The former journalist and director of the Institut du Nouveau Monde, Michel Venne, asked the Quebec Court of Appeal on Thursday to annul the guilty verdict rendered against him at the end of the trial between him and the director Léa Clermont-Dion.
Lawyers for the 63-year-old man, convicted in 2021 of touching and sexually assaulting the author and director in 2008, say the judge gave unequal weight to the testimony heard during the trial. The trial judge, the motion argues, would have thus reversed the burden of proof by lending more credence to the complainant’s version than to that of the respondent.
“Ultimately, the multiple manifest and overriding errors in the assessment of the facts and the omission to consider evidence favorable to the defense resulted in an unreasonable verdict,” indicates the defense in its brief.
The request, presented by Me Lida Sara Nouraie and Me Nicholas St-Jacques, blames Judge Stéphane Poulin for having “dissected each part of Michel Venne’s story to bring out an interpretation of the evidence that is invariably negative to his position.” “On the other hand, the analysis of the complainant’s testimony turns out to be superficial, with the judge excusing numerous inconsistencies, contradictions and implausibilities or simply not dealing with them,” they continue.
In his judgment, judge Stéphane Poulin was nevertheless categorical. “The court does not believe the accused,” he declared on June 23, 2021 when delivering his verdict. Conversely, he considered that the testimony of the complainant, Léa Clermont-Dion, “covered[ait] all the essential elements” and that it “does not leave[ait] room for no ambiguity.”
The judgment itself noted imperfections in the complainant’s testimony, which did not prevent the judge from believing her version of events. The prosecution’s lawyer, at the time, saw it as debunking the “myth” that in matters of sexual assault, the legal machine needed a perfect victim to convict.
At the end of the trial, Michel Venne received a six-month prison sentence. The convicted person and his lawyer appealed the verdict a month later, already mentioning, as early as July 2021, that Judge Poulin had applied stricter standards to the accused than to the victim.
The three judges of the Court of Appeal took the case under advisement. Michel Venne remains at liberty pending the conclusion of his request. His lawyers are demanding his acquittal or a new trial.