It’s the Jeffrey Epstein of Quebec, said Thursday the solidarity deputy Ruba Ghazal, speaking of Robert Miller, the resigning president of the company Future Electronics.
The billionaire is at the heart of the report presented this week on the show Investigation, on Here Radio-Canada. It reports a scheme to recruit underage girls to satisfy the sexual desires of the businessman who offered gifts and large sums of money in exchange.
Through his lawyers, Mr. Miller denied these allegations, but the testimonies collected by the journalists are overwhelming. The SPVM investigated this affair in 2008-2009 and submitted it to the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP), who ultimately did not lay any charges. This investigation should be reopened.
On Friday the two institutions launched an appeal: if there are other victims, let them come forward. We want this message to be heard. Quebec has come a long way in terms of sex crimes over the past 15 years.
Both the police and the lawyers are better trained to receive testimonies from victims and to understand the mechanisms put in place by the aggressors, including in cases of sexual exploitation.
Quebec has also set up specialized courts for sexual assault – they are at the pilot project stage – which allow better support for victims. The “Miller case” needs to be re-examined in the light of this new knowledge.