Rozon trial: Dominic Champagne hopes justice will be ‘served satisfactorily’

Director Dominic Champagne was an attentive spectator on Tuesday at Gilbert Rozon’s trial, as his daughter-in-law, Jessica Lelièvre, was called upon to cross-examine the disgraced comedy mogul.

Rozon is facing a civil lawsuit in which he is being sued by nine women claiming a total of nearly $14 million for sexual assaults they allege he committed.

Champagne, who spoke to the media during a break, stated that “the relationship between men and women and the justice system needs to be better than it is now. Let’s hope that justice is served satisfactorily so that we can say to ourselves: this is where we are, men, women, and our society, in relation to justice, and this is what we want. If there are things that need to change in our behaviour, both in the drafting of our laws and in our behaviour, let’s talk about it and then do it.”

Speaking of the trial itself, he said he hoped “that justice will be conclusive, convincing, and satisfactory for everyone, so that we can say to ourselves: ‘But this is where we are as a society, as a culture.'”

“Surreal from every point of view”

Meanwhile, in the courtroom, Rozon once again described as “surreal from every point of view” the allegations made by Mary Sicari, who said she was the victim of sexual harassment and groping during the many years she worked at Just for Laughs. In an open-plan office “which was a hive of activity,” as he put it, such gestures could not have gone unnoticed.

The two had a “strictly professional” relationship, he reiterated, adding that “not only was I not attracted (to her), but I never felt that she was attracted to me.”

Lawyer Bruce Johnston, who was finishing his portion of the cross-examination, reminded him that he had added, “perhaps to her great surprise,” when he initially testified, that he was not attracted to her. Rozon responded by stating that “when you’re famous, literally, women run after you, for fame, prestige, I don’t know. When you’re famous, people want to offer your head on a silver platter.”

Johnston also returned to Annick Charrette’s case, seeking to highlight contradictions in her testimony. While Charrette claims to have woken up with Rozon straddling her after she slept at the residence of a colleague of Rozon’s, he maintains a mirror version, according to which he woke up with her straddling him and making love to each other, using her for stimulation.

“To trap me”

“Did she assault you?” Johnston asked him. “Absolutely, but I didn’t file a complaint,” the witness asserted. Johnston tried to contradict him regarding the timing of the incident, which the complainant claimed occurred in June 1980, which Rozon claimed was impossible because he was then in the midst of preparing his first festival, the Grande Virée de Lachute. Rozon made no secret of his exasperation: “The way you’re phrasing the questions is obviously to trap me,” he exclaimed.

Taking over after the break, Lelièvre returned to the alleged assault by Danie Frenette, who claims that Rozon raped her on his property in Outremont, in an area protected by vegetation, during a party in 1988.

Rozon has always denied having acted in such a manner because his property at the time did not include the wooded area or bushes referred to by Frenette. “The land is grassy, ​​in full view of everyone. Making love in broad daylight, with my wife there? You have to imagine such a crazy scene as getting naked and making love in front of my wife,” he said.

Videos and Photos Entered into Evidence

Rozon claims to have no photos of his property at that time, but Lelièvre produced a video filmed around 1994 at his home, a humorous interview conducted by the character Jacques Chevalier de Longueuil, which is included on a DVD entitled “Great Moments of Just for Laughs, Volume 1.” Lelièvre played the video, which made the witness smile.

But when he showed him a screenshot showing trees, Rozon refused to admit that they were “mature.” He also dismissed the possibility that shadows from other hardwood trees could be produced by bushes.

Producing other family photos, these ones from 1998 or 1999, he had to admit that there was a large fir tree there, but when the lawyer asked him if he also saw the large bush behind the people in the photo, he replied, “What do you call a bush?”

“To me, it’s like a decorative shrub, four, five, maybe six feet tall,” he finally conceded. Rozon’s lawyer, Mélanie Morin, noted

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews