The conditional discharge of Simon Houle despite having sexually assaulted a woman continues to raise anger. A hundred demonstrators gathered Sunday noon in front of the Montreal courthouse to call for law reform.
“The judgment respects case law. It is inspired by the decision which led to the unconditional absolution of Gilbert Rozon, in 1999. The judge respected the function of the law”, lamented Alexandra Dupuy, one of the organizers of the protest movement, while formed around her a procession of protesters.
“We want justice,” chanted this group once the demonstration began. A chalk graffiti reading “no justice beyond this line” was inscribed on the threshold of the courthouse.
The “negative and disproportionate consequences” that a guilty verdict would have had on Simon Houle’s career in 2022 are indeed reminiscent of the words of the judge in 1999. “The evidence shows that [Gilbert Rozon] must go to the United States for his work and that a conviction could very likely have the effect of preventing him in this country”, argued the magistrate at the time.
The very last decision of the Quebec courts was therefore very badly received after so many years of feminist struggles, underline the organizers.
“It’s been the same thing for decades”, observes Patricia Tulasne, who had once accused Gilbert Rozon. She also spoke in front of the small crowd to denounce “a climate where impunity prevails”.
“We care about the abuser’s career, but can we care about the victim’s career? Me, I had problems all my life, problems of self-confidence. I was demolished, she explains to the To have to. […] That’s what’s terrible. One has the impression that the judges are accomplices of the aggressors. »
“A new area of law”
This last judgment comes at a time when Julien Lacroix has announced that he wants to return to the stage, that Maripier Morin finds his audience and that the right to abortion is declining in the United States. “It happens in the middle of a lot of frustrating business,” drops Alexandra Dupuy.
The establishment of courts specializing in sexual and conjugal violence “checks the boxes”, but does not change the laws as such, says another organizer, Mélanie Lemay. It is the same justice, but in “a different wrapper”.
This is why it is necessary to open a “new domain of law”, she adds, otherwise this type of decision, which she considers unworthy, is condemned to reproduce. “Jurisprudence will remain, whether there is a specialized court or not. »
The Minister of Justice of Quebec, Simon Jolin-Barrette, said himself “shocked” by this decision of the Court of Quebec. “I stand in solidarity with the victims and I tell them that we are transforming the justice system, we are modernizing it, adapting it and placing the victims at the center of the judicial process,” said said the minister this week.
This reform is certainly “a step in the right direction”, believes Patricia Tulasne, although “it will not be enough, if the Criminal Code is not amended”.
“We are not taken seriously. We are still afraid to denounce. Victims can never hold their abuser responsible,” she says.
The Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions has already indicated that he wishes to appeal Simon Houle’s case.