Four NHL players, former members of the 2018 Canadian Junior Team, have been ordered to surrender to London Police in connection to an alleged sexual assault in June 2018.
They have been directed to turn themselves in before a scheduled news conference next Monday. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Calgary Flames’ Dillon Dube, captain of the 2018 Canadian Junior Team and a former Cochrane, Alberta resident, is one of the group charged.
Dube, along with Carter Hart (Philadelphia Flyers), and Michael McLeod and Cal Foote, (New Jersey Devils) has been charged with sexual assault.
Lawyers for all four have issued statements saying their clients are innocent and intend to plead not guilty. They also asked that Canadians remember the foundational principle of presumption of innocence until someone is proven guilty.
Alex Formenton, also a member of the 2018 junior team who is now playing in Switzerland, had already surrendered to London police last Sunday.
Dube was born in Golden, BC, and moved to Cochrane where he played minor hockey.
He was drafted by the Kelowna Rockets of the Western Hockey League in 2013, and by the Calgary Flames in the second round in 2016, playing 325 regular-season games and 222 playoff games.
Dube is in the second season of a three-year contract paying his US$2.3 million per year. His play had been slipping of late. He had three goals and four assists this year.
He played 43 games this year before he went on leave last Sunday. The Flames’ release that day cited “mental health” issues as the reason for granting him leave.
The Flames issued a statement Tuesday: “We have now become aware of the charge of sexual assault that has been laid against Dillion Dube. We take this matter very seriously. Because this matter is now pending legal proceedings, we will have no further comments at this time. We had no knowledge of pending charges at the time Dillon’s request for a leave of absence was granted.”
Dube will be defended by Louis Strezos and Kaleigh Davidson, who confirmed he will plead not guilty and maintain his innocence.
A woman known as E.M. in court documents, filed a $3.55-million lawsuit against Hockey Canada involving players at the Hockey Canada gala in June 2018, in connection to an alleged group assault in a London hotel. It was settled in May 2022 for an undisclosed amount.
Hockey Canada also launched its own investigation.
When the lawsuit story was broken by TSN, it was also learned that Hockey Canada was using money from minor hockey fees to build up a fund to cover uninsured legal liabilities — including other lawsuits.
The national uproar resulted in the president and CEO resigning, followed by its entire board of directors the same day.
The incident is alleged to have happened following a Hockey Canada gala in June 2018 where the players were honoured for their gold medal victory at that year’s world championships.
Hockey Canada’s governance and transparency were subsequently called into question, leading to a series of parliamentary hearings.
Hockey Canada officials testified to parliamentarians in June 2022 the organization had “strongly encouraged” — but not mandated — the 19 players at the London gala speak to its own third-party investigators.
The parliamentary committee heard Hockey Canada had paid out $7.9 million to cover nine settlements for sexual abuse and sexual assault between 1989 and 2022, not including the London incident.
In reaction to the public outcry, the federal government froze funding, while several corporate sponsors paused support. Hockey Canada reopened its third-party investigation in July 2022, adding that player participation was now mandatory.
London police, meanwhile, closed an initial investigation in February 2019 without filing charges, but reopened the case in 2022.
A lead investigator wrote in legal documents filed with Ontario courts in December 2022 there were grounds to believe a woman was sexually assaulted by five players on the junior team.
The NHL also launched its own investigation, which they said had concluded. Hockey Canada said in November 2023 the findings of its independent third-party report are under appeal.
Along with Hockey Canada and the London police, that made for three separate probes into the incident.
All players from the 2018 junior team have been excluded from international events.
London Police have announced a news conference for Feb. 5.
