Junior hockey player who pleaded guilty to assault wants Supreme Court to hear appeal

Former Quebec junior hockey player Massimo Siciliano wants the Supreme Court to intervene, a month after the Court of Appeal upheld his sentence for sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2021.

Both Siciliano and his teammate Nicolas Daigle pleaded guilty to the sexual assault and were sentenced to 30 and 32 months in prison, respectively.

At the time of the assault, Siciliano and Daigle were members of the Victoriaville team in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, and the club was celebrating on June 5, 2021, after winning the championship trophy.

The victim, a 17-year-old girl, said she was assaulted by the players that night in a Quebec City-area hotel, and that Daigle also filmed her without her knowledge.

The lawyers for the former Victoriaville Tigres tried to convince the Court of Appeal that they were eligible to serve sentences in the community, in part because of their ages. But the court rejected this argument and ordered the two young men to be taken into custody last month.

Daigle does not want to take his case further, his lawyer confirmed to Radio-Canada. The young man will serve his sentence of 32 months.

But Siciliano's lawyer, Charles Levasseur, is arguing for his client to be released until the Supreme Court processes his request.

Levasseur argued in his authorisation request to the Supreme Court that the judge anchored the young man's sentence in a "desire to denounce a social phenomenon, rather than individualizing the penalty according to the offender's actual profile."

Levasseur is hoping to convince the court of the necessity of establishing sentencing guidelines for young adult offenders. 

In his request to the Supreme Court, he mentioned how Canadian law explicitly recognizes the "special situation of teenagers and Indigenous people. However, it remains silent with regard to young adults between the ages of 18 and 25."

He says it's not about "invoking youth as an excuse" but about applying justice that is individualized.

But last month, the prosecutor said the defence would likely not be able to convince the Supreme Court to take up the case.

"We consider the Court of Appeal's judgment to be very well drafted," said Michel Bérubé, representative of the director of criminal and penal prosecutions.