A trial for five players charged with sexual assault in connection with an incident in 2018 allegedly involving members of that year’s Canadian national junior team will be set June 11, Ontario Superior Court judge Alissa Mitchell ruled Tuesday.
As with the first court date of the case on Feb. 5, none of the players were present on Tuesday, and were represented via Zoom by counsel.
That same day, London Police Chief Thai Truong apologized to the woman at the centre of the investigation into the sexual assault.
The Globe and Mail reported later in February that the players chose to have the trial by jury and will be tried as a group.
Dillon Dube, Cal Foote and Carter Hart and Alex Formenton have been charged with one count of each of sexual assault. Michael McLeod has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one relating to aiding someone else in the offence.
In May 2022, a report revealed that Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with a woman in London after she alleged she was sexually assaulted by eight men, including members of the 2018 men’s World Junior team, following an event honouring the team in June 2018. Following widespread scrutiny of Hockey Canada’s handling of the situation, London police re-opened its own investigation in July 2022. An initial investigation was launched in the summer of 2018 and closed in February 2019 with investigators concluding that there was insufficient evidence to lay charges.
