WJC 2018 Scandal: Why Did The Crown Ever Send This Case To A Trial?

What we have here is failure to communicate— Strother Martin as The Captain Cool Hand Luke.

The best failure to communicate states that there are three sides to every story. Our side. Your side. And the facts. With its lurid sexual allegations and hockey background, the sexual assault trial of the World Junior Hockey gold medalists of 2018 was a field day for narratives in the media and the courtroom. The facts, meanwhile, were stowed away beneath the surface of social media.

The alleged victim, known as EM, was championed by feminist leaders as symbolizing all women trapped by the patriarchy, ignored by the police and cast aside by the courts. Outside diligent reporters such as Katie Strang of The Athletic and Rick Westhead  of TSN, the media universe simply assumed guilt in the five players, because. hockey… Social media liberally smeared them as rapists, symbols of women’s degradation.

The five players on trial, meanwhile, were young, privileged fools, yes. But they had been unfairly branded as criminals by Hockey Canada which rushed to condemn them in a quick civil settlement of EM’s charges. HC never consulted them about their side of the story before surrendering the cash. This drive-by panic eventually would cost the five their NHL careers. Meanwhile, the 20 or so players on the 2018 Team Canada gold medal winners graduated into the NHL, with no one in the public knowing who was under suspicion? Who was innocent?

And then there are the facts. The most prominent was the 2018 decision of the London, Ont., police not to press charges after their investigation of the incident at a local bar and then hotel. With a single witness-- who only came forward at the urging of her mother,  made a puzzling video from the incident itself and the contradictory evidence from the five players and others on the team— they knew it would not stand the scrutiny of a public trail with skilled defence lawyers.

Especially with a jury drawn from the hockey-mad city of London. So they passed on laying charges. It was suggested that a civil suit might be the best way to get some measure of justice. Which was what happened in 2022. Hockey Canada executives, spooked by the prospect of bad publicity, used a secret slush fund to pay EM a reported $3 million. The players were hung out to dry. And there it was supposed to rest.

Until the fastidious Strang/ Westwood duo revealed the presence of the slush fund, partially drawn from the registration fees of young players across the country. Hearings were quickly held on Parliament Hill excoriating the HC brass. This was followed by the resignations of said HC executives. There were promises of reform, withdrawal of sponsors and a blanket condemnation of the male hockey culture in Canada by people who thrive on such things. 

In this favourable media cycle, the Crown suddenly decided to try its luck in court against the quintet. The political pressure for a conviction was tremendous as supporters of the Liberal government as well as its NDP partners demanded guilty charges. Social media demanded retribution. In this atmosphere a trial date for late 2024 was set. 

Anyone who recalls the infamous 2016 sexual assault trial of former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi could have told you that it was going to be a reach to get convictions. In the Ghomeshi case the “traumatized” witnesses against him were revealed to have later contacted him for more meetings, promising more intimacy. Plus the witnesses conspired between themselves on their testimony. Ghomeshi was acquitted but never forgiven, his CBC career crushed.

In London, the Crown had to make the case of an intoxicated young woman who’d voluntarily gone to the hotel for sex with a player, who’d never been restrained or bound from leaving and who’d done videos saying she’d voluntarily spent the night in group sex with the players. The details were lurid, even if some teammates’ memories of the night were conveniently hazy on the stand.

There was hope among feminists that a jury might look past the shaky evidence and sympathize with EM. But that hope collapsed when the judge, citing complaints of harassment of jurors by defence counsel, declared a mistrial and took over the case herself. 

In the end, Justice Maria Carroccia found EM not "credible or reliable” enough to send the players to jail. While scolding their behaviour she declared the young men not guilty. It was a courageous decision, knowing it would prompt backlash. The Globe&Mail led the charge, declaring “After the Hockey Canada verdict Advocates fear survivors will fall silent”. 

Jesse Rodger, executive director of a local London sexual-assault centre: “Unfortunately, I think what this does is reconfirm that the legal system is perhaps not the safest place to find justice. I think it may deter people from coming forward.”

Supporters of EM outside the courtroom used words like “gutting”, “devastated” and “insulting” upon hearing the decision. In a society where The Handmaids Tale indoctrinates women into a culture of victimization there were willing ears for the purported messages against hockey players.

But as Joanna Baron wrote, “a criminal trial is not a symposium on sexual morality or trauma psychology. It is a process bound by the high threshold of the presumption of innocence. Today’s verdict reaffirms that principle.” And justifies the earlier decision not to seek a criminal trial

Predictably there are calls for reforms in the hockey culture. But how? As we saw in cases from Graham James to Dave Frost the bonding of teams often excludes females beyond mothers and sisters. Scoring with girls and women is almost as valued as scoring on the ice. (Make no mistake they have plenty of compliant partners in this.)  Similarly, in a climate where immature young men make millions they are going to attract ever more young women eager to punch a lottery ticket for life, whatever the price.

In that context the players will act according to their privilege. They’ve heard about the sexual spoils of stardom and are eager to collect. EM’s motives seem unclear beyond a wild night out with some famous hockey players. Why she stayed, why she offered sex to so many players and why she complied with the video are unknowable. 

Had her mother not intervened it would have been a private story among those in the room that night. The civil suit would have given her some compensation and privacy.  It’s too late for that now. The London police read the room properly. And hockey has a costly own-goal.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.