What do Éric Salvail, Philippe Bond, Maripier Morin and Harold LeBel have in common? These influential and respected figures have in turn been embroiled in highly publicized sex scandals. A new essay published Wednesday dissects their story and their fall – as well as those of around twenty other Quebec personalities – so that their actions are never forgotten.
“There has been a staggering proliferation of sexual scandals in Quebec in recent years, it is unprecedented. So much so that we lose count, we lose details, even the most crucial. We needed, collectively, an inventory of the situation,” says author Michel Morin.
In his essay Without consent, he brought together around thirty sexual scandals that marked Quebec. The personalities involved found themselves in the hot seat mainly in the last decade, carried away by the different waves of the #MeToo movement which freed the victims’ voices to speak.
We thus find in the book the founder of Juste pour laughs, Gilbert Rozon, the former radio star Jian Ghomeshi, the singer Yann Perreau, the former bassist of Simple Plan, David Desrosiers, the ex-politician André Boisclair or hockey player Logan Mailloux again. The author also takes us back to the more distant stories of the former ski coach Bertrand Charest and the former artists agent Guy Cloutier. It also addresses the disturbing cases of the basketball coaches at Saint-Laurent School, the Canadian Armed Forces and the Redemptorist Fathers.
Of this long list, most ended up before the courts: some were acquitted; others, sentenced to prison. Several never went through the courts, but disappeared from the public sphere following denunciations on social networks which destroyed their careers. A handful of personalities escaped almost unscathed, successfully returning to the public eye.
“Every case is different. Starting with the seriousness of the actions taken. I wanted to show that there are different types of sexual misconduct and that some people engaged in harassment without necessarily committing assault,” specifies the author, who is also a lawyer and teacher.
In fact, the common denominator that brings them together in this book is the “absence of consent” of the victims concerned. The only exception: host Joël Legendre, who had to pay a fine of $438 for masturbating in a park in Longueuil. By tackling this story, Michel Morin wanted to show “how a public figure can find himself at the center of a highly publicized sex scandal for a relatively harmless gesture that has nothing criminal about it”. “The reality is that Legendre’s offense was less shocking to the public than it was embarrassing for them,” writes Michel Morin.
Duty of memory
In interview with The duty a few days before the publication of his book, the author was already preparing for criticism. Some risk describing his work as “voyeuristic” or “sensationalist”, he believes. However, it is “a duty to remember” that guides him. “We cannot ignore, tolerate or forget these sexual scandals. They changed Quebec. They changed our perception of stars who we thought were beyond reproach and our perception of certain institutions. »
He himself fell into the trap, he admits. Through his “laborious” research of a year and a half — which immersed him in tons of court judgments, books, reports, documentaries, interviews and podcasts — he realized he had forgotten certain details over time, while others had completely escaped his attention.
From the Maripier Morin affair, for example, he only retained the denunciation of the artist Safia Nolin. “I had forgotten the testimonies collected by The duty Then The Press, showing that Maripier would have engaged in several inappropriate behaviors. » He also cites the case of actor Edgar Fruitier. “I found his sentence to be severe, but my compassion completely disappeared when I read the letter from Serge Denoncourt which had escaped me. It was a habit at Fruitier to harass young actors,” he continues.
Demystifying the justice system
Michel Morin also wanted to take advantage of this reminder of the facts to explain to readers the legal questions raised by these various scandals. He thus intersperses his chapters with legal lessons on key concepts such as consent, sexual assault, child pornography and even sexual harassment. It also discusses the processing of complaints, the functioning of the courts in this matter and the penalties incurred.
It is also a way of “raising readers’ awareness of the drama experienced by victims of sexual abuse of all kinds, and of the courage they must demonstrate when trying to obtain reparation,” he writes.
Notions which will be useful as Gilbert Rozon undergoes a new trial on December 9. The civil suits filed individually by nine alleged victims will ultimately be the subject of a single trial, which will be held until March 27, 2025, for a total of 43 hearing days.