WARNING: This article contains graphic details, references sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone impacted by it.
Outside the London, Ont., courthouse where five former world junior hockey players are on trial on sexual assault charges, supporters of the complainant — carrying signs reading, “I believe you E.M.” and “We Believe Survivors” — have been confronted by #HimToo movement backers with signs of their own: “5 careers ruined” and “E.M. cheated.”
The polarization echoes what’s happening on social media and in discussions across Canada as this high-profile trial plays out, with closing arguments starting Monday. Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote have all pleaded not guilty; the complainant is referred to as E.M. as her identity is protected under a standard publication ban.
On May 16, in a heated conversation with an unidentified female E.M. supporter outside the courthouse, a man could be heard speaking about testimony and evidence that have come up in the trial, but are being seen from different perspectives and interpretations.
“Inviting guys for a three-way with a woman might not be the right thing. It might not be something you want your sister to partake in,” said the man, giving his take on a text message entered as evidence. “However, it is not illegal when a girl is consenting to this. It is not criminal when a girl consented to this. Michael McLeod has had his career ruined. Hopefully, [McLeod’s lawyer] David Humphrey can go and exploit what this girl’s lies are.”
(McLeod has pleaded not guilty to a second charge, of being a party to the offence for allegedly inviting players to his hotel room to engage in sex.)
The woman outside the courthouse challenged the man on his notion of consent in a situation where one woman is naked in a room with up to 10 hockey players.
“She went to a room with one man,” the woman said of E.M.
“And she stripped naked and masturbated in front of the men,” the man replied.
“And then the man made a phone call and invited others to join,” the woman countered.
That discussion continued for nearly 20 minutes, while E.M. supporters chanted their support and shouted “shame” at the defendants as they walked into the courthouse.
The Crown has emphasized the issue of consent is central to this case, arguing it involves whether the complainant “voluntarily” agreed to each and every sexual act while it took place.
As part of her marathon testimony in the trial that began in late April, E.M. testified she only had consensual sex with one of the players: McLeod. She said that at other times, she was degraded, humiliated, spit on and slapped while being pressured into performing sexual acts she did not agree to on players in Delta hotel room 209 after a Hockey Canada gala in London in June 2018.
Some of the witnesses, including Hart, have testified E.M. was an active participant in what they say were consensual sex acts, wanting “a wild night,” asking the players to engage with her and taunting them when they didn’t.
Refuting rape myths
Advocates of #MeToo who have been following the case closely say it’s hard to counter rape myths online or outside the courthouse.
“We see people online commenting these things, saying these hateful things, talking about consent … talking about women in this very kind of demeaning and harmful way. Particularly, you know, very kind of slut-shamey [sic] comments, just doing this for a cheque, things like that,” said Landon Kenney, a male allyship educator at the Sexual Assault Centre of Waterloo in Ontario who has been at the London courthouse to support E.M.
E.M. supporters and #HimToo counter-protesters had a heated debate about the sexual assault case of the five former World Junior hockey players outside the London, Ont., courthouse on May 16
A large part of Kenney’s work is conducting education sessions in schools, and with sports teams and community organizations on consent, healthy masculinity and relationships, how to be an active bystander and how to challenge rape culture.
Kenney believes change will come through educating young people. In the meantime, he worries the #HimToo movement is using this trial to ramp up a “culture war.”
“The young men in this trial have become figureheads for a movement that they probably want nothing to do with,” he said.
“They have fallen on the side of a culture war even if they didn’t mean to or wish to, where there are groups of people out there who have a vested interest in trying to ensure that conversations like this happen, that the messaging like this gets out online where, they say, coming forward is ruining these people’s lives, [the complainant is] just doing it for attention — a lot of the kind of classic victim-blamey [sic] rhetoric.”
One of the observers in the London court every day is a man who identifies as the co-founder and director of False Allegations Canada, an organization dedicated to “aiding individuals facing the complexities of false allegations, providing a lifeline for those in need.” He agreed to an interview request with CBC News, but only on the condition of anonymity. CBC denied that request.
Kenney dismissed the argument that complainants like E.M. are making false allegations, saying most sexual assault allegations in Canada are not reported to police.
According to a Statistics Canada report in November 2024, for instance, only six per cent of sexual assaults are reported to police and only one in 19 led to an accused person being sentenced to custody. They are less likely to result in charges and convictions compared to physical assaults.
Kenney said the driver for the #HimToo movement is often the concern about false accusations, which he also says is very rare.
“The statistics show [it’s] very, very unlikely. People are far more likely to get away scot-free with wrong things that they have done than they are to be wrongfully accused of things they have not.”
‘Crown didn’t have a lot of evidence’
Opinions about false accusations and “buyers’ remorse” — denying later that consent was given — are rampant on social media.
It’s also a question mark for some people who have been closely watching the London trial, forming their beliefs based on the witnesses’ testimony and evidence presented.
Steven Janowicz is a hockey player adviser at Elwood Sports Management near Detroit, Mich. He also coached boys’ high school hockey for many years. Janowicz contacted CBC News, asking why the London case is not getting more attention in U.S. media.
“If it would have been some NBA players or NFL players, it’d be front page every day,” he said in a followup interview.
Janowicz said he has raised the case with friends and colleagues, and most of them think, as he does, that “it was just a bad situation that they [the players] walked into.… I think everyone was hoping they were not the instigators.”
During the proceedings, court heard McLeod sent out a text message to some of his then teammates, inviting them to his room for a “3 way” and oral sex. Janowicz said he has been more convinced by testimony that E.M. was the instigator.
“It has been tough for the players to relive that again, that whole experience, because I think in hindsight, again they’re probably wishing that they never went to that room,” he said.
Janowicz wonders why charges were laid and how this ever got to trial because “it just seemed like the Crown didn’t have a lot of evidence.”
Court heard that an original investigation conducted by the London Police Service (LPS) in 2018 was closed early into 2019 after the detective in charge, Stephen Newton, said he couldn’t find grounds for charges.
Under cross-examination recently, though, the now-retired sergeant admitted he had not thoroughly followed up on some investigative leads — for example, while he knew about McLeod’s text invitation, he didn’t try to get it, and he did not ask Dubé about the allegations he slapped E.M.’s bare buttocks.
After a settlement with E.M. by Hockey Canada became public in 2022, police started a second investigation that ultimately led to the charges.
When it comes to the issue of consent, Janowicz said, he was taught that when a woman says no, she means no — and that should be respected.
As he read about E.M.’s testimony and lengthy cross-examination, “I’ve never heard her saying no. So I have a quandary with that.… I didn’t hear E.M. say that, the Crown never presented that.
“It seems like based on what everybody has presented, the Crown and the attorneys for the players, she was more willing for some type of, like, a raunchy sex movie. I mean, I’ll just put it out there — it is what it is,” Janowicz said.
In her opening statement, assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers addressed that question specifically, saying, “You will not hear from E.M. that she said ‘no’ to the specific sexual acts that constitute a sexual assault, nor that she was physically resisting at those times. But we anticipate you will hear E.M. testify that when she was in this hotel room, at age 20, intoxicated, and a group of large men that she did not know were speaking to each other as if she were not there, and then they started telling her to do certain things — she did not feel that she had a choice in the matter.”
Donkers and others have pointed out that consenting to one kind of sexual activity does not automatically mean consenting to another; it’s a continuous process and the absence of “no” does not mean “yes.”
Believing stereotypes
Still, a new study conducted in Quebec suggests stereotypes about sexual assault are common, particularly when it comes to who is believed, who is blamed and what counts as consent — despite years of social awareness programs, including the #MeToo movement.
“What we found is that a significant portion of the population still holds beliefs that still believe rape myths, which are erroneous beliefs about victims, perpetrators and sexual assaults,” said Dominique Trottier, a psychology professor at Université du Québec en Outaouais and one of the study’s collaborators.
“Most of the population did not fully reject statements such as the victim is lying about what she endured or that she feels bad afterwards after the fact so she is lying about the fact that she consented,” Trottier said in an interview.
The study indicates 77 per cent of men and 53 per cent of women did not fully reject the idea that some people make false sexual assault accusations out of revenge.
A quarter of all respondents — 27 per cent of men and 20 per cent of women — also expressed ambiguity about the issue of consent, particularly in scenarios involving alcohol, non-verbal communication, coercion and social power dynamics, Trottier said.
People aged 15 to 25 and those 66 and older were more likely to express beliefs that undermine victims, the research found.
Petition backing E.M.
When Karen Barnes, Kelly Proudfoot and Tosh Southwick start chatting online, the topic can range from travel plans, to politics, to top stories in the news.
Former colleagues at Yukon University, they’ve had a lot of discussions lately about the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, particularly around E.M.’s testimony and cross-examination by the five defence lawyers.
“The thing that really sort of struck home for all of us was that this woman was having to do this alone,” Barnes said from her home in Chemainus, B.C.
“I wanted her to know that she wasn’t alone,” Proudfoot added from Europe, where the Whitehorse resident is currently travelling.
The friends wrote an open letter they tried to get published in southern Ontario newspapers. They also attempted to get it directly to E.M. through the courts. When none of that worked, they decided to put it online in the form of a petition.
“We don’t know your name, but we know your courage,” it starts.
“As women watching from across the country, we are heartbroken, enraged, and in awe of your strength. You are walking through fire in that courtroom in London, Ont. — reliving the horror, subjected to endless questioning, standing alone against a system and a culture that have failed you again and again.
“We believe you.”
The petition has been up since May 12 and has thousands of signatures.
Proudfoot said she has been touched by many of the comments, but also disheartened so few people have signed the petition compared to the approximately 40,000 people who have read it.
“For me, it’s the silence,” she said, adding people seem afraid to support E.M. publicly.
Coming from the hockey community of Whitby, Ont., and having worked for the NHL’s Calgary Flames early in her career, Proudfoot said some people have told her not to get involved — that E.M., who launched a civil lawsuit, received a settlement from Hockey Canada and it should be enough.
Proudfoot rejects that, saying her message to them is simple:
“I love hockey, and I believe E.M., and I think there’s lots more to that story. But right now, what I want is [for E.M.] to know that she has support and feel like she can go on in her life, that there are people that believe in her.”
Supporters of E.M. plan to be back at court on Monday as closing arguments begin. They’re also planning events for the day Justice Maria Carroccia hands down her decisions — which could still be weeks away.
Defence lawyers have already complained to the court that the protesters are intimidating the players, and “forcefully and loudly” advocating for results when they chant: “What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now.”
Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, described it as “name-calling, bullying, attacking.”
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
About The Author
More Stories
How Edmonton Oilers fans in B.C. cheer for their team on the other side of the Rockies
Summer McIntosh smashes women’s 400m freestyle world record at Canadian swim trials
‘Let’s go Oilers!’: Whatı̀, N.W.T., spreading hockey cheer during playoff finals