After the trials, a different reckoning

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/02/2024 (584 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

“I want to extend on behalf of the London Police service my sincerest apology to the victim, to her family for the amount of time that it has taken to reach this point. This should not take this long. It shouldn’t take years and years for us to arrive to the outcome of today. But I can assure you, I am confident, confident that this will not happen again.”

— London Chief of Police Thai Truong

Assurances aside, sometime down the road there needs to be a remedy.

Earlier this week, London Chief Truong uttered the apology above to a woman who has alleged that five members of the 2018 world junior hockey team sexually assaulted her. The apology by the police chief was for the fact that the force took nearly five years to finally lay charges in the case.

The woman originally contacted London police back in 2018. There was an investigation but in 2019, police decided not to lay charges. Eventually, the woman — known in court documents as E.M. to protect her identity — would sue Hockey Canada, the Canadian Hockey League and eight members of the world junior team. News reports in 2022 that revealed the suit and a reported out-of-court settlement sparked a new criminal investigation.

Last month, five members of that team — Michael McLeod, Cal Foote, Carter Hart, Dillon Dubé and Alex Formenton — were finally charged. Although the decision to re-investigate was a positive step, concerns linger about the original decision to drop the matter.

Truong and the team of police who re-investigated the case were unable to discuss that part of the story. Citing an ongoing investigation and prosecution, Truong and Detective Sgt. Katherine Dann, the lead investigator and head of the London police sexual-assault section, could only say that her team “explored investigative opportunities” that weren’t fully considered in 2018.

“I can confirm that some of this evidence was not available when the investigation concluded in 2019,” Dann said.

Everyone is choosing their words carefully, and for good reason. No one wants to derail the criminal prosecution, and there may be professional consequences for the police involved in the original investigation. But even the little that police are now saying speaks volumes about what likely happened.

When you combine Dann’s comments about new “investigative opportunities” unearthing evidence not “available” in 2019, you begin to see an emerging picture of an initial investigation that was incomplete. And one that likely relied too heavily on the denials of the players and less on the word of the alleged victim.

This is hardly an earth-shattering deduction: it is well known that police have historically not done their best work in sexual assault investigations, particularly in cases where famous people are involved, and the case is viewed as one person’s word against another’s.

Truong did promise that there would be more details about what transpired in the original investigation. “There is a place, and there is a time for me to provide those answers. And that time is not now.”

The police chief is not wrong about the timing. But it would be a mistake to rely solely on the London police to, at some future point, fully reveal the shortcomings of its previous investigation. The government of Ontario needs to step in at the right time and commit to a full inquiry into that original investigation.

To date, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has been silent on this case, likely fearing that any comments now might impact the legal proceedings. While that is a reasonable posture to adopt for the time being, at some point Ontario will have to step in to ensure accountability for those involved in the initial investigation.

One can only hope that the prosecution of the five players provides some measure of justice for E.M. But the remedy — an assurance that police fully investigate all allegations of sexual misconduct — can only come from a detailed examination of this case.

Right now, the focus will be on the courtroom.

However, officials of the Ontario government should take note: the puck will soon be in your end of the rink.

» Winnipeg Free Press & The Brandon Sun