Ex-Vancouver Canucks player Willie Mitchell named in sex assault lawsuit – BC

WARNING: This story details assault. Discretion is advised.

A woman has filed a civil lawsuit against former Vancouver Canucks player Willie Mitchell, alleging she was taken advantage of while too intoxicated to consent.

The defendant, identified only as S.D.K. in the lawsuit, was working at the Tofino Resort as a food and beverage server in September 2022.

At that time, Mitchell was one of three directors of the resort, according to the lawsuit.

He was part owner, along with former Vancouver Canucks player Dan Hamhuis, who bought it in 2016.

They brought developer Andrew Purdey on board to transform the property.

On Sept. 11, 2022, S.D.K. reportedly worked her scheduled shift at the resort and then went to the adjoining pub on the premises to socialize with co-workers and listen to live music.

“As the evening went on, the plaintiff became visibly impaired by alcohol intoxication,” the lawsuit states.

S.D.K. has fragmented memories of the events of the late evening and has vague memories of being in a car and having only one shoe on, it says.

The lawsuit states that Mitchell reportedly took the plaintiff to his private home and “in an altered level of consciousness secondary to her extreme intoxication and without her express or implied consent, Mitchell engaged in unprotected sexual activity with the plaintiff,” the document reads.

The morning after, the plaintiff walked home with one shoe on and went to the local police station and the Tofino Hospital to submit to a Forensic Nurse Examination.

“Mitchell, as agent for the Tofino Resort and the Numbered Company, had a duty to ensure the plaintiff was not overserved to the point of severe intoxication and to take reasonable steps to protect the plaintiff from foreseeable harm, including her vulnerability to the sexual assault,” the lawsuit states.

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Sandy Kovacs, a civil trial lawyer in Vancouver, is representing S.D.K. in the case.

“She does recall some moments of the night and she is aware that she was heavily intoxicated and what she remembers is by the end of the night, she was wearing one shoe and she recalls being in a car,” Kovacs told Global News of her client, who was in her mid-20s at the time of the alleged assault.

Crown counsel confirmed to Global News there were no criminal charges in this case, but Kovacs said it is incorrect to call a civil case a money grab.

“That’s an unfortunate misrepresentation of what our civil justice system is all about, because when we sue, I, as the lawyer for the plaintiff, I have the burden of proving not only that it happened, that it was non-consensual, but also that there is harm, and there are consequential losses,” she said.

“So I cannot sue for a penny more than the harm that I’d be able to prove. It has nothing to do with a lottery win, it has nothing to do with getting a quick paycheque. If anything, what it has to do with is restoration, as opposed to an award.”

Neither Mitchell nor the Tofino Resort and Marina could be reached for comment on Thursday.

The defendants have roughly three weeks to file a response. None of the allegations has been tested in court.

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