After nine days of testimony and after being grilled by five defence lawyers for five professional hockey players, the complainant in the Hockey Canada sexual assault case completed her testimony on Wednesday.
Her words over the last two weeks are at the centre of the high-profile trial of five members of the 2018 Canadian world junior championship team. The jury has heard, in graphic detail, her allegations about what took place inside a London, Ont., hotel room in the early hours of June 19, 2018, as well as her answers to hundreds of defence questions probing apparent inconsistencies in her story.
The complainant, whose identity is covered by a standard publication ban, said she met player Michael McLeod at Jack’s Bar when she was 20 years old and returned to his room at the Delta Armouries hotel where they had consensual sex, only for multiple men to come in afterward. She has alleged they placed a bedsheet on the floor and asked her to fondle herself, to perform oral sex on them as she was slapped and spat on, and to have vaginal intercourse.
The woman does not claim the men physically forced her to do anything that night, nor that she said no to the alleged assaults, but says she nonetheless did not consent to what happened. She testified she was drunk and in an autonomous state, acting in “autopilot” while surrounded by large men she didn’t know and who should have known she wasn’t consenting.
“I felt kind of like I was numb and on autopilot and going through the motions,”the woman testified,“watching it all happen and not feeling like
“I felt kind of like I was numb and on autopilot and going through the motions,”the woman testified,“watching it all happen and not feeling like
McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé, Carter Hart and Cal Foote have pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. Specifically, their charges relate to the Crown’s allegations that McLeod had intercourse with the complainant a second time in the hotel room’s bathroom; that Formenton separately had intercourse with the complainant in the bathroom; that McLeod, Hart, and Dubé obtained oral sex from the woman; that Dubé slapped her naked buttocks, and that Foote did the splits over her head and his genitals “grazed” her face.
The Crown’s re-examination of the complainant on Wednesday capped off nine days of testimony for the now-27-year-old woman, including a marathon seven under cross-examination.
Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham’s re-examination — the prosecution’s opportunity to ask the complainant to clarify her answers under cross-examination — was prolonged as the defence objected to several of the Crown’s questions, and discussions were had in the absence of the jury.
“You have completed giving your evidence now, so you are free to go,” Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia told the complainant late Wednesday afternoon, as she politely replied, “Thank you very much” before leaving.
Before the complainant, the jury had heard from a London police detective who testified about surveillance footage, as well as testimony from former world juniors Taylor Raddysh and Boris Katchouk about what they saw when they were briefly in the room.
The woman testified the entire time via CCTV from a different room in the London courthouse, while the background in the courtroom was blurred online, so that she could only see the judge and the lawyer asking her questions. Protesters supporting the complainant stood outside the courthouse each morning, holding signs and chanting.
Despite the length of time on the stand, the complainant generally maintained her composure, calmly answering questions and often apologizing when she was confused.
“That’s lawyer stuff, I don’t know what I was supposed to do,” the woman testified Wednesday, explaining why her lawsuit against Hockey Canada
“That’s lawyer stuff, I don’t know what I was supposed to do,” the woman testified Wednesday, explaining why her lawsuit against Hockey Canada
There were a few notable exceptions. She broke down in tears last Wednesday as she was being questioned by Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, about the $3.5-million lawsuit she filed against Hockey Canada and eight unnamed players, which the organization settled in 2022 for an undisclosed sum.
“I’m getting a little flustered with everything,” she said, as court ended 10 minutes early.
And she was noticeably combative and frustrated when being questioned last Friday by Formenton’s lawyer, Daniel Brown, about surveillance footage at Jack’s Bar. Brown told her part of the reason she had been testifying for so long was because she wasn’t answering questions directly.
“I feel this is also my time to stand up for myself when I couldn’t that night,” the woman responded. “So I’d like to respond how I’d like to respond, if that’s alright.”
Brown replied: “Well, in fact, it’s not alright, you’re here to respond to my questions.”
Here’s what we’ve heard from the Hockey Canada complainant, with links to the Star’s in-depth daily reporting on the trial:
Two days of examination in chief
Michael McLeod films a selfie video with the complainant on the dance floor inside Jack's Bar.
Ontario Superior Court exhibit
Michael McLeod with his lawyers David Humphrey, left, and Anna Zhang, right.
Nicole Osborne THE CANADIAN PRESSUnder questioning by Cunningham for the Crown on May 2 and 5, the complainant testified that she was very drunk at Jack’s Bar when she met McLeod, and was uncomfortable as she felt surrounded by him and his friends on the dance floor. In all, she testified she would have had about 10 drinks at the bar that night, mostly bought by McLeod and his friends.
She nevertheless said she agreed to go back to McLeod’s hotel room, but testified she likely wouldn’t have gone had she not been intoxicated.
A group chat involving members of Canada’s 2018 world junior championship team.
Ontario Superior Court Exhibit“I’m someone who has a bit of a hard time saying ‘no,’ I don’t like upsetting others, and I think when I’m drunk, that really shows,” she testified. “I know if I hadn’t been drunk or been in that position, that wouldn’t have been something I would have done, but I did feel OK going with him at that point.”
After having sex with McLeod back at his hotel room, the woman said she saw him on his phone, after which multiple men came into the room while the complainant was still naked. Texts entered into evidence show McLeod messaged his teammates in a group chat after 2 a.m. on June 19, saying “Who wants to be in 3 way quick” and Hart replied: “I’m in.”
The complainanttestified she went into “autopilot” mode, as her mind separated from her body and she felt like she was a spectator, watching her body engage in sexual activity with the men.
Although she didn’t say no, didn’t resist and wasn’t physically blocked from leaving, the woman said she nonetheless felt trapped in a room surrounded by men she didn’t know, and just went along with everything as a way of protecting herself.
‘It was all consensual,’ alleged victim in Canada world junior hockey sex assault case said on video
Prosecutors intend to show that the woman was complying because she was surrounded by large men she didn’t know while separated from her friends.
‘It was all consensual,’ alleged victim in Canada world junior hockey sex assault case said on video
Prosecutors intend to show that the woman was complying because she was surrounded by large men she didn’t know while separated from her friends.
“I didn’t know these men at all, I didn’t know how they would react if I did try to say no or try to leave,” she said. “My mind just kind of shut down and let my body do what it thought it needed to do to keep me safe.”
She said that she was crying, and that when she would try to leave, the men would coax her back into the room, putting their arm around her and guiding her back to the bedsheet. This is where she testified she was slapped and spat on as the men asked her to fondle herself, lowered their pants for oral sex and urged each other to have sex with her.
At one point, she said she became worried when someone made comments about “putting golf balls in me, in my vagina, and asking if I could take the whole club.”
All the while, she said she felt she couldn’t leave or resist. “I didn’t know these men at all, I didn’t know how they would react if I did try to say no or try to leave,” she said. “My mind just kind of shut down.”
The woman was also asked about two videos taken by McLeod on his phone in the hotel room that night. In the first, a voice off-camera asks if she’s “OK with this,” and she replies, smiling: “I’m OK with this.” The complainant testified she wasn’t aware she was being recorded in that first video.
She speaks for longer in the second video, taken about an hour after the first: “Are you recording me? OK, good, it was all consensual,” she says, wrapping herself in a towel. “You are so paranoid, holy. I enjoyed it. It was fine. It was all consensual. I am so sober, that’s why I can’t do this right now.”
The complainant testified she was just saying what she thought the men wanted to hear. “I think this is still a point where my mind is disconnected from my body,” she said.
She said she was distraught when she arrived home, and her mother found her crying in the shower. Her mother called the police, and urged her to speak with investigators. Meanwhile, McLeod was messaging the complainant after tracking her down on Instagram, asking what she could do to “make this go away.” The woman apologized for the “misunderstanding,” saying it was her mother who called the police and she would tell them she didn’t want to take things any further.
She testified she was just trying to get McLeod to leave her alone by telling him what she thought he wanted to hear.
Text messages between Michael McLeod and the complainant.
Ontario Superior Court ExhibitThe Star’s coverage of the Crown’s examination in chief
- Friday, May 2 — Day 1 of her testimony: I was drunk and ‘uncomfortable’ at bar with Canada world juniors, woman testifies
- Monday, May 5: ‘Numb and on autopilot’: Woman details alleged Hockey Canada sex assaults
Seven days of cross-examination
The woman’s cross-examination focused on apparent inconsistencies in her testimony, as the defence lawyers probed the question of consent.
She faced a barrage of questions about her interactions with the police and health care professionals, suggestions she was demanding to have sex with players and made up her allegations to keep her boyfriend, probing as to why she didn’t tell friends certain things at certain times, and doubts put to her about her alcohol consumption.
Alex Formenton with his lawyers Daniel Brown, left, and Hilary Dudding, right.
Geoff Robins THE CANADIAN PRESSCross-examination began on the afternoon of May 5, when McLeod’s lawyer David Humphrey suggested that it was actually the woman’s idea to have McLeod invite his teammates into the room, and that she was demanding to have sex with players.
“I’m going to suggest you said something to him along the lines of, ‘Get some of those guys back here, I want to have a wild night,’” Humphrey put to the complainant.
She replied that she didn’t “see that having been a suggestion that came from my mouth.”
While she says she has no actual recollection of whether she said anything to McLeod after they had sex, she maintained under re-examination on Wednesday that she knows that asking for other men to show up is not something she would do.
A pair of stills from videos showing the dance floor inside Jack’s Bar in London, Ont., on the night of June 18-19, 2018, show the complainant with world junior team members Dillon Dubé, circled left, and Michael McLeod, right.
Ontario Superior Court Exhibit“Just the fact that I know I had left (the bar) with only one person and that after a sexual encounter, I’m assuming I’m just staying in bed and I’m staying there,” she testified. “I’m not expecting anything else. It’s just not something that I would do.”
Once the hotel room was crowded with men, Humphrey suggested that the woman was saying to them: “Come on, you’ve got a girl here. Someone have sex with me. You guys are pussies.”
Carter Hart with his lawyers Megan Savard, left, and Riaz Sayani, right.
Geoff Robins THE CANADIAN PRESSThe woman testified she doesn’t recall making those comments, adding: “That doesn’t even sound like how I would usually speak.”
Savard, Hart’s lawyer, suggested to the complainant that she hadmade up the sexual assault allegations to keep her boyfriend, who is now her fiancé — something the woman denied.
It emerged while being questioned by Savard that the woman had told the police and Crown in a witness preparation meeting a few months ago that she took on the “persona” of a “porn star” as a coping mechanism in the hotel room, something Savard grilled her on.
“It felt like that’s what they were forcing on me,” the complainant testified. “It seemed like that’s what they wanted to see. They were trying to recreate like a porn scene.”
Savard asked her if she would engage this persona by offering sexual performances or services — the woman said it was possible — or by saying things like “Who’s going to f--- me?”
The woman said that didn’t sound like something she would say: “I don’t think even my persona would have said something like that.”
Dillon Dube with his lawyers Lisa Carnelos, left, and Julie Santarossa, far left.
Geoff Robins THE CANADIAN PRESSShe admitted under questioning by Savard that one of the unnamed players she sued for sexual assault in 2022 “didn’t do anything,” as she blamed her civil lawyers for his inclusion in her statement of claim as one of eight John Does.
In her later dealings with Hockey Canada’s third-party probe into the matter, she identified John Doe No. 8 as Jonah Gadjovich. She maintained she only identified him because she had recognized his face in photos from Jack’s Bar.
“I knew he didn’t do anything, I never said he did, it’s because those are the only names I could come up with,” she told the jury.
“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.”
She was walked through multiple surveillance clips from Jack’s Bar during her cross-examination by Brown, who suggested to her that the footage contradicts most of what she has said happened at the bar. For example, while she’s said that McLeod and his friends bought almost all of her drinks, she can be seen on video purchasing most of what she said she drank, either by herself or with a friend, Brown pointed out.
After Brown put to her that a witness will say she was seen “pulling” his client, Formenton, into the hotel room bathroom where she was allegedly assaulted, the complainant responded: “I guess it could be possible.”
Cal Foote, centre, with his lawyers Julianna Greenspan, left, and Lauren Crawford, right.
Nicole Osborne THE CANADIAN PRESSAfter leaving the hotel room, the complainant said she called her best friend and was “crying uncontrollably,” struggling to get the words out about what had happened. Dubé’s lawyer, Lisa Carnelos, highlighted that she didn’t tell her friend in that initial call or in texts later that day that she had been sexually assaulted or had been scared in the room.
Instead, the complainant texted the friend that she had been “a little overdramatic” when she first called her. She texted that she felt “really guilty and mad at myself for letting that s--- happen” and that she felt “dirty and used” afterward. And she said that she “never wanted to do this” to her boyfriend.
“I didn’t want to admit it was a sexual assault,” she testified Monday. “I didn’t want to say those words, because then it would be true.”
Finally, on her last day of cross-examination on Tuesday, the complainant faced questions from Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, who probed why she referred to the players as “boys” throughout her interactions with the police in 2018, but in court has only referred to them as “men.” (The current ages of the accused range from 25 to 27.)
Text messages between the complaint and her best friend on June 19, 2018.
Ontario Superior Court ExhibitGreenspan suggested the complainant had come to court “with a clear agenda,” which is why she had “so carefully changed” her language when referring to the accused. The complainant denied that, saying she referred to them as “boys” in 2018 because it was a simple term to use at a time when she was struggling to explain what had happened to her.
“It doesn’t change the fact that their age makes them men,” she said.
