New jury selected in London hockey case

London, Ont. – A new 14-person jury made up of nine women and five men has been selected in the sexual assault trial of five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team, after Justice Maria Carroccia declared a mistrial and dismissed the initial jury on the trial’s fourth day.

A mistrial is a trial that is not successfully completed due to a significant error or problem that prevents a fair verdict from being reached.

Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, and Carter Hart are charged with sexually assaulting a woman identified in court documents as E.M. in June 2018 at a London hotel following a Hockey Canada golf and gala event. McLeod faces a second sexual assault charge as a party to the offence.

The defendants have pleaded not guilty. The trial continues on Monday.

In addition to the 14 jurors selected, two alternate jurors – one man and one woman – were also selected. The initial jury before the mistrial was declared on Friday was made up of 11 women and three men.

Several lawyers and Crown attorneys not involved in the case said they consider more factors than a juror’s gender when they assess if they might be helpful to their side.

“As a defence lawyer you always hope to have a jury that includes people who may be sympathetic to your client,” said Alison Craig, a defence lawyer who specializes in sexual assault cases and has no involvement in the hockey case.

“One's instinct might be that means the defence would hope to have more men than women on the jury, and I think every defence lawyer's reaction to learning that this [initial] jury was comprised of 11 women and three men was to grimace, but I think in reality a juror's life experiences and willingness to keep an open mind are more important than their gender.  

“As long as there are both men and women on the jury I'm not convinced that the breakdown matters much one way or the other.”

Several lawyers not involved with the hockey trial pointed to the sexual assault trials of former Hedley frontman Jacob Hoggard as evidence that gender is not the only factor that matters in a juror.
In 2022, Hoggard was convicted of sexually assaulting an Ottawa woman by a jury of 10 men and two women. Two years later, he was acquitted by a jury of nine women and three men for a 2016 charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm.

“If you’re worried about gender, you aren’t a very good lawyer,” said a Crown attorney who has no involvement with the hockey trial. “It’s gross and sexist to think women would convict and men would acquit.”