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Gilbert Rozon has agreed to pay $930,000 to nine women who accused him of sexual misconduct and has waived his right to appeal the Quebec court ruling that found he sexually assaulted eight of them.
In a statement released Wednesday, lawyers for the women said the parties had reached an agreement following the March 31 judgment by Quebec Superior Court Justice Chantal Tremblay.
The ruling found Rozon liable for sexually assaulting eight women and ordered him to pay a total of $880,000 in damages.
In total, the women were seeking just under $14 million in damages. During the trial, Patricia Tulasne, Lyne Charlebois, Anne-Marie Charette, Annick Charette, Sophie Moreau, Danie Frenette, Guylaine Courcelles, Mary Sicari and Martine Roy testified about their experiences, spanning between 1980 and 1994, and faced cross-examination.
In a nearly 600-page decision, Tremblay said all plaintiffs had met the burden of proof with the exception of one, whose case she rejected. A second woman’s case, meanwhile, was partially accepted.
“With one exception, each of them has demonstrated overwhelmingly that she suffered one or more sexual assaults at the hands of Mr. Rozon,” wrote Tremblay.
The civil trial, which began in December 2024, was the latest stage in a winding legal battle that began as a class-action lawsuit but was converted into individual suits after a 2020 Quebec Court of Appeal ruling.
Rozon, the founder of the Just for Laughs comedy empire, had denied the allegations against him throughout the proceedings.
In 1998, Rozon pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 19-year-old at a party east of Montreal and later received an unconditional discharge from a judge who weighed, in part, the success of Rozon’s comedy festival.
During this latest trial, Rozon said he regretted pleading guilty and did so after receiving encouragement from his family and given the financial pressure his company was under.
