It’s a relatively new term, in tune with the digital age: cyberbullying.
And this is exactly what Laurence Gratton has been experiencing, for far too long.
I told you about Laurence during fall 20221. For years, this young woman has been experiencing cyberharassment which is ruining her life. I told, at the time, how the Terrebonne police had received Laurence very upset when she went to file a complaint.
A year has passed and Laurence’s digital stalker has never calmed down, quite the contrary.
Laurence Gratton’s ordeal began in 2015.
Along with other students at the University of Montreal, she began receiving repeated hateful and threatening messages, always from fake social media accounts.
Over the months, Laurence and her classmates began to make connections and they became certain that their harasser was… in their own class.
After insisting, the Montreal police agreed to launch an investigation. This investigation led to multiple accusations of harassment, death threats and physical threats against a classmate.
Laurence Gratton was targeted like her comrades. But the Montreal police investigated four complainants. Laurence was not one of them.
In November 2017, Éric Boisvert pleaded guilty to several charges of death threats and harassment. He received his sentence in 2019.
In 2015 and 2016, the investigation revealed, Éric Boisvert committed cyberharassment against his classmates. Virtually, he wished death and rape on some of his targets from fake accounts. In real life, he spat on one of them in the subway.
Before his trial, Éric Boisvert did not respect his release conditions on two occasions, such as not using the internet: he used social networks to harass his victims, despite a ban on contact.
For all these crimes, Éric Boisvert received an unconditional absolution from judge Louise Villemure.
He was sentenced to 18 months probation. The judge considered Boisvert’s autism to be a mitigating factor.
After Boisvert’s sentence, Laurence had peace for years. The cyberbullying has stopped.
Then, last year, this cyberharassment started again. On the same modus operandi as the cyberharassment that Laurence Gratton suffered when she was at the University of Montreal.
This is what I told you almost a year ago.
Why has cyberbullying resumed in 2022?
Laurence Gratton is convinced that her participation in the documentary2 I salute you bitch by Léa Clermont-Dion and Guylaine Maroist is no stranger to the resumption of hostilities targeting her. Chronologically, it coincides.
This film about digital violence experienced by women relates the ordeal of Laurence and her comrades from the University of Montreal. Éric Boisvert was not named there.
But last year, when I spoke to you about Laurence’s ordeal which was starting again, a threatening message mentioned by name his participation in the documentary I salute you bitch.
Since my column, cyberharassment has not stopped. Laurence Gratton receives repeated threatening messages. Still following the modus operandi of 2015-2016, Laurence’s cyberstalker also created accounts in the name of members of his family: he usurped the identity of Laurence’s sister, for example, to invite other fetishists to the contact for sexual services…
Laurence’s tormentor also sends her friend requests from fake accounts. One of the most recent requests came from an account created in the name of the Polytechnique killer, with his photo.
In short, it is always with knotted guts that Laurence ventures onto the Internet.
Laurence is in contact with the Terrebonne police. The investigator on file “is very nice,” she said, he always returns her calls. But the harassment continues: it seems that for Laurence’s cyberstalker, impunity is total.
How many cybercrime investigators do we have at the Sûreté du Québec (SQ)? Around 60.
How many cybercrime investigators do we have at the Montreal City Police Service (SPVM)? A dozen.
How many cybercrime investigators do we have at the Terrebonne police? I don’t know: the Terrebonne police did not respond to my questions. I suspect it’s close to…zero.
I don’t blame the Terrebonne police for not having a unit dedicated entirely to cybercrime. We cannot expect a 450 police force to be as well resourced in certain areas – such as cybercrime – as what we find at the SQ and the SPVM.
I’m just saying two things…
One, the case of Laurence Gratton clearly demonstrates the complex nature of cyberharassment in 2023. It takes cutting-edge resources and expertise to investigate these cases which cause harm to victims that is not virtual.
Two, perhaps the case of Laurence Gratton goes beyond the jurisdiction of the Terrebonne police force and that her file should be transferred to a police force more accustomed to investigating such filth.