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The men wanted her to lie down on a bedsheet on the floor of the room and seemed to be laughing at her as they discussed sexual acts they want- ed her to perform, including some in- volving golf balls and golf clubs, she said. “My mind just shut down,” said the woman, who was 20 at the time. She described feeling as though she was watching everything happen from outside her own body. “I felt like I didn’t really have any other option,” she said, explaining she didn’t know how they would react if she tried to say no or leave. “It seemed like the only safe thing to do was to give them what they were wanting.” McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex For- menton, Dillon Dube and Callan Foote have all pleaded not guilty to sexual assault. McLeod has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of be- ing a party to the offence of sexual assault. All five were members of Can- ada’s 2018 world junior hockey team. Court has heard many of the team’s members were in London, Ont., the night of the encounter for a gala cele- brating their gold-medal win at that year’s championship. CAUTION: The following para- graphs contain graphic content some readers may find disturbing. The woman said men towered over her as she lay on the sheet and three pulled down their pants. “They just started putting penises in my face,” she testified. Some shouted commands as she performed oral sex, she said, and she felt someone spit on her back. Then, she felt slaps on her buttocks, she said. Afterward, she lay back on the sheet, and a fourth man did the splits right over her head, putting his penis on her face, she said. It was unexpect- ed and shocking, she said. “It felt degrading. It was all just a joke to them,” she said. The woman said she heard some of the men encouraging each other, say- ing one of them should have sex with her. She went to the bathroom, and one of the men followed her in, she said. He put on a condom and they had sex, and oral sex afterward, she said. It felt like she didn’t have control over the situation, the woman said. She said she cried and tried to leave at various points, but each time, someone would convince her to stay. “They kept bringing me back,” she said. She didn’t see McLeod much after their initial one-on-one encounter, she said, adding he briefly left and came back with food. Near the end, the woman testified that she had oral sex with McLeod again, and multiple people slapped her while that was happening. It seemed like they were trying to hit as hard as they could, she said. Soon after, McLeod told the men to leave, she said. The woman was shown two cell- phone videos taken about an hour apart in the early morning of June 19, 2018. Prosecutors have said both were taken by McLeod. In the first, someone asks the woman twice if she’s “OK with this,” and she agrees both times. She testified Monday that her words in the video did not reflect her feelings at the time, that she was “go- ing along” with what she was being told. In the second clip, the woman smiles as she holds a towel against her body and says it was “all consen- sual.” The woman told the court Monday that McLeod had been “hounding” her to say it before the recording was made, and it “definitely wasn’t” how she truly felt. She testified that she believed she was holding a towel because she had gotten in the shower with McLeod at his request. They’d had vaginal and oral sex again in the bathroom, one last thing she felt she needed to do before she could leave, she said When she left, her mind seemed to re-enter her body and the emotions she’d been blocking came flooding back, the woman said. She called her best friend from the lobby, “crying uncontrollably,” feeling ashamed and wishing she had responded different- ly in the moment, she said. She took an Uber home and showered when she arrived, she said. McLeod later reached out to her on Instagram, asking her to talk on the phone, court heard. They exchanged several messages, which were shown in court. In texts on June 20, McLeod ex- pressed concern that the woman had spoken to police and asked her what she could do to “make this go away.” The woman replied that she was “not trying to push this any farther” and apologized for “any trouble it might have already caused.” McLeod checked in a few more times to see if she had spoken to po- lice again. He thanked the woman when she confirmed she told police it was “a mistake.” The woman testified Monday she felt nervous and scared when Mc- Leod reached out to her, and was tell- ing him what he wanted to hear so he would leave her alone. One of McLeod’s lawyers suggested during cross-examination that the woman was happy to hear from his client, adding she could have blocked him or not answered if that wasn’t the case. David Humphrey also suggested the woman was upset when she left the room because she had cheated on her boyfriend and felt guilty. The woman maintained that she felt worried after McLeod contacted her. She agreed that she felt guilty for cheating on her boyfriend but said she told him what happened in the days that followed. Ontario Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia told jurors Monday that they could only make limited use of evidence related to the woman’s in- itial encounter with McLeod, which is not part of the trial. She told them they must not infer that if the woman willingly left the bar with McLeod and had consensual sex with him, it is more likely that she consented to other sexual activity or she is less worthy of belief. McLeod, Hart and Dube are ac- cused of obtaining oral sex from the woman without her consent, and Dube is also accused of slapping her buttocks while she was engaged in a sexual act with someone else. Formenton is alleged to have had vaginal sex with the complainant without her consent inside the bath- room. Foote is alleged to have done the splits over her face and grazed his genitals on it without her consent. The Crown alleges McLeod also vaginally penetrated her without her consent at the end of the night. — The Canadian Press PAOLA LORIGGIO Smith promises separation referendum in 2026 if petition signatures warrant EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she will hold a referendum on provincial separation next year if citizens gather the re- quired signatures on a petition. Smith, in a livestream address Monday, said she wants a sovereign Alberta within a united Canada but there is a growing number of Alber- tans who are unhappy with Confederation, and are organizing petitions to push for an exit. “The vast majority of these individuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified. They are loyal Albertans,” she said. “They’re frustrated, and they have every rea- son to be.” The speech comes a week after Smith’s United Conservative government introduced legislation that, if passed, would sharply reduce the bar petitioners need to meet to trigger a provincial referendum. The bill, introduced the day after the federal election, would change citizen-initiated referen- dum rules to require a petition signed by 10 per cent of the eligible voters in a previous general election — down from 20 per cent of total regis- tered voters. Applicants would also get 120 days, rather than 90, to collect the required 177,000 signatures. Smith said Alberta has no choice but to take steps to combat a decade of hostile federal Liber- al policies she says have not only taken an unfair share of Alberta’s wealth but in doing so have also undermined the oil and gas industry that drives its economy. As Prime Minister Mark Carney prepares to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in person in Washington today to discuss the tariff trade war and other issues, Smith said Liberal rule has turned Canada into an international laughing- stock. “We have the most abundant and accessible natural resources of any country on Earth, and yet we landlock them, sell what we do produce to a single customer to the south of us while en- abling polluting dictatorships to eat our lunch,” she said. Smith said a rise in popular support for infra- structure projects across Canada, such as pipe- lines, gives her hope, and she will continue work- ing on negotiating a fair deal with the prime minister “in good faith.” Her government is going to appoint a negoti- ation team to try to bring an end to federal poli- cies that have long irritated the province, and to demand guaranteed access to tidewater for Alberta’s resource exports including oil and gas. Smith said she will also chair what she’s now calling an Alberta Next panel, hosting a series of town halls to hear ideas and grievances from Albertans. “It is likely we will place some of the more popular ideas discussed with the panel to a prov- incial referendum so that all Albertans can vote on them sometime in 2026,” she said. The premier’s broadcast comes after hundreds of people rallied at the Alberta legislature Satur- day to support seceding from Canada, with some saying they were prompted by federal election results that saw the Liberals win their fourth consecutive term. Smith said her government’s actions are not in response to the fact their preferred candidate, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, and his party lost the election. “It’s that the same Liberal government with almost all the same ministers responsible for our nation’s inflation, housing, crime and budget crisis, and that oversaw the attack on our prov- incial economy for the past 10 years, have been returned to power,” she said. Smith said she’s committed to protecting and upholding the rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples and treaties. It comes after First Nations leaders repre- senting the Assembly of First Nations and com- munities in Treaty 6, 7, and 8 territories have been vocal in warning against any talk of prov- incial separation. Many have noted the treaties predate the prov- ince and that Alberta doesn’t have the authority to separate lands protected by those treaties. The premier is expected to hold a press con- ference and take questions from reporters today. — The Canadian Press LISA JOHNSON JASON FRANSON / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES ‘The vast majority of these in- dividuals are not fringe voices to be marginalized or vilified. They are loyal Albertans’ — Alberta Premier Danielle Smith Carney moving into Rideau Cottage while 24 Sussex remains vacant OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Car- ney will soon move into Rideau Cot- tage, while the official residence of the prime minister at 24 Sussex Drive re- mains vacant. The Privy Council Office says that “at the strong recommendation of the RCMP and security officials,” Carney has been temporarily staying at an of- ficial guest residence. In line with their security recom- mendations, the prime minister will soon be living in Rideau Cottage, the home which has been the residence of the prime minister and his family since former prime minister Justin Trudeau took office in 2015. The official residence at 24 Sussex Drive in Ottawa was closed by the Na- tional Capital Commission in 2022 for “health and safety reasons” and has been uninhabited since 2015. Trudeau asked one of his ministers in March to help develop a plan for a new official residence to replace the vacant property. In a letter addressed to former pro- curement minister Jean-Yves Duclos, Trudeau asked that a proposal explor- ing new options for the prime minis- ter’s official residence be drafted by January 2026. Trudeau said the proposal should in- clude a plan to transfer all responsibil- ity for the official residence, except for general maintenance, from the Nation- al Capital Commission to Public Servi- ces and Procurement Canada. The Carney government has not yet shared its plans for 24 Sussex or an al- ternative official residence. Pierre-Alain Bujold, a spokesman for the Privy Council Office, said the gov- ernment recognizes the importance of official residences and their heritage and cultural value. “Public Services and Procurement Canada is continuing to work with fed- eral partners to develop and refine op- tions for the future of the Prime Minis- ter’s official residence,” he said. — The Canadian Press CATHERINE MORRISON ;