The Vegas Golden Knights are looking to sign Carter Hart. Take my hand, let's bully the front office <3
Per Chris Johnston via the Athletic (archived)
In the same article, he says the Canes have reconsidered their own hiring of Michael McLeod due to backlash:
You can and should bully the shit out of any NHL team for this. There aren't a lot of active Knights fans on here but a few are taking action over on Twitter, and it would be sweet if hockey fans across the league spoke up and added their voices to our efforts.
If you are having trouble with what to say, below the cut is a helpful email scaffold that @stereax kindly drafted! Please add/take away details at your discretion.
[Email subject line: something along the lines of "Please do not sign Carter Hart".]
Hi! My name is [YOUR NAME], I am a [Golden Knights/hockey] fan [since XXX] and an advocate for sexual assault survivors. I am writing to you today to implore of the Vegas Golden Knights to not sign Carter Hart.
I find it deeply distressing that [my favorite/any] NHL team would consider signing any players that were involved in the recent Hockey Canada scandal. This is not just about the game of hockey, but a deeper and more pervasive issue of the culture of sexual assault within hockey. While none of the players were convicted of sexual assault (due to insufficient evidence), the evidence is clear that these men deeply traumatized EM, trauma that has taken her years to recover from. By signing Hart, or any other player involved in the scandal, Vegas sends a message to sexual assault survivors, and indeed many female fans of hockey, that their voices are not important, and that what they have gone through does not matter if the person that abused them is marginally better at a sport than someone else. This goes against Vegas's core value of community.
[If Vegas goes forward and signs Hart, I will: cancel my season tickets/not renew my season tickets/no longer buy tickets/cancel my KnightTime+ subscription/no longer be a fan of the team/whatever other consequence you can think of.]
Please reconsider signing Carter Hart. By not signing Hart, the Golden Knights can take a stand for sexual assault survivors, underline that there is no room for such heinous actions in the NHL, and reaffirm that hockey truly is for everyone.
reading through some articles outlining the testimony in the hockey canada case and
the entire scenario is pornographic which leads the question of where these boys even got the idea of doing something like this from
there was this bizarre video filmed after the entire assault ended where EM states that she consented to everything and that she liked it except there’s no proof that video wasn’t taken under duress?? logically speaking if she felt threatened enough to participate in sex acts against her will how does it track she wouldn’t have felt threatened into filming this video? also it sounds like McLeod coached her on what to say before recording the video. the other disturbing facet is that in the group chat when all the boys are getting their story straight they seem to convince themselves that the existence of this video clears them of all wrong doing- against the video that can’t be proven to not be taken under duress and was recorded after the fact not prior to the assault. just weird to me that these boys thought the words “I consent” being spoken in any context was a get out of jail free card.
there was a group chat where all the guys got their stories straight as soon as they found out this was being investigated. the texts are clearly the boys trying to figure out what to say to get out of being in trouble. they are not recollecting events in a neutral way at all. “all we have to say is…” and then the guys come up with the plan to say she was begging for it. why someone felt the need to film that weird consent video if she was begging for it all night doesn’t really make sense to me, it feels like the kind of thing you do to cover yourself when you know you took something too far. even McLeod knew the videos were weird and suspicious because he asked the group chat what he should tell investigators if they questioned why he had taken the videos
steenbergen’s testimony strikes me as inconsistent. he seems to contradict himself and at one point suggests that whoever recorded the statements he made in 2022 “miswrote” his statements which EM was found to be an unreliable witness with a tendency to blame others yet this guy is allowed to not get his story straight and pin it one someone else? He also insists he wasn’t paying attention to what was happening in the room and yet what he says about what he witnesses is supposed to be taken seriously?
statements made in the 2022 investigation related to the civil suit where deemed inadmissible - at one point Formenton lied about seeing Dube slap EM and then admits to the lie in a subsequent interview 4 days later and says he lied because Dube asked him too. Formenton also describes seeing Dube pick up a golf club and “swing it in EM’s direction” while she’s on the ground after Dube has already slapped her
howden develops selective memory loss and conveniently not recall “the details that are particularly damning to his friends and teammates” in 2018 he stated that he saw EM put her clothes on and try to leave and that Formenton asked him if he was “allowed to do this” before following EM into the bathroom. his whole testimony is a mess that contradicts a lot of what he said in 2022 and 2018 atp I don’t think anyone’s testimony is “credible”. Brett Howden is a weak man is all that can be said for how he conducted himself
I would like to return to the group chat. One thing many of the players stated in their testimony is that they gathered in the hotel room and where hanging out and EM was flirting with everyone trying to get them to have sex and they all declined her but in the group chat they all establish that what they’re going to say they gathered to hang out and eat food and she was the one who was pressuring everyone. The problem w/ this version of events is that McLeod got everyone to come to the room by sending a text to the group chat that said some to my room if you want to have a threesome and then also got guys to come into the room by asking guys if they wanted a blowjob and per witness testimony the interaction went that McLeod was doing all the talking and EM was silent so how does it make any sense these guys were in this room for a wholesome good time and just stumbled into depravity
McLeod’s report to the London police in 2018 did not include any mention of EM asking him to invite other players into the hotel room that was a detail he added later in subsequent interviews. EM has maintained the whole time that she did not know that McLeod sent a text telling guys to come to his room and she would perform sex acts on them. McLeod’s attorney argued that McLeod neglected this detail in that initial interview because he wasn’t formally charged so he did prepare as throughly for the interview as someone facing charges would have. An 18/19 year old boy isn’t taking a police interview about a sexual encounter with a drunk girl seriously because he hasn’t been charged with anything?? is that likely ?
I knew the details were going to be frustrating when I finally looked into them but I didn’t expect this. EM literally said in her testimony that she did what she felt she had to so that she could leave the room alive. Even if she did sober up through this encounter; she’s alone with a crowd of men she doesn’t know who have been invited into this room with the expectation she perform sexually for them. The men (who all state they can’t recall certain details of the night) say they don’t recall her being slapped degraded or spit on but EM testified she was being slapped spit on and degraded. One of these men (Dillon Dube) picks up a golf club and is swinging it in the room so you’re already afraid these men are going to let you leave alive and now one of them is holding a weapon. Even in the way the men tried to protect each other it’s obvious they understand they did something wrong. This case is insane in how clear it actually is that they all know what they did. The not guilty verdict was a reflection of the legal system’s inability to adequately handle situations like this, not the innocence of those 5 players
HOW THE FUCK IS THIS NOT BLOWING UP ON TUMBLR RIGHT NOW???
These monster are free while the victim suffers more! Canada wtf are y'all doing acting like America on this? If i catch any of you guys being heart eyes at these monster i will block your ass fast.
