All five players found not guilty in Hockey Canada trial
Episode Stats
Words per minute
185.46112
Harmful content
Misogyny
4
sentences flagged
Hate speech
6
sentences flagged
Summary
Isaac, Walid, and Walid discuss the Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne passing away, the Hockey Canada acquittals of 5 of the 6 accused of sexual assault, and the release of the key witness, EM.
Transcript
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Yeah, guys, so there's been so much news coming in over the last few days.
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It's been hard to even determine what to discuss here.
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I mean, from big, huge national stories to sad stories like Hulk Hogan dying.
00:00:10.900
I mean, what has caught your eye over the last few days?
00:00:18.660
Yeah, I mean, Hulk Hogan and Ozzy Osbourne in the same week,
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they both, in my mind anyway, seemed completely immortal.
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And I suppose that their legends are, you know, even though they may be gone.
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Yeah, I mean, if they're talked about for centuries to come, let's say,
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You die twice when you pass away and when your name is spoken for the last time, right?
00:00:48.860
Yeah, well, you know, I'm not so big on the music industry, frankly,
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but I know that Ozzy Osbourne is such a big name that you can hear about him wherever you are.
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I mean, I saw a football club, his favorite football club in England, Hanson Villa,
00:01:02.420
So wherever you are, whether it's the sporting industry or in the music industry,
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and obviously the Hulk Hogan story is all over Twitter as well.
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And, of course, big names and people that have probably a lot more influence
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I'm here with my True North colleagues, Alex Zoltan, and Walid Tam Tam.
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So, obviously, some huge news coming out of this lengthy Hockey Canada hearing,
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But long story short, all five players in the high-profile case have been found not guilty
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after Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Corocha delivered her ruling Thursday afternoon
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Do you want to just take us through the case, Alex,
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and maybe some of the public reactions as well?
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So there was actually five players that were defendants in the case.
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They were all charged with one count of sexual assault.
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One of the players, Michael McLeod, was charged with an additional offense,
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Basically, in layman's terms, what that means is that he was accused of aiding
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and abetting other people in criminal activity.
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It was turned into a judge trial as opposed to a trial by jury
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after the highly unusual and, yeah, I guess to say just unusual dismissal of two separate juries.
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We don't really need to go into why that happened,
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although that's an interesting story in and of itself.
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The judge was pretty brutal in offering her decision.
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She called the key crown witness, which was the complainant.
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Her real name is covered by a standard publication ban in these sort of cases.
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The judge called her unreliable, inconsistent, and not credible.
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So it was almost a scathing rebuke of the entire case.
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And I had said online, you know, privately to many people
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that I was actually surprised this trial even went to trial.
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So I'm not terribly surprised by the acquittal,
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but I am surprised by the unhinged reactions online.
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A lot of people seem to think that they're still guilty
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A few people asking this question about EM specifically.
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Obviously, this trial, in short, ruined the careers,
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at least for a temporary basis for these five NHL players.
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So now do we get to find out who this girl is
0.97
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and maybe can she suffer social consequences
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of at least having put these people through this?
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I mean, like, is her identity protected indefinitely?
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In Canada, we believe in protecting complainants
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and sexual assault trials so that we don't discourage
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other people from bringing their cases forward.
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There are certain pros and cons in both directions,
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In terms of whether her name will ever be released,
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I mean, ultimately, I guess that's kind of up to her,
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She was inconsistent, but I did think that she was credible
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in the sense that there was very little disagreement
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over whether what occurred was criminal or not.
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Because what is immoral is not always criminal, right?
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Or what is in bad taste is not always criminal.
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And likewise, as we saw with Tamera Leach and Chris Barber,
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So I actually found her probably more credible than the judge,
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but the judge also identified a lot more inconsistencies than I did.
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Yeah, Waleed, were you paying any attention
1.00
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The trial was clearly headed in a certain direction.
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about what the court of public opinion had to say.
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And this has happened in other sporting environments as well,
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where athletes, oftentimes high-profile individuals,
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But the career ramifications have been high cost
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And I think hockey has that same role, frankly.
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And so missing, I don't know how long they missed.
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So it's unfortunate that they had to go through that,
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But I definitely do think it's put a bit of a dent
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So I wonder what the long-term applications will be
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on perhaps future high-profile cases of this matter.
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just based on the NHL recurrence of these players,
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which is essentially right outside of Edmonton.
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The commissioner will have a say on their future.
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so I don't know what the legal ramifications are there
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I don't think a player could be signed tomorrow.
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to see if any of these players are signed quickly