councillor since 2003, representing Ward 21, Scarborough Centre.
