The Windsor Spitfires, along with unnamed former players and the Ontario and Canadian hockey leagues, face a $3.75 million lawsuit over an alleged sexual assault at a Tecumseh house party in 1984.
In court documents filed last week in Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Windsor, the plaintiff alleges she was sexually assaulted by four team players at the Tecumseh home of a billet family during an end-of-season house party in the spring of 1984 while the billet family was away.
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The complainant is identified in court documents as Jane Doe, born in 1965, and a resident of Tecumseh at the time. The lawsuit identifies the four defendant players as John Doe 1 to John Doe 4.
According to the lawsuit, there were many people at the house party in St. Clair Beach (the village that became part of Tecumseh with amalgamation in 1999). The young woman drove her car to the house and claims she “did not consume much” alcohol nor “willingly consume any recreational or other drugs.”
According to the lawsuit, “for reasons unknown to the Plaintiff, she has no memory of any events that took place the evening of the party.”
She awoke in a bedroom in the morning, the statement of claim continues, “unable to move. Her clothing had been removed. One of the John Doe defendants was on top of her, penetrating her vagina with his penis. The remaining John Doe Defendants then took turns engaging in vaginal penetration of the Plaintiff.”
All the claims made by Jane Doe are allegations that have yet to be tested and proven in court.
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“The actions of the John Doe defendants caused terror and fear in the Plaintiff’s mind,” the lawsuit states, adding the player defendants had “complete control” and that their actions were without the plaintiff’s consent. The lawsuit alleges the players conspired in “administering the Plaintiff drugs or other substances without her knowledge or consent and with the intention of rendering her unconscious.”
“The behaviour of the John Doe defendants constituted sexual abuse, assault and battery,” the lawsuit states. A fifth Spitfire player, named as John Doe 5, is alleged to have been present but did not participate in the assault while the complainant was conscious.
“These are very serious allegations, and we encourage the victim to reach out to police,” Ontario Hockey League communications director Josh Sweetland said Monday in an email to the Star. “It takes tremendous courage for victims of sexual assault to speak and we would always support police efforts to seek justice and hold perpetrators to account.”
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London attorney Robert Talach, representing Jane Doe in the lawsuit, told the Star Monday that his client had recently approached the police but that “they decided not to do anything.”
Talach is the same lawyer who represented a woman who alleged in an April 2022 lawsuit to being sexually assaulted by eight Canadian Hockey League players, including members of the gold medal-winning 2017/18 world junior team. That lawsuit was quickly settled but the allegations resulted in police subsequently laying criminal charges against five players.
In an email to the Star in response to a request for comment, the Windsor Spitfires Hockey Club stated on the weekend: “We have not been formally served with a Statement of Claim, therefore we are not in a position to comment.”
Talach said police have “an extreme burden” in such cases, having to “prove beyond a reasonable doubt” the offenders’ guilt. The burden of proof in civil lawsuits is based on a lower “balance of probabilities” legal bar.
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Seeking legal redress 41 years after an alleged offence is “absolutely normal” in cases like these, said Talach: “That is the reality of sexual trauma.”
It was news stories about the criminal case against the London junior hockey players that “triggered” Jane Doe to come forward decades later with her own traumatic experience, said Talach. “It brought two things — the thought that ‘I might be believed’ and her memories becoming more intrusive.”
Victims of sexual assault often “just want to go on … get on with living. Some victims, they just want to manage it,” said Carol Branget, executive director of the Sexual Assault Crisis Centre of Essex County.
Branget told the Star there’s “never a wrong time to come forward” and that it “takes tremendous courage” to do that.
Dusty Johnstone, a social scientist and the University of Windsor’s director of sexual violence prevention, resistance and support, said there’s been “a huge social transformation” since the 1980s when it comes to reporting sexual violence. She said sexual abuse lawsuits filed in recent decades against the church also showed victims there are “other pathways of action,” including civil court procedures.
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Talach told the Star his firm, Beckett Personal Injury Lawyers, knows the identities of all the listed John Does and that each is being served with documents for a legal case that could be in court for years: “This is the start of a long trip.”
While some complainants still feel they’re not being listened to by police when they file complaints, Branget said she believes police “are making real efforts to become more victim-centric.”
And she said Canada’s hockey organizations are also taking the right steps.
The OHL’s Sweetland points to the league’s ONSIDE program that, for the past decade, has organized mandatory annual workshops facilitated by sexual assault crisis centre educators with all the league’s teams and aimed at promoting “the importance of respectful relationships between young men and women in their communities.”
Branget, who has conducted such workshops with the Windsor Spitfires, said they emphasize the importance of healthy relationships.
“We talk to these young players … about their responsibilities and being good role models in the community. We talk about good mental health — we get really good engagement,” she said.
The Sexual Assault Crisis Centre of Essex County operates a 24-hour crisis support line at 519-253-9667 for callers in Windsor and the county. Or call during regular office hours (519-253-3100) or email: [email protected].
— With a file from Jim Parker
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