A Quebec Superior Court judge has ordered Gilbert Rozon, the Just For Laughs founder, to pay a little more than $880,000 to eight of the nine women who have accused him of sexual assault and misconduct in a civil trial.
In total, the women were seeking just under $14 million in damages. During the trial, all of them testified about their experiences that spanned decades and faced cross-examination.
In her decision on Tuesday, Judge Chantal Tremblay also dismissed the four defamation lawsuits filed by Rozon in the process. She rejected one of the plaintiff’s cases and partially accepted another’s.
Tremblay wrote that her decision aims to reaffirm that demonstrated attacks on a person’s integrity require “a legal response proportionate to the extent of the harm suffered.”
“It allows responsibility to be attributed where it lies, while offering a form of reparation that extends beyond the financial aspect, namely a validation of the quest for justice sought by the plaintiffs,” the decision reads in French.
Throughout the case, dozens of witnesses testified, including seven other women who have also claimed that Rozon sexually abused them.
Rozon has always denied the allegations against him.
In a statement, the law firm representing the plaintiffs, Trudel Johnston and Lespérance, said Tremblay’s decision was proof that the justice system can respond to sexual violence.
“This victory also belongs to all survivors of sexual assault, as it reaffirms their right to be heard, regardless of how much time has passed, and encourages them to report the abuse they have suffered and to pursue justice through the courts,” the statement reads.
The civil trial, which began in December 2024, was the latest stage in a winding legal battle that began as a class-action lawsuit but was converted into individual suits after a 2020 Quebec Court of Appeal ruling.
The impresario stepped down as president of the Just For Laughs comedy festival in October 2017 after several people publicly accused him of misconduct. At the time, he was also the commissioner of Montreal’s 375th anniversary celebrations.
Shortly thereafter, a group of women dubbed Les Courageuses attempted to bring a class action forward on behalf of Rozon’s victims. The nine plaintiffs who would eventually file individual suits also file formal complaints with Montreal police.
Annick Charette’s complaint is the only one that leads to criminal charges against Rozon — indecent assault and rape, connected to events from 1980.
When Rozon is later found not guilty of those crimes, Charette filed a civil suit against him in 2021 and is one of the plaintiffs awarded compensation on Tuesday.
In 1998, Rozon pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old at a party east of Montreal and later received an unconditional discharge from a judge who weighed, in part, the success of Rozon’s comedy festival.
During this latest trial, Rozon said he regretted pleading guilty and did so after receiving encouragement from his family and given the financial pressure his company was under.
