BARRIE — During a break in proceedings under the fluorescent lights of courtroom No. 8 at the Barrie Courthouse on Thursday afternoon, pc28city Coun. Michael Thompson stood near the wooden benches of the gallery and recited to me the number of days it has been since he was charged with two counts of sexual assault, then expressed it in hours, and minutes. Though his own lawyer would, moments later, delay the trial further with the threat of a mistrial application, Thompson expressed hope in a resolution coming soon.
He wouldn’t be the only one.
The events at the centre of the trial took place in July 2022. Two women allege the now-65-year-old politician assaulted them during a long weekend at a cottage in Muskoka, one testifying that he put his hands under her bathing suit to grope her breasts and buttocks while applying suntan lotion, another alleging he woke her from a drunken sleep to force himself on her late in the night.
“Did you want any of this to be happening,” the prosecutor asked the woman at Coun. Michael Thompson’s continuing sex assault trial. “No,” she said.
“Did you want any of this to be happening,” the prosecutor asked the woman at Coun. Michael Thompson’s continuing sex assault trial. “No,” she said.
The charges were laid in September that year. It took more than two years before the trial kicked off in October 2024, when it was scheduled to take five days. It has convened sporadically since then in Bracebridge and Barrie, stretching out now over seven months. Thompson’s lawyer, Leora Shemesh, suggested last month that the delays had been “torturous” for her client. One imagines they have been equally so for the two women who allege they were his victims. And also for his colleagues on city council, and his constituents in Scarborough, and every resident of pc28who has had these unanswered charges hanging in the air at every meeting or event Thompson has attended. Save for a blanket denial of any wrongdoing, until this week Thompson had never explained his side of the story at all, including during an election campaign in which he was returned to office.
And then finally, over three days this week, we were witness to the spectacle of a sitting pc28city councillor taking the stand in his own defence in a criminal trial. Not that you would have particularly known it from showing up in person. At the beginning and end of each day, one or two news cameras assembled on the road to get pictures of the pc28politician entering and exiting with his lawyers. But the street was more crowded with homeless residents of the shelter at the end of the street than with any media circus. Staff in the courthouse didn’t recognize the name of the accused when asked for directions. Awaiting the start of proceedings on Tuesday, in the waiting area outside the courtroom, Thompson was seated chatting with a friend who would be called as a witness at one end of the room, one of his accusers waiting to complete her testimony sat along the opposite wall, looking at her phone, and I sat in the middle, the only other person in the deeply awkward space.
At many times during the week, I and the arresting OPP detective were the only people seated in the public gallery of the courtroom, though more members of the media were watching via Zoom.
Once Thompson did take the stand, he issued a comprehensive, point-by-point denial of all of the testimony of the three women who testified for the Crown. I have the words “absolutely not” written in my notebook more than a dozen times — it was the theme of his testimony, often accompanied by a dismissive chuckle or an exaggerated double-take.
Thompson has vehemently denied sexually assaulting two women at his friend’s cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022.
Thompson has vehemently denied sexually assaulting two women at his friend’s cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022.
His accounts were detailed, as he fluidly recalled anecdotes about the other witnesses’ families and situations and requests of him. His account is completely irreconcilable with those of the three other people the court has heard from who were there. Accepting his version requires believing that three women, one of whom was a stranger to the other two and all of whom were only slightly acquainted with him, are making up most of the relevant events and dialogue from whole cloth.
Once cross-examination resumes later this month, and the evidence of the trial concludes, it will be up to Justice Phil Brissette to conclude whether Thompson’s version allows for reasonable doubts about the Crown’s specific criminal allegations against him.
But this is a trial with more than just a criminal component. Because he is an elected official, the accusations against Thompson have broader moral, political implications. Thompson’s behaviour, as a politician, is not just being judged at a trial. If the councillor succeeds in causing the judge to have reasonable doubts about specific criminal allegations, there will remain questions of whether he has met a different test of conduct, one measured not in a court of law, but in the court of public opinion.
Thompson and everyone else will have to wait awhile longer for the legal questions to be resolved. But the long silence is over: we have heard the accounts of everyone who was present. His colleagues and constituents are free to form their own judgments of how comfortable they are standing beside Thompson, or having him represent the city. It will be interesting now to hear what they have to say about it. Or don’t.
