Content advisory: This article includes allegations of sexual assault.

London, Ont. – Five former members of Canada’s 2018 world junior hockey team were acquitted Thursday of all charges in a closely watched sexual assault trial, a case that underscored the high legal threshold for conviction and reignited debate over whether the justice system adequately serves survivors of sexual violence.

In a decision read from the bench, Justice Maria Carroccia of the Ontario Court of Justice cited a lack of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and criticized the complainant’s credibility and reliability in the case.

“In this case, I have found actual consent,” Carroccia said early on in an hours-long court hearing. “I do not find the evidence of E.M. [the complainant in the case] to be either credible or reliable.”

When Carroccia made that comment, there were audible gasps from the players’ family members in the courtroom’s public gallery and at least one person could be heard saying, “Yes.”

Several of the players’ family members embraced and began crying and some of the players, who sat next to their lawyers closer to the judge, turned and looked back at family members.

Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube, and Callan Foote had each been charged with sexual assault in January 2024 in connection with an incident in a London, Ont., hotel in June 2018 after a Hockey Canada gala event. McLeod also faced a second charge of being a party to the offence.

A woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban and who has been referred to as E.M. in court, alleged that after she willingly accompanied McLeod to the hotel after a night of dancing and drinking at a downtown London bar,........

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