{"id":368098,"date":"2026-03-31T19:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/368098\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T19:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T19:40:08","slug":"just-for-laughs-founder-gilbert-rozon-ordered-to-pay-880000-to-eight-of-nine-accusers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/368098\/","title":{"rendered":"Just For Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon ordered to pay $880,000 to eight of nine accusers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display:block\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/ANAA6B7AA5AE3AH5W2HE7CXJSI.jpg?auth=ce0a872c02e32d087acfa9e6f126c2347eaa7ee3b589b213eab6130e07ed35d2&amp;width=600&amp;height=400&amp;quality=80&amp;smart=true\" aria-haspopup=\"true\" data-photo-viewer-index=\"0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"figcap-text\">Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon arrives at the courthouse for his civil trial in Montreal in September, 2025.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Gilbert Rozon, the founder of Just for Laughs, has been ordered to pay a total of more than $880,000 to eight of the nine women who had accused him of sexual assault and misconduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Tremblay awarded the damages in a written decision released Tuesday, following a civil trial that lasted 10 months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The women suing Rozon were seeking $14-million in civil court for incidents that occurred between 1980 and 2004, during a period when he founded the international comedy festival.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text mv-16 l-inset text-pb-8\" data-sophi-feature=\"interstitial\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-just-for-laughs-founder-gilbert-rozon-sexual-assault-life-ruined\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon says his life has been ruined by sexual assault allegations<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">\u201cThis judgment therefore aims to bring this long trial to a close and to reaffirm that an infringement of personal integrity, when proven, calls for a legal response proportionate to the extent of the harm suffered,\u201d Tremblay said in her decision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Rozon had claimed he had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-just-for-laughs-gilbert-rozon-civil-trial-sexual-assault\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/canada\/article-just-for-laughs-gilbert-rozon-civil-trial-sexual-assault\/\">consensual relations<\/a> with three of the nine women, and had denied the other allegations against him, saying his accusers had formed a coalition against him with the aim of getting rich. He countersued four of the women for defamation, demanding $275,000 each in damages.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Tremblay rejected his four counterclaims, and also ordered that he pay the women\u2019s legal costs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Following the allegations, Rozon stepped down from Just for Laughs in 2017 and later sold the company.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Nine women \u2013 Patricia Tulasne, Lyne Charlebois, Anne-Marie Charette, Annick Charrette, Sophie Moreau, Danie Frenette, Guylaine Courcelles, Mary Sicari, and Martine Roy \u2013 went public with their allegations when they filed their claims against Rozon. All of them except Sicari were awarded damages in Tuesday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">Only one of a series of police complaints against Rozon resulted in a criminal trial. In that case, he was found not guilty on charges of rape and indecent assault connected to events alleged to have taken place in 1980 involving Annick Charrette.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">In Tuesday\u2019s ruling, he was ordered to pay Charrette $95,000. The prosecution declined to press criminal charges in 13 other complaints.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-article-body__text text-pr-5\">The women who had sued Rozon were scheduled to speak with reporters later in the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon arrives at the courthouse for his civil&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[242,85,46,41617,141],"class_list":["post-368098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-pleasemod","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}