Alleged victim in 2018 World Junior case names French-speaking player in the hotel room

The trial for five players on Team Canada’s 2018 World Junior hockey continued on Thursday as two defence lawyers kept cross-examining E.M., the complainant in the sexual assault trial of five ex-members of Canada’s world junior hockey team.

While lawyers have focused their questioning on E.M.’s own behaviour, they added a brutal approach on Thursday asking her who she thinks is to “blame” for what happened.

As E.M. maintained she did not consent to group sexual activity in 2018, she was once again grilled first by Carter Hart’s lawyer, Megan Savard, who challenged her on each and every detail on her account in her earlier statements.

Then, after the lunch break, Savard asks E.M. about a player in the hotel room who was speaking French. This is the breakdown of that cross-examination by Hart’s lawyer, via CBC:

“E.M. says she remembers one of the men speaking French and she was able to identify him in the photos that police showed to her.

E.M. says she spoke French back to him but doesn’t remember what they said.

Savard also asks E.M. if she was the one who leaked the lawsuit statement of claim to the media.

“No, definitely not. My understanding was that it would be private, that I could move on.”

After the media report about the lawsuit and Hockey Canada settlement, London police reopened their investigation.”

While no much more is said about the “player in the hotel room who was speaking French”, he is never once mentioned by name in the court room.

Upon looking at the roster from the 2018 World Junior hockey team, the only player who’s first language is French would be Maxime Comtois, who does not face any criminal charges in the world juniors case.

A lot more than what the public first knew about this case is getting revealed, and of course the defence lawyers are not going easy on E.M. during their cross-examinations.

Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart and Michael McLeod have pleaded not guilty.

The court will be back in session on Friday morning.