Content warning: This story includes allegations of sexual assault.
LONDON, Ont. – During the trial involving five former NHL players accused of sexual assault in June 2018, a lawyer representing Cal Foote questioned the complainant on Tuesday regarding the specific words she used in her testimony.
The woman, identified in court documents as “E.M.” due to a publication ban protecting her identity, testified remotely via CCTV from another location within the courthouse. She was cross-examined by Julianna Greenspan, counsel for Foote. This marked E.M.’s seventh day of cross-examination.
Greenspan pressed E.M. on why she referred to the accused players as “boys” or “boy” in her initial statement to London police in June 2018, but has consistently used the terms “men” or “man” during her court testimony.
E.M. responded, “They were at least 18, 19; they were men.”
Greenspan then asked, “Not once, not one single time, did you use ‘man’ or ‘men’ in June 2018 to refer to these individuals?”
E.M. confirmed, “That’s right, it’s not how I spoke back then. That was seven years ago.”
She further explained, “Their ages make them men. Just because I called them boys doesn’t change the fact that their age makes them men.”
Greenspan asserted, “The reason why you have so carefully changed your language is because you have come into this trial with a clear agenda.”
E.M. denied this claim, stating, “Absolutely not. I’m older now, I understand more, they were men.”
Greenspan also challenged E.M.`s assertion that she was unaware the men she met at Jack’s bar in London were members of the Canadian World Junior hockey team. Greenspan questioned E.M.’s professed lack of knowledge about hockey, noting that in June 2018 she worked at a sporting goods store, and her family, including her brother and cousins who played hockey and a father who volunteered in minor hockey, had ties to the sport.
Greenspan suggested that a bouncer at Jack’s on June 18, 2018, had told E.M. that players from the Canadian World Junior team were in the bar. E.M. replied, “I didn’t know that’s what they were.”
During the afternoon session, Greenspan questioned E.M.’s police statement concerning an incident on June 19, 2018, at the Delta Armouries hotel, where she alleged one of the players performed the splits over her while she was naked on a bedsheet.
E.M. testified, “They were all laughing and thought it was hilarious. It wasn’t funny to me.”
Greenspan proposed that E.M. had heard one of the men say, “Hey, Footer, do the splits,” implying the event was part of the ongoing “fun and games” in which E.M. was participating at the time.
E.M. disputed this, stating, “This was not something I asked for,” adding that she did not hear a name. “I got no notice before that happened to me. … They were having a good time at my expense.”
Greenspan then suggested E.M. was enjoying the attention she was receiving.
E.M. countered, “This was attention I never asked for. They were objectifying me. They were literally laughing at me. They didn’t need to be in that room.”
Greenspan claimed E.M. was having a “good time” and only became unhappy when the men began talking among themselves.
E.M. responded, “Any one of those men could have stood up and said, ‘This is not OK.’ They didn’t do that. They didn’t want to think about the fact that I wasn’t consenting.”
Michael McLeod faces two counts of sexual assault, including one for aiding in the offence. Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, and Carter Hart are each charged with one count of sexual assault. All five have entered pleas of not guilty.
The trial at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice is scheduled to continue Wednesday with the redirect examination of E.M. by assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham.
Editor’s note
If you or someone you know is in need of support, those in Canada can find province-specific centres, crisis lines and services here. For readers in the United States, a list of resources and references for survivors and their loved ones can be found here.
