London, Ont. lawyer involved in Hockey Canada civil suit welcomes criminal proceedings

The London Police Service is not commenting on a report from The Globe and Mail that five members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior hockey team have been told to surrender to police to face charges of sexual assault.

The pending charges are connected to the alleged group sexual assault of a woman in a hotel room following a Hockey Canada gala in June of 2018.

According to The Globe and Mail, the players, who have not been named, have been given a set period of time to surrender to London police.

A/Sgt. Sandasha Bough of the London Police Service told CTV News police are not commenting on the reporting.

Five players from that 2018 World Junior team have notably taken a leave of absence from their respective clubs for personal reasons.

None of the allegations have been tested in court.

The law firm Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers, and the lawyer previously involved in civil litigation in the matter, Rob Talach, issued a news release that said it no longer represents the affected woman in the case since the lawsuit was settled in 2022.

“The prospect of a criminal prosecution offers a more fulsome adjudication. In that sense this development should be welcomed by anyone wishing to get to the truth,” the statement reads.

The statement continued, “In the end, we hope that renewed coverage of this case will result in renewed conversations about sexual assault, about institutional cultures, and about how best as a society we can address such with the goal of reducing both the occurrence of sexual crimes and also the resulting harm when they do occur.”

In the meantime, London Police Chief Thai Truong posted to social media that details of this investigation will be shared at a news conference on Feb. 5.