The Crown has decided not to appeal an Ontario Superior Court justice's July 24 not guilty decisions in the sex assault trial for five former world junior hockey players. 

Justice Maria Carroccia found Michael McLeod, Carter Hart, Alex Formenton, Dillon Dubé and Cal Foote not guilty of sexual assaulting a woman in a London, Ont., hotel room in 2018. The team and hockey officials were in the city to celebrate the Canadian team's gold-medal win months earlier. 

For the eight-week trial, the complainant was referred to as E.M., as her identity is protected under a standard publication ban.

The Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has 30 days to file a notice of appeal of a judge or jury's rulings. 

Jessie Rodger, who heads Anova, an London, Ont., organization that helps survivors of gender-based violence, said the Crown's decision serves as "another painful reminder of how deeply the legal system fails survivors of sexual assault over and over again."

"For once, it would have been powerful to see a part of the legal system stand up for women and all victims of sexual assault. That's what an appeal could have represented," Rodger said in a statement. "The decision not to appeal reinforces the same silence and dismissal survivors have faced for generations." 

Carroccia ruled that E.M.'s evidence was neither reliable nor credible and the Crown failed to prove she didn't consent to the sexual activity she said occurred against her consent. 

Formenton's lawyer, Dan Brown, told CBC News he was notified by the Crown earlier Thursday afternoon about the decision not to appeal.

Brown said he would not be making a statement about the decision. 

CBC News has reached out to lawyers who represented the other players as well as E.M.'s lawyer, and will update this story if they make any statements. 

Hockey Canada officials said they would not comment on the no-appeal development.  

Legal system harms and silences, advocate says

The trial and Carroccia's 90-page judgment sent a message to survivors of sexual assault that "the system is not built for justice," Rodger wrote in the statement.

"It means the bar set by our current legal system is impossibly high for sexual assault survivors to meet....The decision not to appeal "reinforces the message that the legal system is not broken. It is working as it was intended — to harm, silence and revictimize."

Daphne Gilbert, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who researches violence in sport, said she wasn't surprised there will be no appeal. 

"Justice Carrocia appeal-proofed her judgment when she based it entirely on her assessment of the credibility of the complainant," Gilbert told CBC News. "A Court of Appeal cannot disturb credibility findings unless they are patently biased or unfair.  Once she said she disbelieved the complainant, it was game over."

There were also no blatant legal errors in Carroccia's decision, she added. 

"I think that E.M. will have a profound legacy. Everywhere I turn, people are calling for reform of the process," Gilbert said. "Never mind alternative processes like restorative justice — people want reform to the criminal justice system and I believe it can happen. I think that ultimately E.M. will be seen as the catalyst for change." 

WATCH | How the Hockey Canada trial could affect future sexual assault cases:

What the Hockey Canada trial reveals about the justice system

After the acquittal of five former world junior hockey players, The National asks criminal defence lawyers Lydia Riva and David Butt to weigh in on the judge’s ruling and how the high-profile trial could impact future sexual assault cases.

Mounds of evidence recounted

Carroccia's decisions marked the end of a trial that saw two juries being discharged, and took many twists and turns in attracting interest from around the world.

In reaching her decisions, she spent hours recounting all of the evidence heard at the trial, focusing on memory gaps and discrepancies between E.M.'s evidence this year and her civil lawsuit against Hockey Canada in 2022.

After the decisions were handed down, Carroccia told the five former players — who all at one time had NHL careers — that they were free to go.

Defence lawyers called the ruling a "vindication," "exoneration" and foregone conclusion based on the evidence. 

In a statement at the time, E.M. said the judge's decision was devastating. Her treatment under cross-examination by lawyers for the five former players was decried by advocates for survivors who said the days E.M. spent getting grilled by lawyers was one example of why many women don't report sexual assaults. 

In 2023, a third-party adjudicative panel hired to look at possible sanctions against the world junior players concluded its probe, but Hockey Canada has not released the findings as they are still being appealed.