MONTREAL — A group of women who accused one of Quebec’s most powerful media moguls of sexual assault scored a legal victory on Tuesday, as they were awarded nearly $900,000 in what one of their lawyers called an “absolute marathon” legal combat.
Gilbert Rozon, the founder of Just for Laughs, was ordered to pay a total of more than $880,000 to eight of the nine women who had accused him of assault and misconduct.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Tremblay awarded the damages in a written decision released Tuesday, following a civil trial that lasted 10 months.
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.
The ruling ends a chapter in one of the province’s highest-profile cases to emerge from the #MeToo movement.
Following the judgment, several of the women and their lawyers told reporters that the victory belongs not only to them, but to other women and to society.
“In her judgment, Justice Tremblay concluded that Gilbert Rozon is not only a liar, but a sexual predator,” lawyer Bruce W. Johnston told a news conference.
“The judgments constitute a huge victory not only for the eight clients whose actions were maintained by the judgment, but also for the other victims of Gilbert Rozon who are not before the court, for victims of sexual abuse generally, for society and for accountability.”
Annick Charette, who accused Rozon of sexually assaulting her in 1980 when she was 20, was awarded $95,000. “Today, for me, the word justice finally means something. My voice, our voices, which were lost in the long corridors of the (courthouse) … finally broke the wall of silence.”
Rozon indicated in a news release that he and his lawyers would analyze the decision, which totals several hundred pages, before commenting further. “Mr. Rozon will make a decision at a later date regarding the action he intends to take in response to these judgments, including the possibility of appealing,” he wrote.
Rozon had claimed he had consensual relations 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.
Tremblay rejected his four counterclaims, and also ordered that he pay the women’s legal costs.
“This 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,” Tremblay said in her decision.
Following the allegations, Rozon stepped down from Just for Laughs in 2017 and later sold the company.
Nine women — Patricia Tulasne, Lyne Charlebois, Anne-Marie Charette, Annick Charette, Sophie Moreau, Danie Frenette, Guylaine Courcelles, Mary Sicari, and Martine Roy — went public with their allegations when they filed their claims against Rozon. All of them except Sicari were awarded damages in Tuesday’s ruling.
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 Charette.
The prosecution declined to press criminal charges in 13 other complaints.
On Tuesday, Tremblay found that the burden of proof for a civil case had been met.
“With one exception, each of them has demonstrated on a preponderance of evidence that she suffered one or more sexual assaults at the hands of Mr. Rozon,” her decision read. “In these circumstances, the opening of their right to punitive damages is beyond doubt, since he unlawfully violated their rights to security, integrity, and dignity, recognized by sections 1 and 4 of the Charter.”
Johnston said Tuesday that his clients underwent a “marathon of difficulty” in their years-long battle against Rozon. After the criminal complaints were not prosecuted, many in the group were part of a class-action attempt that was initially authorized in 2018 but later rejected following an appeal.
He said the civil trial reaffirms a number of important legal precedents, including upholding new Civil Code restrictions on questioning in sexual-assault cases. The changes — adopted days before the trial started in December 2024 — prohibit questions from lawyers that suggest an alleged victim’s sexual past or their decision to stay in contact with an alleged abuser harms their credibility.
Martine Roy, one of the women who was awarded damages, said she silently carried feelings of shame and anguish for years around her alleged assault by Rozon.
“This victory doesn’t erase my past, but validating the truth allows me to reclaim the power I lost,” Roy said.
Roy paid tribute to other women who have spoken up about abuse, as well as those who have not yet spoken up and those who see echoes of their own stories in hers.
“Beyond the legal conclusion, this will remain the moment when the women chose to speak out collectively,” she said. “That alone is making a difference — our voices are being heard,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 31, 2026.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
