Five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team have pleaded not guilty in their sexual assault trial that began Tuesday.
Dillon Dube, Carter Hart, Michael McLeod, Cal Foote and Alex Formenton were charged with sexual assault early last year in connection to an alleged group sexual assault in London, Ont., after a Hockey Canada gala event in 2018. McLeod is facing an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The players, all dressed in dark suits, entered their pleas one by one in a packed London courtroom Tuesday morning. Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia will preside over the trial, which is expected to unfold over several weeks, beginning with jury selection April 22.
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News of the event first broke in May 2022 after TSN reported Hockey Canada had settled a civil lawsuit with the female complainant.
That report triggered a series of events, with intense scrutiny focused on Hockey Canada that eventually led the entire board and leadership team to resign.
London Police, which closed an initial investigation without charges in 2019, would reopen the case three years later and lay charges.
Chief Thai Truong apologized to the victim in February 2024, saying “it shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive at the outcome of today.”
He and other officers offered few details, saying they could not compromise the ongoing legal case.
A court ban prevents the release of any information that could identify the complainant, whose version of what happened in 2018 will be tested in front of the defendants in court.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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