Mike Strange, Ontario councillor and ex-Olympian, pleads not guilty at domestic assault trial

< warm>WARNING: < warm>This story references allegations of domestic help force.

Niagara Falls, Ont., Coun. Mike Strange pleaded not guilty Tuesday to domestic assault as the trial for the 55-year-old former Olympic athlete began in St. Catharines.

Strange was first elected to Niagara Falls council in 2014, after representing Canada as a light-welterweight boxer in three Olympics. 

The judge-alone trial, scheduled for two days in the Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines, is before Justice Stephen Darroch.

Strange was charged in May 2025 after Niagara Regional Police Service officers responded to a call at a home and reported finding a woman with injuries.

The trial also began hearing Tuesday from the alleged victim, Strange's then common-law partner. Court heard they were together for 13 years.

Strange has remained in his job as the criminal case plays out, something that caused a stir in the council chambers in June, when members of the women-led advocacy group Women of Ontario Say No (WOSN) requested to speak before council. 

WOSN had been advocating across Ontario for an addition to the Municipal Accountability Act, stipulating that any councillor charged with assault be placed on automatic, paid leave until a case is resolved in the courts.

City staff blocked WOSN from speaking about Bill 9. On June 17, Niagara police officers arrested three women in the council chambers after they refused to put away signs that said the name of the advocacy group.

"There is, of course, an obvious and painful irony in women being arrested for peacefully holding objectively inoffensive signs, while a sitting councillor was able to remain and participate in his public role in this official capacity despite being charged with serious violent offence involving assaulting a woman and released," lawyer Susan Toth, representing WOSN, wrote in a July letter to the city.

Around that time, Strange came under fire for a July 6 email a friend sent on his behalf inviting members of the Falls View Hose Brigade, a local fundraising group, to "fill the chambers so there is no space for the women's group to sit" on July 8.

In August, a local resident lodged an integrity commissioner complaint against Strange, accusing him of breaching the code of conduct by inviting Hose Brigade members to the chambers. 

However, a December report by integrity commissioner Michael Maynard found Strange did not breach the city's councillor code of conduct, saying the code does not stop “normal political activities, such as rallying support for an individual or an issue.”

If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. If you're affected by family or intimate partner violence, you can look for help through crisis lines and local support services. ​​

Reporter

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