Seven months after his high-profile sexual assault trial began, pc28Coun. Michael Thompson finally began to give his account of what happened at a cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022.
Thompson, 65, has pleaded not guilty to two sexual assaults alleged to have happened that weekend. The Crown alleges that he touched one woman in a sexual manner without her consent and, hours later, “forced himself” on another woman who was “very, very drunk.”
In about a half-hour of testimony on Tuesday afternoon, Thompson began by addressing the Crown’s theory that he misled female guests with promises of it being a “networking” opportunity.
“Whoever I spoke to in that period of time, I asked them if they were interested in going to the cottage,” Thompson said after listing about a half dozen names of invitees — none who came.
A few days before the long weekend, Thompson testified he also asked a university student he met a few weeks earlier at a Yorkville art gallery if she and her family wanted to join him at his friend’s Muskoka cottage.
“Do you recall how you would have framed, or if you did, frame for her who would be attending at the cottage,” asked his lawyer, Leora Shemesh.
Thompson said no. Nor did he give her a sense of the “types” of people who would be there. Rather, he said he told her it was “just friends” and that his female friend Tracy was coming. (In her testimony last year, the student compared Tracy to Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend, who groomed young women for sex and was convicted of human trafficking.)
“Did you ever frame for her that this was an opportunity to network?” his lawyer asked.
“No,” Thompson replied.
“Did you ever suggest to her that she could get something by coming to the cottage, like employment?”
No.
Woman testifies she did not initiate or consent to intimate encounter. Thompson expected to take
On Tuesday, the prosecution closed its case after calling the three women. Their testimony has rolled out sporadically since the proceedings began in Bracebridge, Ont., last October.
The judge-alone trial, which has now moved to Barrie, has heard one woman allege he touched her in a sexual manner while applying sunscreen and that he “forced himself” on another woman who testified she repeatedly told him no. There is a publication ban on their identities.
Thompson has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault.
Wearing a blue suit and tie, Thompson took the stand Tuesday late in the day, calmly answering his lawyer’s questions about his background and personal life. Those details included that he is separated from his wife — although they still have a “fantastic” relationship — has two grown children, and has had both hips and a knee replaced. He touched on his education and political career, which began when he was elected as a Scarborough representative on pc28city council in 2003.
Shemesh then moved to questions about the circumstances of how a university student in her early 20s wound up at the cottage that weekend. She testified last fall that she met the councillor for the first time at a Yorkville art gallery in June 2022, and that he drove her home to Richmond Hill later that evening. Her identity is also covered under the publication ban, although she is not alleging any sexual impropriety.
She testified, and Thompson agreed Tuesday, that on the drive home, he gave her two $50 bills after she told him she couldn’t afford to pay her cellphone bill, and that she gave him a “side hug,” and a kiss on the cheek. He said it was “natural … that as a person in my position, as a person of colour, and someone else of colour, you want to always help.” He gave an example of giving a woman grocery money and $100 to help one of her sons after he was in an accident. At the time, Thompson was deputy mayor and chair of the economic development committee.
Thompson said as the Canada Day 2022 weekend grew near, he asked the student if she wanted to come the cottage, “I didn’t just invite,” the woman, he said, “I invited her, her brother and her sister and, as well, her mother.”
The student testified that when Thompson made the offer, he said it would involve a “weekend of networking,” and that she understood the guest list would include male and female professionals. As the weekend drew closer, the student said she was concerned that “all of a sudden, the original people couldn’t make it.”
Before Thompson took the stand, Shemesh called as a witness Thompson’s friend, a 67-year-old bank employee who testified he twice invited her to a Muskoka cottage, for fun and relaxation, and not to network. He also encouraged her to invite other people, she said. Both times, she declined because she had plans.
The six-term councillor, who represents Ward 21, Scarborough Centre, is expected back on the stand Wednesday.
