Judge to deliver verdicts in high-profile world junior sex assault trial
Global News
Five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team accused of sexual assault will learn their fates in their high-profile trial Thursday.
Five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team accused of sexual assault will learn their fates in their high-profile trial Thursday.
Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia will deliver her verdicts inside a London, Ont., courtroom in the case of Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote.
The five men have been on trial since late April – accused of engaging in non-consensual group sex with a then-20-year-old woman in June 2018. All five men pleaded not guilty to sexual assault; McLeod also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
It initially started as a jury trial, but just a few days in, a mistrial was declared out of concern about a tainted jury after a juror accused Hillary Dudding, one of Formenton’s lawyers, of initiating conversation while in line for lunch.
Dudding denied this and said any contact with the juror was inadvertent.
The trial resumed the following week with a new jury. They would go on to watch videos of the complainant, known as E.M., taken by McLeod, hear from then-teammate Taylor Raddysh about a group-chat screenshot he took capturing talk of a “3 way” sent by McLeod, and hear from E.M. herself.
The now-27-year-old woman, whose identity is protected under a standard publication ban, was subject to intense cross-examination during her nine days on the stand.
Court heard the team was in London for events marking its gold-medal performance at that year’s championship, and that the complainant was out with friends when they met at a downtown bar on June 18, 2018.
Joshua Wright says a yellow cedar tree he photographed last year was "incredible," the largest he'd ever seen in a decade of hiking around Vancouver Island.
Canadians could face grocery bills up to $1,000 higher in 2026 as food prices rise 4-6 per cent, with restaurants and meat seeing the biggest jumps.
Despite a growing homelessness problem in the South Okanagan city, council voted 4-2 against the project and the millions of provincial dollars that would come along with it.
Artificial Intelligence Minister Evan Solomon told a House of Commons committee the updated strategy will come next year, after saying in the fall it would come this year.
Reports emerged this week of U.S. government procurement plans to order 20 Senator vehicles for its ICE officers, a move worth roughly $10 million.
The 16-year-old was arrested in April after police said a credible threat was made against students at Citadel High School.
A committee meeting also heard an extra $194 million is needed to pay for carbon price fuel charges that the provincial government didn't collect.
The premier of Nova Scotia is calling for an investigation into how a major power utility has handled a cyberattack.
Toronto's fire chief says work on extinguishing a fire at two highrise buildings will continue 'into next week,' meaning those evacuated won't be returning home yet.
The outbreak of salmonella linked to pistachio and pistachio-containing products continues with more than 150 confirmed illnesses now reported.
The 50-unit tiny home community would have been built on a city-owned parcel of land near Dartmouth Road and Dartmouth Drive and funded by the provincial government.
The steel giant announced Monday it would lay off roughly 1,000 workers as a Sault Ste. Marie plant closure is being made to adapt to a “fundamentally altered” landscape.
Police say three people are facing charges after $1.3 million worth of liquor allegedly stolen from the LCBO was being sold in a trafficking operation.