Videos of women at GoodLife posted to porn website

Hamilton man, 27, faces eight counts of voyeurism; women scoured for clues online in bid to find culprit

One video posted to the pornography website showed her using a stairclimber at her fitness club in east Hamilton.

Another was of her running on the treadmill at the GoodLife on Queenston Road.

“At first it was embarrassment,” Charlene McArthur said about how she felt upon discovering the videos on March 7. “And then it was shock.”

Now, McArthur, 26, says she feels anxious in public and uneasy in her male-dominated workplace.

“I’m having dreams where I’ve had people take videos in more uncomfortable situations.”

Samantha Kivell, a 25-yearold McMaster student, said she was “mortified” to learn about the videos via a phone message from a friend. “I actually dropped my phone and it broke.”

She and other women spoke to The Spectator about their experiences after police announced Friday they’d arrested a 27-year-old Hamilton man.

Michael Viny Mikhail faces eight counts of voyeurism and one count of distributing intimate images. He was released on a promise to appear in court.

Police say they investigated several complaints from female members of the 640 Queenston Rd. fitness club who said they’d been secretly filmed and discovered the videos on Pornhub.

The videos appeared to have been recorded between October 2019 and March 2020, police said.

Police also allege one of the incidents happened at Elements Casino Flamboro, where they say Mikhail worked but is no longer an employee. The casino can’t comment on personnel issues, Ron Urquhart, vicepresident of operations, said in an email Friday.

“However, we would note that Elements Casino Flamboro has a robust and extensive security system typical of what one would expect from a casino environment, and we will support any investigation undertaken by law enforcement should we be asked to do so.”

A GoodLife spokesperson said it’s co-operating with police, but couldn’t provide more details.

GoodLife takes the incident “very seriously,” Brad Lindsay, fitness director of health and safety, said in an email, adding health, safety and privacy of members and staff “is always our top priority.”

The club has a “strict policy that forbids” filming people “without their prior permission,” he said in the prepared statement.

McArthur, however, said she’s not happy with how GoodLife handled the complaints, which were made March 7.

Four days passed before the fitness club posted a small notice at the front desk outlining its policies, including the one that deals with filming, she said.

“It should have been plastered all over the gym at that point.”

Another victim, who asked that her name not be published, also said GoodLife could have responded better.

The man accused of filming the women should have been barred immediately, said the 28-year-old who works in marketing.

She said word spread among the women at the gym that videos of them had been posted to the porn site. “We formed a group, trying to figure out who the guy was.”

They sifted through videos on the website, looking for faces in the background and matching the poster’s last name with that of a club member.

The 28-year-old woman said she was filmed from a distance doing deadlifts.

“When I saw the video, I thought, ‘What the heck? There’s nothing sexual about this video. It doesn’t belong on a porn site.’ ”

But vulgar sexual remarks about her appearance — and the appearance of others — accompanied the videos on the website.

“For now, I tried to go back there. It was just too difficult. Like, I felt I was looking behind my shoulder the whole time.”

She said secret filming in fitness clubs may happen more than people realize.

“I feel like everybody should be looking out for it now to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Kivell said the videos have been removed from the website, but the sense of violation continues to haunt the women.

“I think we’re all feeling the same way. The big thing is we feel that our safe space has been taken from us.”

Other potential victims are asked to call Det. Mario Rizzo at 905-546-2918 or Det. Const. Andrew Grant at 905-5462923.