It’s been a crazy week for The duty and its staff members. The more the days pass, the more we are taken aback by the report of The Press and the 98.5 FM podcast series on the Julien Lacroix affair, despite the respect we have for these two media.
The report, the many interviews given by the authors (Isabelle Hachey and Marie-Ève Tremblay) and a word published Friday by the assistant editor of The Press, François Cardinal, converge in the same direction. Their dive into the debacle of Julien Lacroix does not call into question the veracity of the remarks made by the nine alleged victims of the young humorist, who had confided in our journalist, Améli Pineda, in 2020. They do not blame errors on the To have to and his journalist.
The purpose of their report was to revisit the Lacroix affair, two years after the events, to testify to the regrets of some of the victims and the terrible consequences that their denunciations had on the life of Julien Lacroix. The cancellation of which it is the target is not the result of our work, but the consequence of the ruthless social dynamics at work in our digital societies.
It is a subject of public interest that arouses passions and heartbreaks. There are some for whom the #MeToo movement and media denunciations are necessary steps to accelerate collective awareness of sexual misconduct and to remedy the glaring imperfections of the police and judicial apparatus. There are those for whom these stories boil down to a violation of the presumption of innocence without the possibility of rehabilitation in the court of public opinion, and an attack on one of the foundations of a democratic society: the rule of law. . We do not claim to hold the truth on these questions which give rise to heated debates.
However, we do not understand why The Press and 98.5 FM revisited with as much insistence the initial investigation of the To have to if their purpose was to testify to the personal journey of Julien Lacroix and some of his alleged victims.
We respect and understand the healing journey of these women. Some no longer see things the same way, others have forgiven Julien Lacroix, or regretted their actions.
A matter of public interest, I said. By constantly going back and forth in the same report on their personal development and the original approach of To have to, The Press and 98.5 FM indirectly asked the impossible of our journalist. Améli Pineda could not predict, in 2020, what the state of mind of his sources would be in 2022.
She spent more than 20 days on her initial investigation, corroborating all of her information and speaking to each of her sources individually. We did not receive testimonials delivered en bloc by a single person.
“I have been covering sexual violence for the advent of the #MeToo movement in 2017. These are demanding files, which span days, weeks, sometimes even months. In the last five years, I have tried to show all the nuances of the Quebec tremors of this planetary movement,” she says.
His work has been validated by the management of the To have to. We have adhered to the highest standards of rigor expected in investigative journalism. In 2021, we gave the floor Verbatim to Julien Lacroix, at his request, so that he can express himself freely on his sincere approach to rehabilitation. At all times, we have demonstrated nuances. We polled experts on sexual violence and animated the public debate.
In his book published by Somme Tout/The duty (What’s left of #MeToo?), Améli Pineda makes a nuanced synthesis of this movement at the intersection of the world of media, justice and activism. She is well placed to understand the motivations of some of the victims at the time. “As a journalist who closely covers sexual and domestic violence, I am not surprised that people who have testified during a movement move on, make peace with the person targeted and wish to turn the page. It is on this observation that I conclude my essay. This journey does not invalidate their testimony delivered a few years earlier. Moreover, the women who take part in the reports of The Press and 98.5 FM do not withdraw their testimony, they did not lie, they walked. With that, I assure you that I will continue to do what I must. There are still many angles to cover to feed this reflection,” she adds.
To our readers who are wondering about the follow-up to our actions, we reiterate our commitment to responsible, rigorous and courageous journalism. Despite the heated debate, which goes far beyond the events of this week, we will continue to follow the evolution of the #MeToo phenomenon, giving unwavering protection to our sources and our methods of investigation, as we demonstrated during from our previous reports and throughout this week.