The case of seven boys charged in connection with a series of incidents at St. Michael’s College School briefly returned to a Toronto courtroom this morning.
The teens, who cannot be identified under the provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were charged after a police investigation into multiple alleged incidents of assault and sexual assault at the all-boys Catholic school last fall.
In total, 37 charges have been laid in the case and the alleged assaults are believed to involve members of the football team.
School officials previously announced that the school would be conducting its own internal investigation and the allegations have also prompted administrators to cancel the upcoming football season.
The lawyers for all but one of the accused attended Ontario Youth Court on Monday morning where a brief, 10-minute hearing was held on the matter.
“Basically the Crown has an onus to provide to the defence what their case is against the accused person,” lawyer Rachel Lichtman told reporters outside the courthouse.
“So it has things like police officers notes, video statements from witnesses, sometimes video statements of complainants, things like that.”
The case was ultimately put over until Feb. 25.
Lawyers acknowledged that, in a case of this size, it is not uncommon for hearings to be repeatedly put over.
“It will definitely be put over again. Even if we do have all disclosure, it will be put over again so that each counsel can conduct something called the Crown pretrial – that’s basically a meeting with the defence counsel and the Crown to discuss the case,” Lichtman said.
“That happens in the progression of every criminal case. It’s not special to this case.”
All seven of the students facing charges have been expelled from St. Michael’s College School but are currently out on bail.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
