More than four years after the behavior of several stars of Quebec show business was denounced during the #metoo scandal, a report led by two professors from the University of Quebec in Montreal concludes that sexual violence (VACS) affects culture more than other workplaces.
“The Quebec cultural environment reveals an alarming presence of VACS” and their severity is “singular”, we learn in this report, entitled 3,2,1….Action!the fruit of the work of professors Vanessa Blais-Tremblay and Joëlle Bissonnette, in collaboration with ADISQ and the Association of Professionals in the Humor Industry (APIH).
Inappropriate sexual words, insistent gazes, voyeurism, sexual gestures and assaults: “compared to other workplaces, the data collected by the research team reports that the situation would be even worse in culture than elsewhere.”
In recent years, several personalities, including Éric Salvail, Gilbert Rozon, Maripier Morin and Julien Lacroix, have been publicly denounced for sexual misconduct or harassment.
“The publication of this report demonstrates the extent to which a concerted fight against harassment and VACS is essential to ensure justice and safety within the cultural sector,” recalls Joanne Pouliot, general director of the APIH.
More common on TV and cinema
The document reports data dating from 2020 to 2024 from L’Aparté, the branch of Juripop which offers support to people who are victims or witnesses of harassment or violence in the cultural sector, according to which four sectors are “over-represented” in denunciations: cinema and television, theater, visual arts and music.
Still according to data from L’Aparté, psychological harassment is the most common type of VACS, at 34%, ahead of sexual assault, at 16.7%.
Summit participants reported on everyday VACS, which are defined as “a set of inappropriate gestures in the workplace, learning or leisure which are most often “sneaky”, “insidious”, but which are recurrent and which are maintained over time.
Even if these do not require police intervention, it is deplored that they tend “to be normalized.”
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This report, unveiled Tuesday morning, follows the holding of the Summit on sexual violence and harassment in culture in Quebec, in which 50 organizations working in the cultural sector took part, in September 2023.
He proposes numerous actions to be taken to stop VACS, recalling that “the judicial system is far from being the only arena in which the fight against VACS in culture must be waged.”
“The cultural sector is particularly well positioned to play a key role in the fight for a society free of VACS,” believes Vanessa Blais-Tremblay. “Thanks to its ability to create and disseminate quality works that make us think and dream, the cultural sector could constitute the standard bearer in the fight against VACS in Quebec.”
