Lawsuit Against Hockey Canada and Canadian Hockey League

[2014olympicgold]

Robert Thomas released a statement too saying he wasn't involved in, or witness anything.

He wasn't even at the event so he was eliminated pretty early in the "internet investigation".

[butch]

So here is the players and Hockey Canada "defense" :
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...awsuit-police/

If all this is true (message text evidence), those guys are still disgusting...

from the article
The lawyers for the players say they provided the text messages and two videos shown to The Globe to the London police in 2018. The police investigation concluded without charges in February, 2019, the lawyers said, after the lead detective said he didn’t have reasonable grounds to believe a sexual assault had been committed. London police declined to comment on investigative details.



so the players thought it was over with until hockey canada paid a settlement to the woman involved without the players knowing .

[SeaDawg]

from the article
The lawyers for the players say they provided the text messages and two videos shown to The Globe to the London police in 2018. The police investigation concluded without charges in February, 2019, the lawyers said, after the lead detective said he didn’t have reasonable grounds to believe a sexual assault had been committed. London police declined to comment on investigative details.



so the players thought it was over with until hockey canada paid a settlement to the woman involved without the players knowing .

I don't understand how the London Police could possibly conclude that no sexual assault had been committed. I hope that in addition to a Hockey Canada investigation that the London Police (or at the very least the lead detective) is investigated for that oversight as well.

Maybe the police didn't have enough evidence, or perhaps they didn't investigate the incident thoroughly enough. I sure hope that we get an answer on this and that the police simply didn't look the other way because the case involved high-profile assailants.

[Loch]

I don't understand how the London Police could possibly conclude that no sexual assault had been committed. I hope that in addition to a Hockey Canada investigation that the London Police (or at the very least the lead detective) is investigated for that oversight as well.

Maybe the police didn't have enough evidence, or perhaps they didn't investigate the incident thoroughly enough. I sure hope that we get an answer on this and that the police simply didn't look the other way because the case involved high-profile assailants.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was misunderstanding but it read like the "exculpatory" video was recorded at the time which suggests that she was in a room with 8 athletic dudes saying 'make this video'... which kinda seems coerced? Also, and I might be off base here, but if you feel the need to have some record a video saying you didn't commit a crime then maybe you think you committed a crime?

And having a fund to avoid insurance company investigations is sooo wrong. Ugh.

[2014olympicgold]

The player the female had first gone to the room with was texting her after the night. She said she told her mom what happened and the mom convinced the girl to go to police. The female told teh hockey player and he convinced her to retract her claim.

Police at the time had investigated what they could during the time when the female made the claim and took it back, but it's a he-said-she-said case and likely there was no evidence at the time the London Police were able to access.

[Locke]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I was misunderstanding but it read like the "exculpatory" video was recorded at the time which suggests that she was in a room with 8 athletic dudes saying 'make this video'... which kinda seems coerced? Also, and I might be off base here, but if you feel the need to have some record a video saying you didn't commit a crime then maybe you think you committed a crime?

And having a fund to avoid insurance company investigations is sooo wrong. Ugh.

I'd expect that hockey canada coaches players to obtain video consent prior to anything that might come back to bite them.

Is consent possible in precisely that situation? I honestly think that's an open question. Theoretically yes, practically is another question.

Generally speaking, IMO the legal system as a whole deals very poorly with situations like this, like Kavanaugh, like Ghomeshi.

[2014olympicgold]

FYI, if it's deemed someone gives consent based on fear it doesn't count legally. So the videos can be very quickly disregarded legally. Which is why many think the defense gameplan is very weak if that's their play.

[Pengwin7]

I just recently started following along on this story (getting back into the hockey world).
Awful that this happened. But - real. And important that it is put on a stage and examined.

I'm quite curious to see where Alex Formenton fits into this picture.
Both he and Robert Thomas were London Knights during the 2017/18 season.
Both signed their NHL ELC contracts in fall of 2017, while playing with London.
And both were under Ontario drinking age (19) at the time of the gala.
(With half-a-brain, these NHL-drafted, signed players should be avoiding any place with alcohol, if underage, at strong advice of their org & agent.)

And the gala was in London. I believe I read that the gala included drinks at 11pm.
And I'd have to imagine, that after that ended, a group of the WJC boys went to some bar in London.
And if you're doing that... somebody probably has a recommendation on a good place to go.
So - those pieces might bring some things together.

Formenton is a 1999 Sep13 birthday... so he wouldn't have yet turned 19 on the night of June 19, 2018.
Thomas is a 1999 July2 birthday... so he was also a few days short of 19 on the night of June 19, 2018.

Robert Thomas is one of my favourite NHL players these days.
It was a sigh of relief to know that he (allegedly) isn't involved.

Overall - just ugh.



(Interested - if available in some context from Lawman analysis - if he wishes. I've come across some people's notes on twitters that some players are denying "involvement" and some players are denying "wrongdoing". I sort of wonder if a player ended up in the "room"... but maybe just stood there and didn't do anything sexual - could he / would he possibly be truthful if he is simply denying "wrongdoing"? Seems like there's some cloudiness there in words chosen.

I saw one person on twitter post this:
https://twitter.com/LeJamie__/status...90569475543040
)



Top Row [L-R], I believe are: Batherson, Bean, Comtois, Makar, Fabbro, Steel, C.Hart, C.Point, Foote, Thomas
Bot Row [L-R], I believe are: Formenton, Dube, Katchouk, Steenbergen, Timmins, Gadjovich, Howden, Raddysh, McLeod
Not in Attendance: K.Clague, Kyrou, Mete

[Locke]

FYI, if it's deemed someone gives consent based on fear it doesn't count legally. So the videos can be very quickly disregarded legally. Which is why many think the defense gameplan is very weak if that's their play.

Given what's been made available as to the contents of the videos, I'd be shocked if they "can be very quickly disregarded legally": https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...awsuit-police/

[2014olympicgold]

Given what's been made available as to the contents of the videos, I'd be shocked if they "can be very quickly disregarded legally": https://www.theglobeandmail.com/cana...awsuit-police/

Prof. Sheehy said that while she won’t comment on the specifics of this case, generally speaking, videos like these aren’t useful in proving consent, because in Canada consent can only take place at the time of the sexual activity – not before or after. It must be continuous and it must connect to a specific type of activity, she said.

This is what I'm getting at, you can't just prove your innocence as the John Does with these videos if that's your only defense. And it's not even evidence really. But I'm also not a lawyer.

[als_revenge]

All eyes shift to Comtois and Formenton.

Makes the bullying towards Comtois worthy if he did this.

Comtois released a statement today. "I was not involved in any way with the alleged abuse, and as far as I know, no one has suggested otherwise."

[Axeman33]

Comtois released a statement today. "I was not involved in any way with the alleged abuse, and as far as I know, no one has suggested otherwise."

Running out of names that were "involved". Lots of very specific words being used in these statements so not to incriminate themselves in certain areas but certainly not admitting to everything either. It's like half-truths.

[2014olympicgold]

Comtois released a statement today. "I was not involved in any way with the alleged abuse, and as far as I know, no one has suggested otherwise."

Weird the wording with the "and as far as I know, no one has suggested otherwise" being very similar to others. Kinda makes me think it's the same lawyers as Sam Steel who said "Sam Steel did not engage in any of the misconduct that has been described in the media, and as far as I know, no one has alleged that he did so "

Just odd how they've included the "and as far as I know...." section of the statement.

[2014olympicgold]

Colton Point has also literally copied and pasted Raddysh's statement on twitter. Like...word for word.

[butch]

the players with the non disclosure agreements cant say anything at all (I'm assuming)so arent we getting to the point where its possible it was also some non team canada players involved ?

I lost count but it feels like we're at 6 team canada guys left now that comtois made his statement