New jury selected after mistrial declared in former world junior hockey players’ sex assault case

Posted April 25, 2025 7:17 am.
Last Updated April 25, 2025 4:24 pm.
A new jury has been selected in the sexual assault case of five former members of Canada’s world junior hockey team after an Ontario judge declared a mistrial Friday morning, just days into the proceedings.
The new 14-person jury is comprised of nine women and five men, two of whom are alternates.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia says a new trial is now expected to start Monday for Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote, who have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault.
McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of being a party to the offence of sexual assault.
The trial began in London, Ont., on Wednesday, and the prosecution’s first witness only briefly took the stand before testimony was put on hold for legal arguments that took place in the absence of the jury.
Justice Carroccia brought jurors back Friday morning and informed them that they were being discharged.
She did not give them reasons for the decision.
“I am sorry to have to tell you that I have declared a mistrial in this case. As a result of that, this jury is discharged,” she said.
“Thanks very much for your attention and your service, although it was brief.”
The charges against the players relate to an encounter that took place in the city in June 2018, as many of the team’s members were in town for a Hockey Canada gala.
While prosecutors laid out the Crown’s case against the five accused in the first trial, those details and accusations cannot be mentioned because the new jury has yet to hear them.
The complainant, who was 20 at the time, cannot be identified under a standard publication ban.
Mistrial decision ‘shocking,’ Vancouver-based criminal lawyer says
Friday’s declaration of a mistrial came as a shock to one criminal lawyer in Vancouver.
Michael Shapray says the start of the trial has been highly anticipated, and as the reason for the mistrial is under a publication ban, there will be a lot of speculation as to what happened.
“The judge will have to determine the timeline of what happens next. It may be that they immediately look to get a new jury, but that’s not so easy, because picking a new jury requires you to bring panels of people into the courthouse and then pick a jury, and that jury has got to be available for the trial. So, I don’t know that they would have a panel of jurors just sitting on the sidelines,” Shapray said.
“I think right away, there’s going to be a delay until they can find a pool of people that they can pick a jury from. … I don’t know how long it’s going to be, because there’s so many people’s calendars and schedules that are going to have to be accommodated.”
Shapray says cases of mistrial are not common, calling them a “pretty drastic remedy.”
“It’s basically saying that the trial cannot continue. Something has occurred in the course of the trial that means that this case has to go off the rails completely. and cannot complete and has to be restarted again,” he explained.
As for the victim in the case, Shapray says that it’s already an incredibly stressful time as one gears up to testify in a trial, before the mistrial decision came down.
“I’m sure it’s going to be difficult to sort of grasp that there may be a delay in all of the mental preparation, to get on the witness stand, is going to have to be redone, essentially, at another time,” he said.
The trial was expected to last about eight weeks.
With files from Sonia Aslam