Warning: coverage of the Hockey Canada trial includes graphic details of alleged sexual assault that may be disturbing to readers.

Another current NHL player provided their witness testimony in the Hockey Canada sexual assault trial.

Following the trial’s now-former jury being discharged on Friday morning, the court proceedings resumed Tuesday in a judge-alone format, as a former member of Canada’s 2018 world junior team and current Vegas Golden Knights center, Brett Howden, began his Crown testimony.

Five of Howden’s former world junior teammates – Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dube and Cal Foote – face charges of sexual assault in relation to a June 2018 incident in which a woman, referred to in court documents as E.M., alleges she was sexually assaulted in a London, Ont. hotel room following a Hockey Canada gala.

All five men pleaded not guilty to their charges, with McLeod pleading not guilty to an additional charge of sexual assault as party to the offense. Howden, meanwhile, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Crown attorney Meaghan Cunningham asked Howden about the events of the night of June 18 and the morning of June 19. Most notably, she asked what he alleges occurred in the room No. 209 of the Delta Armouries hotel – the room where Michael McLeod initially brought E.M. back to after the two left Jack’s Bar in the early hours of June 19.

Testifying via video conference, Howden said he heard there was food in McLeod’s room, similar to what another former teammate and witness, Tyler Steenbergen, said. After flipping through a pamphlet of various food establishments while sitting in the room, Howden noticed a woman exit the bathroom. Howden said there were “a lot” of other players in the room when he arrived, and when the woman exited the bathroom, Howden said she fairly quickly started seeking the players’ attention.

“Just the things she was saying, also just kind of going around and seeing which guy would talk to her and engage with her,” Howden said.

Similar to what Steenbergen said, Howden said the woman’s requests became increasingly sexual.

“I remember her seeing who would have sex with her, if anybody would take her up on that,” Howden recalled. “Eventually (she) started chirping guys and taunting everyone, egging everyone on because nobody would take her up on her offer.”

Howden was also asked about some of the sexual acts the woman performed, to which Howden said she gave oral sex to both Hart and McLeod. When he was then asked about when the woman and Formenton allegedly went to the bathroom together, Howden said that it was the woman who led Formenton. (In E.M.’s testimony, she said she went to the bathroom herself, and Formenton followed.)

Cunningham shifted her line of questioning to various texts and calls on and following June 26, 2018, the day that players were informed of the Hockey Canada investigation into the alleged incident. 

Cunningham had Howden read one of the messages he sent in a group chat on June 26, where he texts, “Nobody forced her to do anything, if anything we should put allegations on her, f---.”

When pressed further on the tone and language of this message, Howden said that at the time, the situation made him angry since he felt that his teammates hadn’t done anything to warrant an investigation.

Howden was also questioned about phone calls he had with Dube and Foote prior to his 2018 interview with investigator Danielle Robitaille. Howden said that in these calls, Dube and Foote asked him not to mention them or what they were accused of doing. Dube allegedly slapped the woman’s buttocks, and Foote allegedly did the splits on the woman’s face without pants or underwear on.

Howden said he did mention both men in the interview, just not the alleged acts.

Tuesday’s court proceedings ended midway through the afternoon after Howden was dismissed for the day, as Cunningham suggested that Howden’s testimony thus far has been inconsistent compared to statements and evidence he previously provided to investigators. 

Steenbergen Finishes Testimony

Before Howden testified, the defense team wrapped up its cross-examination of Steenbergen. Foote’s lawyer, Julianna Greenspan, showed Steenberg a security video from the dance floor at Jack’s that showed a crowd clear a circle, where Foote then dropped down to the floor before rising back up. Steenberg confirmed this appeared to be Foote doing the splits, which NHL player Taylor Raddysh said was Foote’s party trick in earlier testimony.

Greenspan also asked Steenbergen about his interview with Robitaille in 2022, and Steenbergen said he felt pushed in certain aspects of this interview. He agreed with Greenspan that Hockey Canada investigators told him that Foote was naked and touched the complainant in the hotel room, and that Robataille, in general, was pushing him to confirm certain things in their meeting in 2022. 

Greenspan asked him if parts of the meeting transcript didn’t match what he actually said. “I believe certain parts definitely don't,” Steenbergen said.

The trial is expected to resume Wednesday morning with Cunningham attempting to convince the presiding judge, Justice Maria Carroccia, to allow her to question Howden on alleged inconsistencies from his Tuesday testimony.