'Feel free to get naked,' witness testifies Toronto councillor told her during 'networking' weekend

Toronto councillor Michael Thompson "forced himself on" a woman who awoke to find him standing over her after she fell asleep drunk, the Crown alleged Monday, as the five-day sexual assault trial of the six-term politician began in Bracebridge, Ont.

Thompson is accused of sexually assaulting two women at a luxury Muskoka cottage on Canada Day weekend in 2022, a getaway the prosecution asserts he coordinated for several women as a networking event – but then urged them to drink heavy amounts of alcohol, smoke marijuana out of his mouth, and take off their clothes.

Thompson, 64, has pleaded not guilty to the two charges.

Crown attorney Mareike Newhouse outlined her case to the Bracebridge, Ont. court Monday, alleging that Thompson sexually massaged one of the women against her will. In the second, more graphically-described incident, she alleges Thompson led the victim to another room in the cottage and pressured her into a sex act despite the victim repeatedly telling him “no.”

“He suggested to everybody to test the bounciness of his bed,” a witness told the court Monday as she described the tone of the weekend she attended in hopes of furthering her career.

The identities of the witness and the two complainants are shielded by a publication ban.

Thompson was “adamant” about the guests continuously consuming alcohol, the witness said – a term defence lawyer Leora Shemesh challenged in cross-examination.

“He encouraged a certain flow of events,” the witness said. “With this power dynamic established, I was sort of going along with things in his preference.”

“What he suggested – I did. There’s a part of me that didn’t feel much of a choice. You do what is suggested and move forward appeasing his wants."

Shemesh suggested that the witness could have refused to drink the alcohol, just as she refused to remove her clothing at Thompson’s suggestion.

Twice during the weekend, the witness said, Thompson told her, “Feel free to get naked.”

In the first instance, the woman responded, “I said, ‘No, I’m good’ […] I was stunned and confused.”

Referring to the second time, while on a boat, the woman said, “I did not comply with that. I kind of froze.”

“I was really uncomfortable. I didn’t know what to do.”

That witness had driven up to the cottage with Thompson after meeting him at a Yorkville gallery where he offered mentorship and career support – what she described on the stand as “false promises.”

The two complainants arrived at the cottage toward the end of the long weekend. The morning after the alleged assaults, the witness said the women “were both kind of in distress.”

One victim, the witness said, felt “taken advantage of.”

“There was this cloud of heavy hurt around what she was saying.”

The other, she noted, “was confused, and angered as well.”

The witness decided it would be “safer” to drive back to Toronto with the two women, who she hadn’t known prior to the weekend – instead of with Thompson as planned.

Thompson, who represents Scarborough Centre, was first elected in 2003, and handily won re-election in 2022 even after the sexual assault charges were laid.

The trial continues Thursday.