Toronto Coun. Michael Thompson took the stand on Tuesday at his sexual assault trial that is taking place at the Barrie courthouse.
Thompson faces two counts of sexual assault against two women that are alleged to have taken place at the same Muskoka cottage over the Canada Day long weekend in 2022.
He has pleaded not guilty before Ontario Court Justice Phillip Brissette, who is presiding over the judge-alone trial.
Thompson’s defence lawyer, Leora Shemesh, walked him through his career and other details of his life before getting Thompson to describe how he came to know a woman who was also at the cottage that weekend but has not alleged he assaulted her.
Thompson, 65, said he and the young woman met at a gallery in Yorkville he was attending as part of his council role.
“It’s always political,” he said from the stand when asked why he attended the event, before rhyming off what happened and how he came to be introduced to her.
Thompson said he attended for about 90 minutes. He told court he left to go to another gathering that was taking place at a restaurant nearby. It was as he was leaving that establishment later on that he offered the woman a ride home after she had told him she had missed her bus.
According to Thompson, she poured his heart out to him on the way home to Richmond Hill, including a hard-luck story of not being able to pay her $56 cellphone bill.
Thompson responded by peeling off two $50 bills as he dropped her off — “something I’d naturally do,” he told Shemesh, in reference to random acts of kindness and charity he says he often undertook, especially to people of colour and residents of his Scarborough ward.
With the connection now made, it wasn’t long before Thompson invited the woman to the cottage, which he was using but that belonged to a friend. Thompson said it was a means to get together with a wide range of people — he said he also invited the woman’s mother and siblings, as well as many other people — on a holiday weekend but that the gathering was not a networking opportunity.
“I just wanted to get away,” he testified.
It is obvious where Thompson’s defence is going even in Tuesday’s limited testimony because all three women who attended that weekend have testified earlier that they were surprised to show up in Port Carling to find they were the only ones there.
The other two women, who are friends, are alleging Thompson sexually assaulted them.
Before Thompson took the stand, a woman named Louise Spence testified briefly. She told court Thompson had invited her and her family to the cottage, but Spence appeared to be mistaken what long weekend — Canada Day or Labour Day — the invite pertained to.
The Crown completed its evidence just before Thompson took the stand by finishing up with the second alleged victim, who offered brief clarification details of her earlier testimony.
The woman had testified earlier she was woken out of her drunken stupor and led to another room by Thompson. Once there, she said Thompson attempted to force her into performing oral sex on him.
She told court she refused and that Thompson responded by ejaculating on her chest and face.
The first alleged victim, who testified before the second woman when the trial was taking place in Bracebridge, said Thompson used the ruse of applying sun tan lotion to touch her sexually.
Thompson answered questions from Shemesh for about 35 minutes before court was adjourned for the day.
Proceedings were dominated by legal arguments that took up most of the day. The trial resumes Wednesday but will be delayed at least a couple of hours so the judge can preside over another case.
It is also scheduled to return to Brissette’s courtroom in Barrie on Thursday.
Thompson won re-election in his ward just weeks after being charged.
As he detailed in questions from Shemesh, he has been a Toronto councillor since 2003 but has had an interest in politics dating back to when he was a teenager, shortly after arriving from Jamaica.
Once the city’s deputy mayor, he resigned that post after being charged but remains an active councillor.
