In a tense exchange in a Barrie courtroom on Thursday, a woman denied having an ulterior motive for going to police with allegations that Coun. Michael Thompson sexually assaulted her at a cottage in Muskoka.
The Scarborough Centre councillor has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault at a trial that has unfolded over nonconsecutive days spread over months. The prosecution has called three witnesses who were guests at the cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022, two of them the complainants whose identities are protected under a publication ban.
One woman alleges Thompson touched her inappropriately while applying sunscreen. Her friend, who was back on the stand Thursday, has testified Thompson woke her up in the middle of the night and forced himself on her after “not taking no for an answer.”
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During cross-examination, defence lawyer Leora Shemesh asked the woman if she ever told her friend that she was going to bring a lawsuit against Thompson.
The witness acknowledged she may have referenced legal action but that she wasn’t serious and was “raging” in the car on the way back to º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøafter her encounter with the veteran politician.
She continued to firmly deny suggestions that she initiated or consented to an nighttime intimate encounter during hours of tense and heated exchanges with Shemesh, whom she accused of “nitpicking at nonsense.”
Thompson, 65, is expected to take the stand next week once the Crown closes its case.
Shemesh suggested to the witness that hours before the alleged assault, she and Thompson were “interacting with one another in a flirtatious manner.”
The woman said she “might have been flirty,” which could include laughing at an unfunny joke. This prompted Shemesh to ask: “You might have been flirting?” bringing Crown attorney Mareike Newhouse to her feet objecting to the defence lawyer’s “line of questioning” and “tone.”
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After some legal haggling, Shemesh put different scenarios to the witness. She asked the woman if she recalled kissing Thompson, either on his cheek or lips, hugging him from behind, or placing her hand in his red shorts, and later in the evening, waking him up and performing fellatio.
“Disagree,” she responded testily. There was “nothing consensual, I made it very clear I don’t want to do anything.”
She testified she was extremely intoxicated and there are gaps in her memory. But she remembers him telling him multiple times no.
Before leaving the next day, the witness acknowledged she gave Thompson her phone number after he asked.
“I was never going to ever talk to him again so I don’t care.”Â
On one occasion, the witness appeared to be reading a court transcript handed to her by Shemesh.
“You don’t have to read it just yet because I haven’t asked the question,” the lawyer told her.
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“I prefer just to look at anywhere but at you,” the witness shot back.
Shemesh also asked the witness about her online presence and why, if she was so concerned about the goings-on at the cottage, she didn’t assert herself and tell Thompson so. The witness agreed she is not “shy,” or afraid to express her opinions on the internet.
She was also asked about her online claims as being someone who is “unreliable.”
“It’s a joke,” she said. It has nothing to do with honesty, she explained, but rather relates to her unreliability when it comes to uploading videos.
The judge-alone trial in the Ontario Court of Justice resumes in Barrie on Tuesday.
Betsy Powell is a Toronto-based reporter covering crime and
courts for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: .
