Players failed to confirm woman's consent, Crown says as closing arguments end at Hockey Canada trial
'Myths and stereotypes' about sexual assault shouldn't have had a place at the trial of five 2018 Team Canada world junior hockey players, but the Crown on Friday said they have taken centre stage.
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At the end of the prosecution's lengthy closing argument, Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham said the defence teams' strategies relied heavily on attacking the credibility of the 27-year-old woman who says she was sexually assaulted in a London hotel room seven years ago – instead of addressing evolving legal standards around consent.
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'Relying on myths and stereotypes to discredit sexual assault complainants is an error of law,' Cunningham said to Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia.
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The Crown has argued the men who had sexual contact with the woman inside Michael McLeod's room at the Delta Armouries hotel in London on June 19, 2018, did not obtain the legal consent and should be found guilty. However, Cunningham said the defence leaned on victim-blaming, painting the woman – who was 20 at the time – as someone who 'abandoned restraint' and offered sex to the men in Room 209.
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Cunningham said it is a stereotype that 'women signal their sexual availability by drinking and going out and getting drunk and dancing and flirting on the dance floor, that all of these things make it more likely that she also chose to engage in sexual activity with the men back at the hotel.
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'It's not only a myth, but I submit it is not what happened here on the evidence.'
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McLeod, 26, Carter Hart, 26, Dillon Dube, 26, Alex Formenton, 25, and Cal Foote, 26, have each pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to a second charge of sexual assault for being a party to the offence.
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The case surrounds a night of partying in London on June 18 and 19, 2018, when the Canadian world junior team was in the city for a Hockey Canada gala and golf tournament celebrating the team's gold medal months earlier.
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McLeod and the woman met at Jack's bar on Richmond Row and returned to his hotel room for consensual sex. What happened after is at the heart of the trial.
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The woman has testified that when she emerged naked from the bathroom, she found a group of players in the room invited by McLeod for sexual activities.
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Along with being drunk, the woman said she had a trauma response and felt her mind separate from her body to cope with the demands of the men who directed her to participate in several sexual activities. The Crown says the woman was vulnerable, outnumbered and went along with what happened.
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The defence has pointed to the woman as the aggressor and instigator of the sexual activity, first masturbating in front of them while on a bedsheet spread on the floor, then begging and taunting the men for sex. Some took her up on her offers and insist she consented to the activities.
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