MANDEL: Michael Thompson's accuser grilled over sex assault claim
The city councillor has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two women and his lawyer accuses the second complainant of being the aggressor
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Feisty and combative, the second complainant to accuse City Councillor Michael Thompson of sexual assault went toe to toe with the politician’s lawyer during a scathing cross-examination in a Barrie courtroom on Thursday.
But she was unshaken in her allegation that Thompson sexually assaulted her at a Muskoka cottage during the Canada Day weekend of 2022 – though much of the day involved clashes over whether or not she “actually gave him oral sex” that she insists was against her will.
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“I don’t remember … I just block that part out,” she said. “I just remember not wanting to do it.”
The woman traded sarcasm for sarcasm as her story was continually challenged by defence lawyer Leora Shemesh.
“You’re nitpicking about nonsense,” the woman said at one point.
And when asked a question about her allegation that Thompson rubbed her face with his penis while she sat on a bed, she huffed exhaustedly, “Yes, for the 17,000th time, yes.”
The six-time Scarborough Centre councillor and former deputy mayor has pleaded not guilty to sexually assaulting two women.
At the opening of the judge-alone trial last fall, the prosecutor alleged the politician lured them to the luxury Muskoka cottage owned by criminal defence lawyer Calvin Barry with promises of mentorship and networking opportunities, but instead preyed on them after plying them with marijuana and alcohol.
The first complainant testified in December 2024 that Thompson rubbed his hands under her bikini, touching her buttocks and then her breasts while she lay on the dock.
The second woman testified Thompson did the same to her during the day and then later that night, when she’d passed out naked and drunk in the wrong bed, he moved her to her room where he forced oral sex.
“I told you he wasn’t taking no for an answer and I eventually gave in,” she testified.
Shemesh asked her about her YouTube channel.
“You are someone, if I can put it this way, who is quite assertive,” she said. “You certainly speak your mind and you’re not afraid to do so.”
Yet, when she concluded the weekend was a “set up” after she and her girlfriend arrived at the cottage get-together to find only Thompson and one other young woman, the lawyer wondered why she didn’t speak up – or leave.
And when she awoke in the early morning after allegedly being sexually assaulted, Shemesh questioned why she didn’t text her girlfriend to leave immediately or call police, instead of having a leisurely breakfast with a noon departure?
“I knew we were leaving anyway, so I just wanted to wait until everyone was awake,” was her reply.
Shemesh then confronted her with Thompson’s version of events painting her as the aggressor.
“I’m going to suggest to you that earlier on in the day, this is before dinner, that you had been interacting with one another in a flirtatious way,” Shemesh began.
“I might have flirted,” she said.
Shemesh suggested they were alone together in the kitchen, where she put her hand inside his shorts, and they kissed.
“Your suggestion is horrible.”
She also denied the lawyer’s suggestion that she told Thompson she wanted to have sex after the other women went to bed.
“I’m going to suggest to you that Mr. Thompson never came into the bedroom where you were at. My suggestion is that you instead came voluntarily to his bedroom downstairs on the main floor,” Shemesh charged.
“Absolutely not,” she said vehemently.
“And not only did you come to him, to his bedroom, in the wee hours of the morning,” the lawyer continued, “but that you came to his bedroom naked.”
“Absolutely not,” the woman maintained. “I did not go into his room.”
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Shemesh suggested she wasn’t drunk, that they had a drink together in the kitchen and walked around the cottage basement while she was still naked.
“That doesn’t make sense,” the woman scoffed.
They then ended up in her bed, Shemesh suggested, where she began to perform fellatio on Thompson.
“There was nothing consensual. I made it very clear that I don’t want to do anything,” the woman insisted.
Shemesh suggested the woman interrupted the oral sex because she had to go to the washroom and returned asking if Thompson had a condom – which he didn’t.
“You’re taking truth and lies and mixing it up,” the woman retorted.
She returns to court next week for the Crown’s re-examination.
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