The trial of an accused serial sex predator is not at all like TV or film dramas would have you believe. It is long and arduous, and the shock and horror present themselves not as a tidal wave of big reveals, but as a slow-moving, punishing storm. In the case of the trial of Michael Mark Haaima, victim after victim has testified to the horrors they allegedly endured here in the Kingston, Ontario region, at the hands of the accused.
When the case adjourned for a month as of Friday, Oct. 3, 2025, a sense of relief among the leading players was palpable. Justice Robyn Ryan Bell, who is presiding over the judge-only trial that began on May 29, 2025, at the Frontenac County Court House, smiled as she announced that the courtroom would not be sealed at the end of the day, which would allow other business to be conducted there during the adjournment.
Assistant Crown attorneys Megan Williams and Holly Chiavetti have painstakingly presented the Crown’s case against Haaima so far, with 16 complainants testifying, along with a handful of other witnesses, including police officers. That leaves 12 more women to testify out of the 28 total complainants named in Haaima’s formal accusations. All of the women’s names are protected by a publication ban.
Ottawa criminal defence attorney Natasha Calvinho, who represents the interests of the accused, likely will not begin her defence until the new year.
Unlike on TV shows like Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, the courtroom gallery is empty most days. People on the streets seem shocked to learn the magnitude of the trial, as the national news media have barely touched it, even though police have compared Haaima to the infamous Canadian serial rapist turned serial killer, Paul Bernardo. This might be attributed to the number of victims testifying, the fact that Haaima is not a well-known figure (unlike the five junior hockey players recently tried and acquitted for sexual assault in London), or the sheer length of the trial. Most days, the Kingstonist reporter works alone in the 170-year-old courthouse.
Forty-one-year-old Haaima remains silent. Accompanied every day by various teams of two Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) officers, he sits in the prisoner’s dock, protected by bulletproof glass. He is tall and thin, his formerly blond schoolboy locks replaced with a slicked-back dark undercut and scruffy beard. He is expected to testify in the coming months, according to remarks from Calvinho.
For now, while his alleged victims tell their stories, he often shakes his head and takes notes. During breaks, he whispers to his attorney. Sometimes he blows kisses to his aunt, the only person who ever comes to support him in the courtroom; it is notable, however, that she is absent when witnesses testifying to his alleged atrocities are on the stand.
Initial arrest and subsequent charges
Haaima was initially arrested on April 6, 2022, after police identified 10 victims and laid 76 charges against him, including sexual assault, trafficking of minors, child pornography, and bestiality-related offences. The investigation, known as Project Shamrock, was a joint effort by the OPP, Kingston Police, Ottawa Police, Peterborough Police, and specialized OPP units, including digital forensics and the Provincial Human Trafficking Intelligence-led Joint Forces Strategy (IJFS).
At that time, police emphasized that Project Shamrock demonstrated the importance of multi-agency cooperation in combating predatory crimes and rescuing victims from exploitation. However, as the trial has revealed, at least three women made reports about Haaima to Kingston Police between 2010 and 2017, which were either not noted as related or otherwise slipped through the cracks.
The continued investigation led to the identification of additional victims, and by October 2022, 19 more charges had been added, bringing the total to 114. The offences spanned the years 2007 to 2022 and involved at least 28 women and girls. The earliest charges relate to incidents that occurred in the winter of 2007, and the most recent charge on the indictment is from a breach of conditions in 2023, while Haaima was incarcerated.
So far, the victims appear to occupy three distinct phases in the life of the accused, and patterns have emerged across all of them.
2007-2010: Alleged targeting of vulnerable young women and girls
Between 2007 and 2010, Haaima was an unemployed drug dealer who, it seems from testimony thus far in the trial, used that position to meet and prey upon vulnerable young women and girls.
The first three women to testify were Haaima’s roommates between February and July 2007 when they ranged in age from 17 to 20. They met Haaima, a 20-year-old drug dealer, when one of them purchased pot from him. When he heard the three were living in a car on the streets of Kingston, he invited them to live with him, and allegedly began sexually assaulting all three of them within a week after they moved into his house. In the months that followed, he allegedly became increasingly violent with them before they moved out.
The fourth victim to testify met Haaima and began dating him when she was just 15. She worked with Haaima’s roommate at a fast food restaurant. She testified that her mother approved of their relationship and that Haaima practically moved in to her family’s farmhouse outside Kingston. Haaima is charged with sexually exploiting her as a minor.
The fifth complainant to testify said Haaima was her classmate at Bayridge Learning Centre in the fall of 2008 when she was 17 and he was a 23-year-old adult student. Haaima invited her and a friend to come to his apartment to smoke weed and drink alcohol. She testified that Haaima gave her an uneasy feeling, so she and her friend left the apartment, calling a parent to pick them up. Later in the semester, the complainant was alone at the school because her friend was out of town. She testified that Haaima took that opportunity to sexually assault her on school property, kissing and fondling her without her consent. She left the school soon after, she testified, because she was no longer comfortable there.
The sixth complainant testified that Michael Haaima violently assaulted her in 2008, but her cross-examination was derailed when it emerged she had breached a court order not to discuss her evidence. After her first day on the stand, she had contacted OPP Detective Bev Mackey, who was assisting the Crown, to ask about trial scheduling and why the defence wanted her old Facebook messages, therefore referencing her testimony. Mackey immediately reported the call, leading the defence to claim a Charter breach and request an adjournment. During voir dire questioning on June 23, 2025, the defence grilled the witness, accusing her of defying the judge’s order, interfering in the case, and trying to block evidence. The witness insisted she hadn’t acted intentionally, saying pressure from her employer clouded her judgment. When Calvinho pressed her on why she now knew the call was wrong, the witness said she overheard Calvinho discussing it in the courthouse parking lot — a point the Crown later used to highlight the defence’s own lapse in discretion.
When Detective Mackey took the stand, she admitted she should not have spoken with the witness, but said she immediately disclosed the call to the Crown as her legal duty.
The tense exchange culminated with Calvinho criticizing Crown attorney Megan Williams for an email suggesting the case had “gone off the rails,” calling this remark an unfair attack on her handling of the trial’s complex and unpredictable testimony. Calvinho defended her handling of the case, citing delays caused by new witness information and her own illness. The episode underscored the mounting friction between defence and Crown as the already lengthy trial continued.
The next complainant said she was sexually assaulted by Haaima at an apartment complex in Amherstview in 2008 when she was 16. A pot dealer known to her as “Mike,” who lived down the hall, invited the girl to his apartment to play with his dog and watch a movie; then, she said, he raped her. In 2022, she saw Haaima’s arrest on the news, recognized him, and reported it to the police.
“I felt like I could help someone else who has gone through the same thing,” she told the court at the end of June.
July began with a seventh complainant who reported an assault by Haaima to Kingston Police as it was happening, in October of 2010. She testified she was in a several-month-long romantic relationship with Haaima when she was 17. Haaima, then 25, was at her home when he grew enraged and forcibly confined her to a bedroom after she had confronted him about texting other girls. She said that when she managed to escape the bedroom he was holding her in, Haaima violently choked her, nearly throwing her down the stairs. She managed to call 911, but when the police arrived, she said she was terrified to say anything because Haaima was nearby. Constable Ryan Lawlor and Detective Constable Rad Miksa testified that as rookie patrol officers in October 2010, they responded to a 911 call about a domestic dispute involving Michael Haaima and his girlfriend. Although neither officer clearly remembered the incident, their contemporaneous notes showed that Haaima met them outside and explained he and his girlfriend had argued because “she was texting other guys.” Lawlor’s notes recorded that the woman said Haaima had called her names, gotten in her face, and refused to leave when told to. The officers issued warnings before escorting Haaima off the property and giving him a ride home.
At this point, the timeline of Haaima’s alleged crimes jumps six years. Part two of the trial so far will be published in the coming days.
