Four Canadian hockey stars remain suspended after sexual assault acquittal
A fifth has been reinstated, though an appeals board found that the whole group broke Hockey Canada's code of conduct.
Four Canadian hockey players will remain suspended from international play, despite being acquitted of sexual assault last year, an independent appeals board has determined. The board ruled that the players violated Hockey Canada's code of conduct.
The decision recommends that four of the five players acquitted in the sexual assault case remain barred from all programs sanctioned by Hockey Canada. The fifth player, Alex Formenton, was also found to have breached conduct rules but is now being reinstated.
The players, all former members of Canada's under-20s junior hockey team, were accused of sexual assault stemming from a 2018 incident. They were found not guilty in July 2025. The suspended players are Michael McLeod, Dillon Dube, Cal Foote, and Carter Hart, in addition to Formenton.
This ruling does not affect the players' eligibility to compete for teams in the National Hockey League (NHL), which operates independently of Hockey Canada. All five players were permitted by the NHL to sign new contracts with league teams late last year. The NHL, operating under a separate authority, conducted its own investigation into the incident at the heart of the legal proceedings.
While Formenton is immediately eligible for reinstatement by Hockey Canada, the other four will face suspensions ranging from months to years before they can return to international ice. Foote will be eligible on November 10 of this year. Hart and Dube will become eligible on November 10, 2027, and November 10, 2028, respectively. McLeod faces the longest wait, with eligibility on November 10, 2030. Officials did not provide reasons for the varying reinstatement dates for each player.
The five ice hockey players were found not guilty in a Canadian sexual assault case. They had been accused of assaulting a woman, identified as EM, in a London, Ontario, hotel room in 2018, where they were attending a gala. Their acquittal came in July 2025, when Justice Maria Carroccia stated she did not find EM's evidence "credible or reliable."
The court heard that the woman met the players at a bar and subsequently returned to the hotel room, where she engaged in consensual sex with McLeod. Other players then entered the room and participated in further sexual acts with her. The central question of the trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time, had consented to every sexual act that occurred in the hotel room that night.
Lawyers for the players argued that EM had asked the men to have sex with her and that they believed she had given consent. However, EM testified that she was intoxicated and felt afraid of the men. While she initially agreed to sex with McLeod, she stated that she did not consent to the subsequent events.
Despite the incident occurring eight years ago, the case continues to resonate with many Canadians. Adam van Koeverden, Canada's current secretary of sport, commented on the appeals board's ruling, stating, "This case started a national conversation about safe sport and the problematic culture in men's hockey." He added, "It is the voices of women and survivors, and the courage and bravery it takes to come forward, that have led to changes we are seeing in toxic culture." Van Koeverden acknowledged progress at Hockey Canada in "addressing long-standing systemic failures" and emphasized the need for national sport organizations to be held accountable.