'That never happened': Rapper K'naan testifies in his own defence at sexual assault trial in Quebec City
Posted on: Mar 12, 2026 13:30 IST | Posted by: Cbc
< warm>WARNING: This clause contains elaborate testimonial of sexual assault.
One of Canada's most succesful rappers, K'naan, testified in his own defence that he never he sexually assaulted a woman while she slept in his Quebec city hotel room in 2010.
“That never happened. There was not a single ambiguous moment about consent with her. It never happened,” he said.
K'naan, whose real name is Keinan Abdi Warsame, is accused of sexually assaulting the woman in her 20s in a room at the Hilton hotel in July 2010, when he was performing at the Festival d'été de Québec.
The 48-year-old is best known for his 2009 global hit Wavin' Flag.
Warsame, wearing a black suit and green sweater, is testifying in English.
He corroborated some elements of the alleged victim's testimony: that the two spent a nice evening together before an argument about not having a condom and then going to sleep, and that they had consensual sex the following morning.
But he said the alleged victim's assertion that he sexually assaulted her in the middle of the night while she slept was not true.
Wednesday under cross-examination, his accuser, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, maintained the same version of events she recounted earlier this week.
She testified that after getting to know Warsame online, he invited her to attend his concert in Quebec and spend time with him.
She said she was expecting it would be possible they would have sexual intercourse.
“For me the idea that I was going there with the expectation of a sexual relationship is not the issue," she told the court Wednesday.
"It’s what actually happened that is the issue,” she said.
She said the night began as what she described as "a modern fairy tale."
She said Warsame brought her backstage to his concert, held her hand, and was very nice to her before they returned to his hotel room.
"Fairy tales don't always end happily ever after," she said.
She repeated her testimony from earlier this week, that they had a meal together in the room and then started becoming physically intimate, but that Warsame had what she called "a tantrum" when she realized she didn't have a condom.
“That’s when everything changed. It was night and day,” she said.
She said the mood was spoiled and they eventually went to sleep, but she was awakened later in the night when she felt Warsame having sexual intercourse with her.
"He raped me while I was sleeping. He took posession of my body," she said.
Warsame's testimony was continuing Thursday.
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