Just for Laughs founder claims he did not initiate sex
MONTREAL •“I accepted my fate.”
That is the sentence that stood out Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse as Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon tried to turn the tables on the accuser in his rape trial and said she initiated sex with him while he was asleep.
Rozon, 65, began his defence with the trial in its second day and denied he raped the woman in 1979 or 1980 in St- Sauveur after they went to a discotheque in the Laurentians. Not only did Rozon deny the plaintiff ’s version of events of what happened inside a house they went to after the discotheque but, at times, he sounded like he considered himself a victim.
When the woman testified on Tuesday, she said Rozon ran his hand up her skirt while they were inside the house. She said she rejected him and that they went to sleep in different bedrooms. She also said that when she woke up hours later, Rozon was on top of her.
Rozon told Quebec Court Judge Mélanie Hébert that it was the other way around. He said that when he woke up he found the woman on top of him.
“While it happened she wasn’t looking at me at all. It was like a form of masturbation,” Rozon said while adding that he didn’t resist the woman whose name cannot be published due to a standard publication ban. “I accepted my fate.”
Later on, while he was being cross- examined by prosecutor Bruno Ménard, Rozon said: “She didn’t say a thing. I didn’t want to burst the bubble she was in.
“She tried to make love to me. At that age, I didn’t have much experience. It’s not like I slept with 1,000 women per year.”
It was not the only significant difference between
Rozon’s testimony and the plaintiff ’s.
Rozon denied that he asked the woman if she wanted to “neck” with him in his car after they left the discotheque. He also denied he offered to drive the woman home. The plaintiff testified that he did offer to take her home, but that he also said he needed to make a quick stop at his secretary’s home to pick up documents.
Rozon said the house belonged to a friend and was one of many he had access to while he drove around the Laurentians selling whitepage telephone directories and promoting La Grande Virée, a festival he started that eventually turned into the internationally known Just for Laughs festival in Montreal.
The plaintiff alleged that soon after they entered the house, Rozon ran his hand up her skirt and that she pulled away when he got to her underwear. She said she insulted Rozon and made it clear she was not interested in having sex with him.
Rozon described a more “romantic” series of events where he invited the woman inside for a drink and lit a fire in the fireplace. He said they began caressing each other until they slid off a sofa to the floor. He said the woman pulled away when he touched her skirt and denied having run his hand inside it.
Earlier in the day, the plaintiff was asked a series of questions, from defence lawyer Isabel Schurman, that dealt with the issue of consent.
The attorney asked the plaintiff to go over a transcript of the statement she gave to the police in October 2017 and find references to the moment when she told Rozon to stop when he woke her up.
“I don’t know how I expressed it,” the woman said. “But what is certain is that I didn’t want it to happen.”
Prosecutor Bruno Ménard will continue his cross-examination of Rozon on Thursday.