Lawsuit against Gilbert Rozon | “Gilbert, you know you’re sick, right? »

Host and producer Julie Snyder delivered a highly anticipated testimony on Thursday. Summoned in court to testify to facts similar to those invoked by the nine plaintiffs in their individual lawsuits, she recounted the attack that she said she experienced in Paris in 1991.

Julie Snyder was 23 years old in 1991. At the time, she hosted the show To go outbroadcast on the TQS channel. She was in Paris to cover the media premiere of comedian Michel Courtemanche’s show in the City of Lights.

The host stayed in a hotel on Place de la Madeleine, at the expense of Juste pour Rire, like other artists and journalists who came to cover the event. According to her testimony, following Mr. Courtemanche’s show, friends of hers asked her to extend her stay in France to go skiing.

“The producer of the show, Marie-Hélène Roy, suggested that I contact Madeleine Careau, who was one of the directors of Juste pour Rire, to be accommodated in the festival’s staff apartment, in 8^e arrondissement, near the Champs-Élysées,” explained Julie Snyder to judge Chantal Tremblay.

According to his testimony, M^me Careau welcomed her warmly the day she arrived.

“She showed me my room, I thought it was perfect. She was there the first two days I was staying there, we talked when we saw each other. Afterwards, she told me that she was going to see a show in the provinces and that Gilbert was going to be there the following evening. When I came back from dinner the next day, he was there,” Julie Snyder said.

M^me Snyder explained that upon entering the apartment, his interactions with Mr. Rozon were “courteous and friendly.” It was later that things got worse, according to her, after she went to bed.

“I fell asleep quite late, after reading French magazines. I woke up because I felt pressure behind me, I felt my pajamas going inside me, I opened my eyes, there was a hand on my chest. I was afraid that someone had broken in and that person was holding a knife. »

Julie Snyder, who had to suppress sobs, continued her story. “When I turned around, I remember feeling relief because it wasn’t a criminal with a knife. It was Gilbert. He was naked, erect, his eyes bulging, as if in a trance. It wasn’t the same person. I said to myself: I won’t get killed, but I will get raped…”

M^me Snyder then explained to Judge Tremblay that he had found excuses to leave the room. She allegedly told Mr. Rozon that she had to go to the bathroom and have another coffee “to keep him calm.”

“I was in my indoor pajamas, I picked up my shoes and a few things and I ran away! When I found myself outside, I ran for my life! I walked to the Champs-Élysées, took a walk and joined my friends for breakfast. “I was lucky that my survival instinct kicked in,” she said later.

She would have returned to the Just for Laughs company apartment a few days later to collect her luggage.

Julie Snyder briefly spoke about the violence she suffered as a child. “There were days when I arrived at school with a black eye, I said I had hit myself, but I was still at the top of the class. I always told myself that the best way to get through this was to succeed,” she said.

M^me Snyder never thought of denouncing Mr. Rozon so as not to damage his career. So she acted “as if nothing had happened”. “I closed a drawer in my head,” she maintained.

“Gilbert Rozon had a sprawling influence among artists, comedians, politicians, he was one of the most powerful people in Quebec,” she said. I was a young presenter, a cultural columnist, if I had said something, I would no longer have had access to lots of artists. It was unthinkable for me. »

M^me Snyder said he saw Gilbert Rozon again during a dinner in Paris in 1998, after his admission of guilt in the case of the sexual assault of the young dealer at the Rouville Campbell Manor.

“I didn’t address my attack, but I said to him: Gilbert, you know you’re sick, right? You may have experienced traumatic things in your childhood. But you need to get treatment. We are not responsible for the abuse we suffered as a child, but we are responsible for doing something when we are an adult to avoid repeating certain behaviors. He thanked me. He told me it was good advice. »

Julie Snyder returned several times to “the law of silence”, “the one which best protects attackers like Gilbert Rozon”, she insisted, while regretting not having herself denounced the former producer in 1998. It was not until 2020 that his story was made public.

Mr. Rozon, who denies any misconduct in this story, is suing Julie Snyder for defamation. He is demanding $450,000 from her for comments she made on his show, The week of the 4 Juliesin the presence of host Pénélope McQuade, who alleged that she had been the victim of sexual misconduct on the part of Mr. Rozon. The trial has been set for 2026.

In his out-of-court interrogation, Mr. Rozon had instead maintained that Julie Snyder had told him that she “needed comfort” because she was going through a romantic breakup. He would have taken him in his arms, nothing more, according to his testimony. According to his account, M^me Snyder allegedly went to bed in her room, alone.