An artist is suing former Quebec humor mogul Gilbert Rozon, whom she accuses of having raped her in 1988, the third such complaint in just over a month against the founder of the Just for Laughs festival. announced, Friday, May 28, the lawyers of this woman.
Danie Frenette, who was making a career in theater and circus at the time, claimed 2.2 million Canadian dollars (1.4 million euros) from the ex-juror of the program “La France a un incredible talent ”, according to the request filed at the Montreal courthouse. Mme Frenette accuses Gilbert Rozon of having raped her during a party he had organized in the garden of his residence in Montreal to celebrate the end of the Just for Laughs festival in July 1988, according to the request consulted by Agence France -Press (AFP).
“Shocked, confused and paralyzed by shame”, the woman would not have resisted her alleged attacker and would have left the scene immediately after the incident. She assures that Gilbert Rozon sexually assaulted her again in the fall of 1988. “The rape, assaults and the hold the defendant had over her had serious repercussions on her life, which continue to this day.”, support the lawyers of Mme Frenette, now 66 years old.
Two other complaints
Mr. Rozon, 66, was acquitted in December in another rape and indecent assault case following a criminal trial. But two other Quebeckers, Lyne Charlebois and Patricia Tulasne, recently sued Mr. Rozon in civil proceedings for rape, also claiming to have been raped in the 1980s and 1990s. “I gave the mandate to my lawyers to take the measures they deem appropriate in order to ensure my defense”, had declared Gilbert Rozon after the complaint of Mr.me Charlebois.
Lyne Charlebois, Patricia Tulasne and Danie Frenette participated in the creation of Les Courageuses, a collective of twenty women presumed victims of the former producer between 1982 and 2016. This group had taken a collective action against Gilbert Rozon, rejected by Canadian justice.
Targeted by accusations of sexual assault in October 2017, in the midst of the #metoo movement, Gilbert Rozon has since left his post at the head of the Just for Laughs group. The impact of these cases, in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal in the United States, had led the French television channels M6 and C8 to deprogram programs with which Gilbert Rozon was associated.
