By Jasmine Makar

Disclaimer: This piece includes mention of sexual assault. 

A ping went off on my phone on July 24, 2025, followed by four more alerts. I looked down and saw a multitude of notifications from various news outlets, CBC, the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail; they all reported the same news. 

Carter Hart was found not guilty of sexual assault charges. Minutes later, Alex Formenton, Cal Foote, Dillon Dubé and Michael McLeod were all acquitted of all criminal sexual assault charges.

The five former players of the 2018 Canadian world junior hockey team had just walked out of the London, Ont., provincial courthouse after an almost four-month-long trial with two dismissed juries and tons of media attention. 

A lot of the initial coverage discussed the pro-athletes but all I could think about was E.M., the survivor of the alleged sexual assault on June 19, 2018, in a London hotel following a Hockey Canada gala. Protected under a publication ban, her name and identity have never been made public, but that won’t protect her from the aftermath of the verdict and the indifference she faced in the justice system.

After reading the words the lawyers used to describe E.M. and the accusations against the athletes, I couldn’t believe we live in a world where someone who had enough courage to speak out about such a deeply personal experience could be degraded after having to relive something so traumatic. 

Besides general anger at verdicts like these, there is tangible data that speaks to the depth of the Canadian justice system’s systemic misunderstanding of victims’ responses to sexual assault.

A 2023 report conducted by the federal government found that victims experience re-traumatization in the criminal justice system and their testimonies are often misunderstood and dehumanized. 

“Failures to understand common trauma reactions, and mistaken assumptions about small and apparent inconsistencies in recall about upsetting and traumatic events. These lead to the mistaken belief that victim-witness testimony lacks credibility or reliability,” reads the report.

Additionally, the report states after trauma occurs, “victims may make statements that appear to be incomplete or inconsistent…But what might appear to be an ‘inconsistency’ in the way a victim reacts, or tells her story, may actually be a typical, predictable, and normal way of responding to life-threatening events and coping with traumatic experiences.”

The U.S. National Library of Medicine also indicates that there is a clear correlation between memory loss and sexual assault trauma. 

The fear of reporting sexual assault is grounded in the reality of our justice system repeatedly failing victims because of black and white beliefs and understandings of consent and trauma. The reality is that the system needs to be more empathetic and mended to better fit the psychological aspect of sexual assault.

According to the Government of Canada, in 2014 only five per cent of sexual assaults were reported to the police and findings from 2017 show that 42 per cent of adult criminal sexual assault cases lead to a guilty verdict. 

My heart breaks for every person who has experienced assault and has felt they can’t speak up because of fear they won’t find justice in a system that has time and time again favoured perpetrators over survivors. 

The findings of these studies closely parallel the proceedings in E.M.’s trial.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia said E.M. was neither “credible or reliable” while explaining the verdict and describing “inconsistencies” in her story.

Justice Carroccia, who previously worked as a criminal defence lawyer, further stated that “E.M. had a tendency to blame others,” while in the same breath blaming and accusing her of lying about her traumatic experience. One in five survivors of sexual assault feels blamed for their experience by their perpetrator and others, according to the federal government. The National Library of Medicine also found that victim blaming is one of the social influences that develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The research clearly outlines a disconnect with the law and the way victims are treated and understood in court. 

Watching the proceedings, I began to understand more fully the extent of why there is so much hesitancy to report sexual assault. I remain confused why the Canadian government is seemingly aware of these inconsistencies but takes no action to mend them. 

I couldn’t help but feel an immense sadness for E.M. and what this meant to women and survivors all over the country. What precedent is this going to set? But more importantly, what precedent is this going to set for people who want to report sexual assault? If the law won’t protect survivors, then who will?

This is not the first time the courts have dismissed a woman’s experience because of “unreliable” evidence without considering emotional factors and the effects of PTSD. In 2018, the same year as E.M.’s case, four other hockey players—two of them junior players—were brought to trial in West Kelowna, B.C. over an alleged group sexual assault, and were all acquitted, according to CBC.

CBC’s The Fifth Estate also found that there have been at least 15 group sexual assault investigations connected to junior hockey players since 1989. 

The justice system places indirect “social pressures” on survivors to meet specific criteria, making them fit into the stereotypes of “ideal victims,” according to the Canadian government’s research. Many of these include cutting off contact with the perpetrator and demonstrating near-perfect recall. Putting survivors in these boxes in order to prove their perpetrators’ guilt only confines the complexities of sexual assault. 

Much of the conversation surrounding the trial was regarding the reputation of the players that would now be forever marred—but how can this be true when this past October, Hart signed a four-million dollar contract with the Vegas Golden Knights in the National Hockey League? 

Following his signing, the Golden Knights released a blanket statement explaining how they “remain committed to the core values that have defined our organization from its inception and expect that our players will continue to meet these standards moving forward.”

What “core values” exist in an organization that is willing to take someone on after a trial that was so explicit? What does this say about all celebrities and athletes who continue to use their privilege, knowing the system won’t hold them accountable? 

I implore all survivors and non-survivors to speak up and speak out, to be angry, to understand their power, to know it’s not their fault and to be defiant because, at its current state, the law can’t define you or your experience.