Actor and director Serge Postigo testified Thursday in favor of Quebec choreographer Steve Bolton who is suing the daily for defamation The Press and two of his journalists whom he accuses of having published a defamatory article which damaged his reputation and his career.
The article of The Press at the heart of this lawsuit for damages of more than $ 265,000 was published in December 2017. It reported that about twenty complaints had been filed with the Union des artistes (UDA) against Steve Bolton.
They contained allegations ranging from verbal and physical abuse to untenable working conditions and abuse of power. The allegations were considered serious by the UDA, which indicated at the time that it intended to exercise “increased vigilance” against him.
The choreographer has worked on TV in the shows The dancing gods and The voiceas well as in hit musicals like Mary Poppins. He criticizes the daily and the journalists – Katia Gagnon and Stéphanie Vallet – for having used information from their investigation “in a misleading way” and without contextualization. Their collection of information is biased and biased, he denounces: they would have favored the version of the complainants and ignored or minimized his, all for the purpose of sensationalism, it is alleged in his lawsuit.
Interventions with Steve Bolton
By videoconference from Paris, where he is for work, Mr. Postigo testified at the request of Mr. Bolton, on day 3 of the trial which is taking place at the Montreal courthouse.
He was complimentary to him: since he met him, he says, he hasn’t hired any choreographer other than him on his productions.
He was questioned at trial about Mr Bolton’s attitude – some blamed him for tantrums – the way he spoke to dancers and the injuries they allegedly suffered during rehearsals, as well as making them cry a child on a production — all things that various people have criticized the choreographer for.
Mr. Postigo offered a nuanced version of some events that had been reported to him as the show’s manager, and in some cases he intervened with Mr. Bolton. For example, about the dissipated child who cried after Mr. Bolton told him he wouldn’t be in the show if he didn’t stop, Mr. Postigo claims he told his choreographer “not to no longer do that”, and that afterwards, “there was no more problem”, he said.
Serge Postigo was interviewed by journalists and his remarks are included in the article.
At the end of the interview, he says he offered journalist Stéphanie Vallet, who now works at the To have toto put her phone number on a bulletin board so production people could call her to share their experiences with Mr. Bolton.
She accepted, he testified, except that she added that if it was to say that Steven Bolton “is a good guy”, “to let it happen” because it is useless.
“It surprised me enormously,” he said. “It hit me. »
In cross-examination, Mr. Postigo was confronted with the transcript of the interview (filed in the court file, along with its audio recording). This sentence reproached to the journalist does not appear there.
The law applicable to journalistic responsibility
Like the day before, the request brought testimony from people from the dance and entertainment community who came to contradict the content of the complaints made against Mr. Bolton.
The lawyer of The Press and journalists, Mr.e Geneviève Gagnon, then objected to the testimonies of people who did not participate in the investigation, and who were not contacted by the journalists.
This is not a trial on the veracity of the complaints, recalled the lawyer: it is a trial on the respect – or not – of journalistic standards.
“If journalists relay erroneous information, it is not in itself constitutive of fault”, she declared to the judge, case law in support.
It should be noted that Mr. Bolton is not suing for damages those who made the complaints to the UDA. He’s only going after journalists in this lawsuit.
One of Mr Bolton’s lawyers, Mre Marc-Antoine Côté, insisted that his witnesses go to the stand: if the journalists chose not to speak to certain people, it could be a fault, if they did not take the appropriate steps, he said. he pleaded.
The judge let the witnesses tell their story and will indicate later whether she dismisses their testimony.