Foote’s lawyer focuses on choice of language at hockey sexual assault trial

Content warning: This story includes allegations of sexual assault.

LONDON, Ont. — A lawyer for Cal Foote challenged the complainant in the trial of five former NHLers accused of sexual assault in June 2018 on Tuesday about her choice of language in her testimony.

The woman, known as “E.M.” in court documents because of a publication ban on her name, answered from elsewhere in the courthouse via CCTV to questioning by lawyer Julianna Greenspan, who represents Foote. It was E.M.’s seventh day of cross-examination.

Greenspan questioned E.M. as to why she referred to the accused players as “boys” or “boy” in her statement to London police in June 2018 but has been referring to them as “men” or “man” in testimony.

“They were at least 18, 19; they were men,” E.M. said.

“Not once, not one single time, did you use ‘man’ or ‘men’ in June 2018 to refer to these individuals?” Greenspan later said.

“That’s right, it’s not how I spoke back then,” E.M. said. “That was seven years ago.

“Their ages make them men. Just because I called them boys doesn’t change the fact that their age makes them men.”

“The reason why you have so carefully changed your language is because you have come into this trial with a clear agenda,” Greenspan said.

“Absolutely not,” E.M. said. “I’m older now, I understand more, they were men.”

Greenspan also challenged E.M. on whether she knew the men she met at Jack’s bar in London were members of the Canadian world junior hockey team. Greenspan questioned E.M.’s stated lack of knowledge about hockey considering that, in June 2018, she worked at a sporting goods store, her brother and cousins had played hockey, and her father had volunteered in minor hockey.

Greenspan also suggested E.M. was told by a bouncer in Jack’s on June 18, 2018, that players from Canada’s world junior team were in the bar. E.M. responded, “I didn’t know that’s what they were.”

In afternoon cross-examination, Greenspan challenged E.M.’s police statement about one of the players doing the splits over her while she was naked and lying on a bedsheet in a room in the Delta Armouries hotel on June 19, 2018.

“They were all laughing and thought it was hilarious. It wasn’t funny to me,” E.M. said in court.

Greenspan suggested she heard one of the men say, “Hey, Footer, do the splits” and that it was part of the “fun and games” of what was going on in the room at the time that E.M. was participating in.

“This was not something I asked for,” E.M. said, adding she didn’t hear a name. “I got no notice before that happened to me. … They were having a good time at my expense.”

Greenspan suggested to E.M. that she liked the attention.

“This was attention I never asked for,” E.M. said. “They were objectifying me. They were literally laughing at me. They didn’t need to be in that room.”

Greenspan said E.M. was having a “good time” and didn’t like it when they started talking amongst themselves.

“Any one of those men could have stood up and said, ‘This is not OK,’” E.M. said. “They didn’t do that. They didn’t want to think about the fact that I wasn’t consenting.”

Michael McLeod has been charged with two counts of sexual assault, including one relating to aiding in the offence. Dillon Dube, Foote, Alex Formenton and Carter Hart have each been charged with one count of sexual assault. All have pleaded not guilty to their charges.

The Ontario Superior Court of Justice trial is expected to continue Wednesday with redirect of E.M. by assistant Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham.