Formenton reinstated immediately while four teammates remain barred
An independent appeals board ruled Wednesday that four of five Canadian ice hockey players acquitted of sexual assault last year should remain barred from representing Canada at international competitions, after determining they violated Hockey Canada’s code of conduct.
The board recommended that Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote remain suspended from all Hockey Canada-sanctioned programmes. A fifth player, Alex Formenton, was also deemed to have broken conduct rules but is being immediately reinstated.
The five players — all former members of Canada’s under-20 junior hockey team — were accused of sexually assaulting a woman known as EM in a hotel room in London, Ontario in 2018, after attending a gala for the team. The central question at trial was whether EM, who was 20 at the time of the incident, had consented to all of the sexual acts that took place that night.
Lawyers for the players contended that EM asked the men to have sex with her and that they believed she gave consent. EM testified that she was intoxicated, felt fearful of the men, and said that while she had initially agreed to have sex with McLeod, she did not consent to what followed.
In July 2025, Justice Maria Carroccia acquitted all five players, ruling that she did not find EM’s evidence “credible or reliable.” Wednesday’s decision came from the independent appeals board, separate from the criminal proceedings.
The ruling does not change the players’ eligibility for the National Hockey League, which operates under separate authority from Hockey Canada and conducted its own investigation into the incident. All five were permitted by the NHL to sign contracts again with league teams late last year.
Reinstatement dates for the four who remain suspended differ by several years. Foote will be eligible to return on 10 November 2026, Hart on 10 November 2027, Dube on 10 November 2028, and McLeod on 10 November 2030. Officials did not say why the dates differed for each player.
Formenton’s immediate eligibility marks a divergence between his status and that of his former teammates, though the board found he too had violated the code of conduct.
“This case started a national conversation about safe sport and the problematic culture in men’s hockey,” Adam van Koeverden, Canada’s secretary of sport, said in a statement after Wednesday’s ruling. “It is the voices of women and survivors, and the courage and bravery it takes to come forward, that have led to changes we are seeing in toxic culture.”
Van Koeverden said Hockey Canada has made progress to “address long-standing systemic failures” but added that national sport organisations must be held accountable.
The case has continued to draw national attention in Canada, eight years after the original incident.