It was the lawsuit that led to public backlash against Hockey Canada, to a police investigation being reopened, and to five professional hockey players being charged with sexual assault.
This week, the woman at the centre of the case acknowledged in court that her lawsuit falsely accused a player she knew “didn’t do anything” the night she says she was sexually assaulted by members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team, but maintained she was just following her lawyers’ advice.
The woman’s claims sparked massive outrage in 2022 after TSN first reported that Hockey Canada had settled a sexual assault lawsuit filed by the woman, who alleged she had been assaulted by eight unnamed “John Doe” players in a London, Ont., hotel room on June 19, 2018, when she was 20 years old. (The lawsuit demanded $3.5 million in damages; it was settled for an undisclosed sum.)
The woman, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, is now the complainant in the ongoing criminal trial of Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé, and Cal Foote.
Testifying at trial on Wednesday, the woman acknowledged that one of the players she sued for sexual assault, but who was never charged criminally, Jonah Gadjovich, wasn’t involved in the alleged incident. While he’s unidentified in the lawsuit, the complainant named Gadjovich as “John Doe No. 8” when she sent a statement outlining her allegations to Hockey Canada’s third-party probe into the alleged assaults in the summer of 2022 — a statement she has now admitted is riddled with errors and was actually written by her civil lawyers.
She blamed her lawyers for his inclusion in the lawsuit and in the statement to Hockey Canada.
“I knew he didn’t do anything, I never said he did, it’s because those are the only names I could up with,” she told the jury Wednesday.
“That’s why we didn’t go by name (in the lawsuit) because there was no certainty, because that’s just how it was sent in, I guess. I don’t think that’s on me.”
The lawsuit alleged civil wrongdoing of sexual abuse, assault and battery, conspiracy, and false imprisonment against each of the John Doe defendants. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia told the jury that Hockey Canada settled the lawsuit “without the knowledge or consent” of the players who had been sued. And she said that on behalf of all the defendants, Hockey Canada did not admit any liability.
The five former members of Canada’s 2018 World Juniors hockey team, left to right, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube and Carter Hart.
Nicole Osborne THE CANADIAN PRESThe complainant has testified that she took on a “porn star persona” as a coping mechanism in a hotel room full of men she didn’t know, as her mind had separated from her body while she engaged in sexual activity with the men. She didn’t refuse, nor was she physically prevented from leaving. She said the men asked her to fondle herself on a bedsheet on the floor, perform oral sex on them while she was slapped and spat on, and engage in vaginal intercourse.
Court ended early Wednesday as the complainant broke down in tears while being questioned by Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, about Gadjovich’s inclusion in her lawsuit’s statement of claim, which she signed off on.
TSN’s report on Hockey Canada settling the matter led the sports organization to reopen a third-party probe, as well as to London police reopening their own investigation into the matter and ultimately charging the five players in January 2024. Like the five accused men on trial, Gadjovich has since turned professional. He is a member of the Florida Panthers in the NHL.
The complainant repeatedly told Savard she was just trying to identify people she could remember from June 18-19, 2018, and recalled recognizing Gadjovich in photos from Jack’s Bar, where she first met McLeod and agreed to go back to his hotel with him.
“I could just identify (Gadjovich) from the bar photos, that’s all I recall ever trying to identify him as, that was it,” she testified.
She said she was just following her lawyers’ advice, saying she was unfamiliar with the legal process.
“In terms of using him for the statement of claim, just a John Doe, that was out of my hands, honestly,” she testified. “I have no experience with this, that’s lawyer stuff, I don’t know what I was supposed to do.”
The complainant has often testified this week that she wanted to be careful when it came to identifying people who may have been involved in the alleged assaults. Savard asked her if it was careful to allow the name of one of the John Does to go to everyone involved in the Hockey Canada investigation when he was innocent.
“There were multiple men that night, we had the names that we had and that was we went with,” she testified. “I wouldn’t know better, the average person doesn’t know that, I’m following lawyers.”
Savard put to the complainant that the men she was suing, including some of the accused now on trial, never had a chance to respond to her civil allegations because they only found out about the lawsuit in the news after Hockey Canada quickly settled.
“I don’t know how that has anything to do with me, that would have been Hockey Canada handling that,” she said.
As for Gadjovich, the complainant believed “no harm” had come to him being included among the men who allegedly sexually assaulted her.
“He’s obviously not getting in trouble for anything, so they knew that he’s probably been cleared,” she said, referring to the Hockey Canada probe. “I’m kind of in the blind with the investigation and what comes out of it, so no harm has come from it as far I can see for him right now.”
Savard also pointed out that the complainant had misidentified two other men in relation to the alleged incidents. She identified Dallas Stars forward Sam Steel in a police photo lineup in 2018 as one of the men to whom she gave oral sex, based on his hair colour, but now believes that was a mistake, given that he wasn’t charged.
“It was my best guess at the time as someone who was involved,” she testified. “Me telling the officer, I didn’t think that was me accusing somebody. I didn’t think that was going to be the person they were going to file charges against.”
And then in her 2022 statement to Hockey Canada, which was also obtained by London police as part of their reopened investigation, she identified Ottawa Senators winger Drake Batherson as one of the men who laid down a bedsheet on the hotel room floor, on which the complainant fondled herself.
“I believe I have that in the statement, but right now I’m not feeling very sure on that,” she testified. “It just made sense to me that the first people in the room would have been the ones to do that … but being fully honest and transparent right now, I can’t say for sure that it was him putting down the bedsheet.”
