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Gilbert Rozon has agreed to pay $930,000 to nine women who accused him of sexual misconduct and has waived his right to appeal the Quebec court ruling that found he sexually assaulted eight of them.<\/p>\n
In a statement released Wednesday, lawyers for the women said the parties had reached an agreement following the March 31 judgment by Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Tremblay.<\/p>\n
The ruling found Rozon liable for sexually assaulting eight women and ordered him to pay a total of $880,000 in damages.<\/p>\n
In total, the women were seeking just under $14 million in damages. During the trial, Patricia Tulasne, Lyne Charlebois, Anne-Marie Charette, Annick Charette, Sophie Moreau, Danie Frenette, Guylaine Courcelles, Mary Sicari and Martine Roy testified about their experiences, spanning between 1980 and 1994, and faced cross-examination.<\/p>\n
In a nearly 600-page decision, Tremblay said all plaintiffs had met the burden of proof with the exception of one, whose case she rejected. A second woman’s case, meanwhile, was partially accepted.<\/p>\n
“With one exception, each of them has demonstrated overwhelmingly that she suffered one or more sexual assaults at the hands of Mr. Rozon,” wrote Tremblay.<\/p>\n
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\u00a02020 Quebec Court of Appeal ruling<\/a>.<\/p>\n Rozon, the founder of the Just for Laughs comedy empire, had denied the allegations against him throughout the proceedings.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n