Defence suggests complainant made up ‘rape story’ after consensual sex with Hoggard | Canada News Media
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Defence suggests complainant made up ‘rape story’ after consensual sex with Hoggard

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TORONTO — Defence lawyers are suggesting a young woman made up a “rape story” about Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard because she was embarrassed to have fallen in love with a rock star who used her for sex.

During cross-examination Monday, defence lawyer Megan Savard suggested Hoggard and the woman, who was 16 at the time, had consensual sex in the singer’s Mississauga, Ont., hotel room in September 2016, after he sent a limousine to pick her up in her hometown north of Toronto.

Savard suggested the teen became upset at the end of the encounter because Hoggard called the driver to pick her up, and she was too embarrassed to tell her friend – one of two people who knew where she’d gone – why she was leaving hours earlier than planned.

“The thing that upset you is the fact that after having sex with this rock star, he called the car to pick you up earlier,” Savard told the woman at Hoggard’s sex assault trial in Toronto.

“The thing that upset me was that he had unconsensual sex with me where he hit me, I was bleeding and I continuously told him no and was crying. That’s what upset me,” the woman replied.

“I was very happy to get out of that room, I could not wait to get out of that room,” she said, adding she was the one who asked to be picked up early after pretending she was being called in to work.

The woman said she wasn’t embarrassed to tell her friend what happened, but was feeling “emotional” in light of what she had just experienced.

At a different point in her cross-examination, Savard suggested the teen gave the same “story” to her mother more than a week later in order to gain her sympathy and get a ride to the hospital to get tested for pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.

She also suggested the teen felt “like a fool” for believing Hoggard’s lines and having consensual sex that was “meaningless to him.”

“You were upset that you had fallen in love with a rock star and that he used you for sex,” she said.

The woman acknowledged being upset but said she felt “betrayed” because she was raped. She realized she had been manipulated into trusting Hoggard, she said. She previously told the court she was a big fan of Hedley, the band Hoggard fronted, and had a “fangirl crush” on the singer from a young age.

The woman, who is one of two complainants in Hoggard’s sex assault trial, alleges the singer repeatedly raped her vaginally and orally in his hotel room, and attempted to do so anally. She told the court he called her a “slut” and a “whore,” and that she deserved what was happening.

An agreed statement of facts says Hoggard had a sexual encounter with her at a hotel on Sept. 30, 2016. The document says he also had a sexual encounter with another woman, the second complainant in the case, on Nov. 22 of that year.

Hoggard has pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual assault causing bodily harm and one of sexual interference, a charge that relates to the sexual touching of someone under 16.

In her cross-examination on Monday, Savard questioned how Hoggard could have held down the complainant throughout the hotel encounter, including while removing her clothes and his own, as the woman alleges he did.

The defence lawyer also suggested the woman wasn’t screaming or making a lot of noise during the encounter, as she testified, nor did she appear dishevelled or in pain when she left the hotel room afterwards. Savard noted Hoggard escorted the teen out to the lobby and didn’t try to hide her presence in public.

Savard suggested no one at the hotel intervened because the complainant looked like she had just had “normal” and consensual sex.

Earlier Monday, Savard suggested the woman was “reciprocating” Hoggard’s sexual interest as they exchanged messages in lead-up to the hotel encounter. She pointed to the fact that the two had traded nude photos.

The woman replied that while she may “potentially” have expressed sexual interest in Hoggard, they weren’t “sexting” or describing sexual acts they wanted to do.

“There was never a message that said that I wanted to have sex with him,” or discussing having sex on the day they met up, she said.

The defence later noted that, while getting ready to go meet Hoggard on Sept. 30, the teen asked her friend to help her pick out clothes, including underwear.

“I am going to suggest to you (that) you were careful that your underwear match your bra because you were planning on having Mr. Hoggard see it that day,” Savard said.

The complainant denied that suggestion, saying she regularly wears matching undergarments.

Savard also suggested the woman made up that Hoggard repeatedly touched her buttocks after a Toronto concert in April 2016, just a few weeks after they started texting.

The woman began her testimony last Thursday, saying she met Hoggard on a few occasions at concerts and fan events for Hedley and they began messaging each other after a meet-and-greet when she was 15.

She testified the messages grew romantic and sexual over time, and Hoggard told her he loved her and saw a future with her.

The other complainant is expected to take the stand Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2022.

 

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press

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Canada’s Denis Shapovalov wins Belgrade Open for his second ATP Tour title

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BELGRADE, Serbia – Canada’s Denis Shapovalov is back in the winner’s circle.

The 25-year-old Shapovalov beat Serbia’s Hamad Medjedovic 6-4, 6-4 in the Belgrade Open final on Saturday.

It’s Shapovalov’s second ATP Tour title after winning the Stockholm Open in 2019. He is the first Canadian to win an ATP Tour-level title this season.

His last appearance in a tournament final was in Vienna in 2022.

Shapovalov missed the second half of last season due to injury and spent most of this year regaining his best level of play.

He came through qualifying in Belgrade and dropped just one set on his way to winning the trophy.

Shapovalov’s best results this season were at ATP 500 events in Washington and Basel, where he reached the quarterfinals.

Medjedovic was playing in his first-ever ATP Tour final.

The 21-year-old, who won the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF title last year, ends 2024 holding a 9-8 tour-level record on the season.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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Talks to resume in B.C. port dispute in bid to end multi-day lockout

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VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.

The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.

The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.

The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.

The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.

MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.

In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.

“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.

“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”

In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.

“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.

The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.

“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”

The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.

The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.

A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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The Royal Canadian Legion turns to Amazon for annual poppy campaign boost

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The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.

Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.

Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.

Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.

“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.

“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”

Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.

“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.

Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.

“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”

But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.

Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.

“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.

Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.

The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.



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