World junior players' group chat about Hockey Canada investigation under scrutiny as ex-teammate testifies

Dubé writes, “Ya that’s all that happened so we are good. Everybody treated her fine because she gave those guys consent so it’s all good.”

Howden replies, “F–k Mikey has the video of her consenting. Like we just show bully that and we’re fine.”

Bully is Shawn Bullock, a Hockey Canada executive.

Howden writes “Nobody forced her to do anything. If anything we should put allegations on her f–k.”

McLeod then says, “I did have sex with her before everyone came in u guys know that part right.” Howden replies, “She’s the one who got naked and started begging everyone.” McLeod replies, “Yeah what should I say if they asked why I took the videos tho,” referring to the consent videos taken at the end of the night.

Bean replies, “You took the videos because you wanted to make sure nothing bad would happen. And cover yourself.”

They discuss keeping each other “in the loop” and that Hockey Canada can’t go through their phones unless police are involved.

Dubé writes, “Let’s not make her sound too crazy because if she gets wind of this and then she can get even more angry and we don’t need that so just be good about it but the truth with it.”

WARNING: This post contains graphic details.

In the group chat, the men discuss setting up another group chat or a call, on an app called House Party, or on Snapchat or FaceTime. It’s difficult because they’re all in different timezones, Maxime Comptois doesn’t have Snapchat, etc.

Jake Bean writes, “No, boys. Like we don’t need to make anything up. No one did anything wrong. We went to that room to eat. The girl came, she wanted to have sex with all of us. No one did. She gave a few guys head, and then we got out of the room when things got too crazy.” Bean adds, “And Mikey literally has a video giving her consent.”

Dubé writes, “Ok ya f–ck we are fine the boys who did things got consent so just tell them that it’s fine.” Brett Howden replies, “All we have to say is ‘someone brought the girl back to the room. We were all in there ordering food and then this girl started begging from everyone to have sex with her. Nobody would do it. But then as time went on she gave 3 guys head. Once things started to get out of hand we all left and got her out.’”

Comtois agrees and Bean says, “Yeah like boys that’s literally the truth so.”

The next day, there’s a golf tournament for the team, as has been brought up previously in this trial.

E.M. has testified, for instance, that the men talked about having to get up early for the tournament.

Before his testimony, Steenbergen provided group text messages to investigators and the jury is looking at them now.

A group chat started by Dillon Dubé asks the players to add anyone who was in the room that night.

The group chat includes:

• Carter Hart.
• Jake Bean.
• Cal Foote.
• Dillon Dubé.
• Maxime Comtois.
• Drake Batherson.
• Michael McLeod.
• Brett Howden.
• Sam Steel.
• Alex Formenton.
• Tyler Steenbergen.

On June 26, 2018, Dubé sends a message saying, “There are no criminal charges it’s hockey Canada code of conduct and they are investigating on what happened that might (sic) so it won’t happen again.”

Bean asks, “Could we get in trouble for it or no?” and Dubé responds, “I don’t think so.” McLeod says, “We all need to say the same thing if we get interviewed can’t have different stories or make anything up.”

Steenbergen says he didn’t see many of these messages until later because he was at a development camp in Arizona for players who’d just been drafted to NHL teams.

Steenbergen says the next thing he remembers is Cal Foote coming into the room and doing the splits over the woman.

Steenbergen doesn’t remember if Foote was dressed or not at that point.

He says his view of where the naked woman was on the ground was blocked by other men. The blanket the woman was on had been placed at the foot of one of the beds, sort of between the beds.

People were crowded around the woman or blocking his view, so he didn’t see the splits, just Foote’s head going down, Steenbergen testifies.

After the splits, Foote left the room and the woman went to the bathroom, Steenbergen adds.

“That’s where Jake and I had a clear path to leave the room, so we left.”

Steenbergen says he waited for the woman to get up because he didn’t want to step over a “naked girl” and she’d been blocking their path to the door.

He says he was in the room for 10 or 15 minutes, and felt “awkward” and “in disbelief a little bit” over seeing Foote do the splits.

WARNING: This post contains graphic details.

Steenbergen begins where he left off yesterday, when he testified he went to Mike McLeod’s hotel room early into June 19, 2018, because he heard there was food there.

Steenbergen also testified earlier he was having a conversation with Jake Bean when he saw Carter Hart and then McLeod getting oral sex from a naked woman in the room.

Today, Steenbergen is asked by assistant Crown attorney Heather Donkers about what he remembers next.

“The next thing I remember is Dillon [Dubé] slapping her butt,” he says. “I was trying to have a conversation with Bean and we looked up and we saw a slap.”

He says the slap “wasn’t hard but it didn’t seem soft, either.”

The woman was in between the beds. He heard the slap but not the woman’s reaction. He didn’t hear any words exchanged between the woman and Dubé before he heard and saw the slap.

Steenbergen says he remembers trying not to pay too much attention to what was going on with the naked woman because he had a girlfriend at the time.

We’re just a little bit delayed this morning but should be starting shortly.

Both the main courtroom and the overflow courtroom are decidedly less busy today.

We’ll be hearing the testimony of Tyler Steenbergen, who began in the witness box yesterday afternoon. He’s a former world junior teammate of the five accused men who’s now living in Sylvan Lake, Alta., and working for his dad, building homes.

Members of the public who filled the public gallery during E.M.’s testimony all last week and this week are gone.

Some of the reporters who’ve been covering the trial in person are also not here, presumably working remotely as has been the option.

(Members of the public are not given access to the webinar link and media had to sign several undertakings to get it).

It also appears the air conditioning is working in the main courtroom, which is a relief for everyone here.

Today’s episode of Front Burner, CBC’s daily news podcast, is about this trial and how we got here.

Host Jayme Poisson speaks to reporter Katie Strang from The Athletic about the case so far, and the larger questions it raises about hockey culture.

You can check it out here.

You can also find it on your favourite podcast app.

Good morning. I’m a senior producer based in Toronto and I’ll be curating our live page today.

Our team of reporters is back in the courthouse in London, Ont., to bring you the latest from another day of trial proceedings.

To get caught up on everything that unfolded yesterday, click here.