There is a distinct strain of hyper masculinity that has crept from the locker room into the courtroom of a sexual assault trial in which five former junior hockey players have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
I’ve been in countless team dressing rooms and clubhouses, can attest to the subliminal — sometimes overt — testosterone-infused atmosphere of young men utterly at ease in their nakedness. It’s layered on top of a unique fraternal bond among players.
A culture of ragging and joshing and towel-flicking, occasionally with an underlying homophobia, in this keenly manly environment. Doesn’t mean they have any scorn or ill-will toward homosexuals, aware there may be closeted gays in the room — as a few athletes have come out when their playing days are over.
In the private domain of a sports milieu, sexual ribbing gets exaggerated. There’s overcompensation for even the slightest insinuation of not big masculine enough with stagy machismo behaviour. The ribaldry of laddish culture combined with constant unclothed intimacy in confined spaces.
At an extreme, or maybe not-so-extreme, that might explain the shrugged-off exhibitionism from a group of hockey teammates who had no embarrassment with a tribal performance of sexual services in a London., Ont., hotel room on June 19, 2018, as those events have been described by the female complainant at the centre of the case, through nine days of testimony.
Because a glaring subtext to the case is why — what in heaven’s name would have possessed the players to participate in a such a tawdry and shameless group spectacle?
Only one of the accused was allegedly too shy to engage in front of his ‘mates, so his episode took place in the bathroom, according to the witness. Some other players who filed through that room took their leave when they realized what was unfolding. But three of the young men obtained oral sex from the complainant — known only as E.M., her identity protected by a standard publication ban. Another slapped her buttocks as she engaged in a sexual act with someone else. Yet another allegedly executed the splits over her prone body, grazing her face with his genitals. Vaginal intercourse occurred a second time with one of the individuals who’d earlier had what the witness described as consensual sex — before everybody else crammed into the room as if in a phone box.
The defendants are Michael McLeod (also facing a second charge for assisting and encouraging his teammates to have sex with the woman, summoning them by text), Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Dillon Dubé and Carter Hart.
What’s also emerged is that the players must have viewed the 20-year-old woman as promiscuous and generous with her favours because she appeared willing, eager, even badgered the players into having sex with her. As one put it in a text later: “She was begging for anybody to bang her.’’ It was among dozens of texts from a group chat that was entered into evidence on Thursday morning through a witness, Tyler Steenbergen.
In his second day on the stand, Steenbergen — a member of that 2018 world junior championship team but not among those charged — continued to describe what transpired during the short time that he was in room 209. He was sitting in a corner with another teammate (also not involved in the sordid events) but mostly averting his eyes or simply couldn’t see clearly because there were so many men arrayed around E.M. as she lay on a bedsheet that had been spread on the floor.
“The next thing I remember,’’ Steenbergen told Crown attorney Heather Donkers, “was Dillon slapping her butt … It wasn’t hard but it wasn’t soft either. I think she had just finished giving (Hart) oral sex. I was just trying to stay in my conversation.’’ And he wasn’t interested in partaking. “I had a girlfriend, now my wife, at the time.’’
It was around then that Foote entered and performed the splits above E.M., as she told the jury. Steenbergen’s line of vision was partly obstructed. “I remember seeing him and then he went down and then he got back up … Legs apart, I don’t know how else to describe the splits. I couldn’t see if his body touched hers.’’
At that point, Steenbergen made his exit, after the woman went into the bathroom. “I just didn’t want to step over a naked girl. I was trying to avoid the situation.’’
Asked to describe the mood in the room, Steenbergen responded: “I thought it was just awkward and … in disbelief a little bit. That was how I felt.’’
Donkers then introduced the texts that were taken from Steenbergen’s phone, which he’d provided to police. The group chat was held after the players had learned, on June 26, that Hockey Canada had ordered an investigation via a third-party legal firm.
In the deluge of texts, the players assured each other that they’d done nothing criminal; that it was all consensual, recalling how the woman, after masturbating on the sheet, had asked them challengingly: “Can one of you guys come over and f—- me?’’
“I felt like, when she asked the guys to come over to have sex with her, I feel like everyone was kind of in shock that she had said that,’’ recalled Steenbergen.
In the group chat, McLeod said: “We all need to say the same thing if we get questioned. Can’t have different stories or make things up.’’
Dubé: “The boys who did that got consent and it’s fine. And then this girl started begging for sex.’’
From another texter: “She gave a few guys head and then we got out of the room when things got crazy.’’
And another: “If anything, we should put allegations on her.’’
A further text: “Let’s not make her sound too crazy. Because if she gets word of this she can get even more crazy.’’
“We didn’t rape anyone.’’
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