Still no trial date has been set for the five members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team charged with sexual assault.
At a brief court appearance in London Tuesday, the case was pushed to Aug. 13 at the Superior Court monthly scheduling court. There was a hint that a trial date may be set at that hearing. Justice Alissa Mitchell said the court could “potentially” select one at that appearance.
Mitchell was told judicial pre-trial hearings, routine closed-door hearings with a judge during which procedural issues are discussed, are ongoing and return on July 3.
Dillon Dube, 25, of the NHL’s Calgary Flames; Carter Hart, 25, goaltender for the NHL’s Philadelphia Flyers; Michael McLeod, 26, and Cal Foote, 25, both of the NHL’s New Jersey Devils; and Alex Formenton, 24, a former London Knight and NHL Ottawa Senator who spent last season playing in Switzerland, are all charged with sexual assault.
McLeod faces an additional charge of sexual assault “by being a party to the offence.” All the players were put on leave from their professional hockey clubs. The contracts of the four NHL players are slated to expire at month’s end.
Pre-trial motion dates were set last month for Sept. 5 and 6. All five players are expected to make their first in-person court appearances at that time. Those motion dates are to be confirmed at a separate readiness hearing on Aug. 7.
The charges stem from a London police investigation of a suspected sexual assault of an 18-year-old woman at the Delta Armouries hotel in June 2018 following a Hockey Canada fundraising gala in the city.
The allegations were from a woman who met the hockey players at a Richmond Row bar. She was separated from a friend and went to a hotel room with one of the players for consensual sex. Others were invited into the room and she alleges she was sexually assaulted by several men.
No charges were laid once the investigation was completed in 2019 and the woman launched a $3.5-million lawsuit, which Hockey Canada settled quietly.
But in May 2022, the settled claim was publicized, sparking public outrage. London police re-opened the investigation and charges were laid earlier this year.
All five players have selected a trial by judge and jury.