An Ontario court heard legal arguments Thursday in the high-profile sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.
Opening statements began Wednesday, but jurors were dismissed early after Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said an incident occurred during the lunch hour, and that she needed to discuss it with the lawyers.
Matters discussed when the jury is not present can’t be reported until after jurors are sequestered to deliberate.
The Crown was laying out its case against Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton when the jury was dismissed.
Dube, Hart, McLeod, Foote and Formenton were charged with sexual assault early last year in connection to an alleged group sexual assault in London after a Hockey Canada gala event in 2018. McLeod is facing an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The players all entered not-guilty pleas one by one Tuesday.
News of the alleged group sexual assault first broke in May 2022 after TSN reported Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with the female complainant.
That report triggered a series of events, with intense scrutiny focused on Hockey Canada that eventually led the entire board and leadership team to resign.
London police, which closed an initial investigation without charges in 2019, would reopen the case three years later and lay charges.
Chief Thai Truong apologized to the alleged victim in February 2024, saying “it shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive at the outcome of today.”
He and other officers offered few details, saying they could not compromise the ongoing legal case.
A court ban prevents the release of any information that could identify the complainant, whose version of what happened in 2018 will be tested in front of the defendants in court.
The trial is expected to last about eight weeks.
— with files from The Canadian Press