WARNING: This article references sexual assault and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
An intoxicated woman. A sexual encounter. A group message that invites other men to join. In the fallout, allegations of sexual assault, questions regarding consent and the response of elite cultural institutions under the microscope.
If it feels like you’ve heard this story before, it’s because you likely have.
Several legal experts note there are some striking similarities between the alleged gang-rape case unfolding at Cornell University this week, and last year’s Hockey Canada sexual assault trial in London, Ont., which saw all five players acquitted.
“It just seemed like yet another example of a group exploiting a vulnerable person,” lawyer Karen Bellehumeur, who represented the survivor known as E.M. in the 2025 Hockey Canada trial, told CBC News about the Cornell case.
“When a group is involved, it’s particularly abhorrent.”
What to know about Cornell’s alleged frat house gang-rape case and the ‘Cornell 7’
What happens after Hockey Canada sex assault trial ended in not guilty rulings? Some key questions answered
The Cornell case recently came under the spotlight after the victim, known in court documents as Jane Doe, filed a civil lawsuit on Sept. 16 alleging the Ivy League university protected the seven men, now dubbed “the Cornell 7.”
Jane Doe alleges they plied her with ketamine and assaulted her over several hours at a frat house in October 2024, and that one of the frat brothers sent a Snapchat message inviting other members to join them.
None of the fraternity members have been criminally charged, and the lawsuit claims the accused only faced temporary suspensions and “were afforded the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by submitting essays” to the university — an allegation Cornell denies. Cornell also says some of the students were expelled after an internal disciplinary investigation.
On Monday, after intense backlash, the Tompkins County district attorney announced he was reopening the investigation.
By Thursday evening, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’d lost faith in the Tompkins County district attorney’s ability to handle the case and was appointing a special prosecutor to oversee the investigation.
Hochul said she had signed an executive order giving the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James responsibility for the investigation.
In the 2025 Hockey Canada sexual assault trial, five former World Junior hockey players were charged with sexually assaulting a woman, known as E.M. due to a publication ban, in a hotel room in June 2018. One of the men sent a text message to the team inviting them to come to his room to “be in a 3-way quick.”
All of the so-called “Hockey Canada 5” were found not guilty. The NHL reinstated them. One was recently signed by the Edmonton Oilers.
The broader themes in the two cases are “strikingly significant,” said Melanie Randall, an associate professor of law at Western University in London, Ont., who researches gender-based violence.
“Institutional failures, inadequate investigations, an inappropriate focus on what she did and not what they did, misunderstandings of consent — it’s all there,” Randall told CBC News.
‘Cornell 7’ lawsuit: What we know
The parallels between the two cases are more than a coincidence, Toronto lawyer Gillian Hnatiw, a legal expert in gender-based violence and sexual assault, told CBC News.
Both cases involve exclusive organizations of men — a fraternity at a prestigious university and an elite hockey team — where it’s alleged that no one stepped in to stop a woman from being harmed, Hnatiw said, calling it “a continuation of locker room culture.”
“The fact that there are these communities where as men they feel comfortable not just speaking in this way but inviting their friends to participate in this event, raises serious cultural concerns for me,” Hnatiw said.
“This strikes with Hockey Canada as well, that it seems like not an exceptional thing that one of their teammates sent out a group chat saying come to this room, there’s a girl you can have sex with.”
The Cornell lawsuit, filed in New York Supreme Court and viewed by CBC News, alleges the assault happened on campus at the Chi Phi fraternity house. It included an image of an alleged Snapchat message sent at 1:42 a.m. to members of the fraternity, claiming there was “free pussy.”
It also included some of the purported responses from the accused, including, “like you can walk in and whip it out.” CBS further reports that later on, one of the fraternity brothers texted the chat to ask “Shop still open?” and the response was “Yea.”
“The texts … speak volumes to the kind of misogynist mentality that saw her body as something they had a right to access,” Randall said.
And it’s the same mentality and the same idea as what we saw with the Hockey Canada texts, she added.
“‘There is a woman available to you.’ This is the message that went from one man to the rest.”
Another root problem both these cases share is how little people understand trauma responses, said Bellehumeur, the lawyer who represented E.M. in the Hockey Canada trial.
“My concern for Jane Doe is that it appears there was an initial statement taken by her, and it’s different than what she said later and in her civil lawsuit, and I think much is going to be made of that difference,” Bellehumeur said.
On Monday, Tompkins County district attorney Matthew Van Houten said the original investigation in 2024 didn’t result in criminal charges in part because Jane Doe did not, in her initial sworn statement to campus police, make any allegations of being gang-raped or drugged.
“On the contrary, Jane Doe’s statement described her participation in drug use and sexual conduct as voluntary, conscious and consensual,” he said.
Jane Doe’s lawyer has since disputed Van Houten’s claim that she did not report the incident as a rape.
This was also an issue in the Hockey Canada trial, where E.M. was scrutinized for her differing statements and for acting permissive and compliant in the hotel room, with defence arguing the men couldn’t have known she didn’t consent.
Survivors often initially don’t understand their own trauma reactions, Bellehumeur said. Any time there’s a perceived lack of control and fear, the brain automatically causes involuntary reactions the victim herself may not understand, she added.
“She may ask herself, ‘Why didn’t I leave? Why did I acquiesce?'” Bellehumeur said.
Researchers have explained trauma responses can include: fight, flight, freeze and fawn. In the latter, the response involves trying to please or placate the perpetrator in order to stay safe during the assault.
This is a persistent misunderstanding, Randall said, where people think that if a woman doesn’t consent, she will fight back or say no. But in reality, in many of these situations, women feel threatened, fearful, incapacitated, and in the case where a group is involved, outnumbered.
“You figure out what you need to do to survive and get through it,” Randall explained.
Text messages and consent at the Hockey Canada sex assault trial
And then there’s the issue of consent. In the Hockey Canada trial, much of the case hinged on what E.M. did and didn’t consent to after a night of drinking.
Legal experts say the same will be true for Jane Doe if the Cornell case goes to trial. But that case is further muddied by current New York law, which makes a distinction between sexual assault victims who became intoxicated voluntarily and those who were given intoxicants without their consent or knowledge.
Only the latter can be considered “mentally incapacitated” and therefore unable to consent. As a result, it can be more difficult to bring certain rape charges in a case when the victim chose to consume intoxicants, according to experts and advocates cited by Reuters.
The lawsuit claims that Jane Doe had consumed about 10 alcoholic beverages before heading to the fraternity house the night of her alleged assault, where she was allegedly pressured into snorting ketamine several times — including snorting a line off the penis of one of the accused.
The legal experts CBC spoke with agreed Jane Doe has a long, onerous road ahead of her, especially if criminal charges are laid and she goes to trial.
“I wish the best for her, but I know it won’t be easy,” Bellehumeur said.
And like the Hockey Canada trial’s outcome, if the Cornell case goes to trial, “I think it would be pretty close to doomed,” Hnatiw said.
But, she added, “there are a lot of parallels between the two cases that I think we can learn from, if not legally, then sociologically.”
If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can look for crisis lines and local services via the Ending Sexual Violence Association of Canada database.
