The financial setbacks of the Just for Laughs Group, which has laid off nearly a hundred employees since December and canceled most of its activities on Tuesday – including the next edition of its famous festival – are said to be largely attributable to the pandemic , to the increase in its expenses and to galloping inflation, according to the Quebec company. But let’s not forget the elephant in the room.
Beyond economic conditions and accounting balance sheets, there remains an intangible factor that escapes the columns of figures. In 2017, Just for Laughs’ reputation was damaged by the #metoo movement. Its veneer of respectability has evaporated amid new allegations of sexual misconduct made against its founder, Gilbert Rozon.
Gilbert Rozon was acquitted in December 2020 of charges of rape and indecent assault brought against him. Judge Mélanie Hébert, however, clarified in her judgment that Rozon’s version of the facts appeared “less plausible” than that of the complainant, Annick Charette. Rozon now faces a series of civil lawsuits from nine women seeking nearly $14 million from him.
Rozon sold Just for Laughs in 2018 to Hollywood talent agency ICM Partners for around 65 million. A few months later, ICM Partners (since purchased by Creative Artists Agency) sold 51% of its shares to Bell and evenko, in order to ensure that Just for Laughs was eligible for tax credits and other forms of Canadian public funding. .
Despite all its efforts, the company that Gilbert Rozon founded in 1983 has not completely managed to get rid of the dark cloud that the allegations against his former boss left hanging over it.
The brand image of Just for Laughs is still tarnished by this affair. According to a report from Duty on the difficulties of Just for Laughs published last week, potential commercial partners were still hesitant to associate themselves with the festival. Reputation is a very fragile thing and some will say that Gilbert Rozon, who pleaded guilty to sexual assault charges at the Rouville-Campbell mansion in 1998, has only himself to blame. It is not easy to recover from bankruptcy, whether financial or moral.
PHOTO ROBERT MAILLOUX, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Gilbert Rozon in 1998 with Victor, the official mascot of Just for Laughs
When Rozon left the presidency of Just for Laughs 20 years later, before selling his company at a discount, it continued to navigate troubled waters. Its leaders were accused by ex-employees of fostering a toxic climate, as revealed by an investigation by my colleague Isabelle Ducas.
Read ““Toxic” work climate at Just for Laughs”
I wondered at the time whether we should save Just for Laughs at all costs. The question had raised the ire of several of its employees and managers. The company was still in an enviable situation, with its 34 million annual revenues and the hundreds of permanent and temporary jobs linked to its activities in the fields of humor, theater, television, etc.
Read “Should we save Just for Laughs?” »
Today, Just for Laughs seems to be in the same desolate state as the stretch of closed businesses on Saint-Laurent Boulevard in Montreal, where its head office is located.
Because whatever people say, Rozon was the artistic, even spiritual, guide of Just for Laughs. In the same way as Guy Laliberté was at Cirque du Soleil, another Quebec flagship. Gilbert Rozon had flair, an aura, a luster, which Just for Laughs seems to have lost with the “Rozon affair”.
When I interviewed the very friendly new boss of the French-speaking section of Just for Laughs, Patrick Rozon (second cousin of the founder), in 2019, he was reassuring. There was no question that Just for Laughs would eclipse Just for Laughs, as many feared, nor that the American co-owners would demand an “immediate return on their investment”. However, some today believe that this is what happened.
I don’t know if the public funds that Just for Laughs has received over the past five years have been well managed. The pandemic has been difficult for all cultural businesses. What I do know, however, is that the victims of this debacle are multiple. More than 70% of Just for Laughs employees have been laid off. Artists find themselves with their noses in the water. And the public loses privileged access to a popular cultural event that is part of the fabric of Montreal. I still remember discovering for free as a teenager, on an outdoor stage, a young comedian barely older than me: Patrick Huard.
The shock wave of Just for Laughs’ bankruptcy could have disastrous consequences. That one of Montreal’s major festivals is canceled, with just a few months’ notice, undermines the identity of our city. We let the World Film Festival die slowly. We can only speculate on the future of the other major summer cultural events, the Francos and the International Jazz Festival, also owned by Bell Media and the CH Group (owner of evenko and Équipe Spectra).
These events which have made Montreal’s international reputation, which provide access to culture to citizens who do not always have access to it otherwise, are part of the soul of Montreal. Let’s not wait until it’s too late to realize this.