JFL founder Rozon’s trial will be delayed
Date pushed back to court’s fall session due to measures surrounding pandemic
The highly anticipated criminal trial of Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon will not be held next week.
While some additional court proceedings have resumed at Quebec’s provincial courthouses this week, the five-day trial, in which Rozon is charged with rape and indecent assault, will be carried over to the court’s fall session, prosecutor Bruno Ménard wrote in an email exchange with The Montreal Gazette.
“In the context of the measures surrounding the pandemic it has been agreed with the (courthouse) co-ordination to carry over the case to autumn,” Ménard wrote.
The new trial date will be set on Monday.
The charges against Rozon, 65, date back four decades and involve events that are alleged to have occurred between June 1 and Sept. 21, 1979, in St-sauveur. He opted for a trial before a judge alone.
Last week Justice Minister Sonia Lebel announced that, beginning this week, more procedures will resume this week after most public hearings were halted in midmarch. As of this past Monday, judges are allowed to determine if a trial should proceed in the coming weeks and the priority is on trials where the accused is detained. Rozon is not detained in his case.
Also, only 10 people are currently allowed inside a courtroom. Under normal circumstances, courtrooms have at least seven people inside them, including a judge, at least two lawyers and a clerk. If a witness is expected to testify that brings the number up to at least eight.
In a different high-profile case, the trial of Quebec media star Éric Salvail, 50, will resume next week but the court is only expected to set a timeline to resume.
During the last hearing, held on March 11, or two days before the Court of Quebec announced regular court hearings could not proceed in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, prosecutor Amélie Rivard announced that she intended to call witnesses to counter evidence presented in Salvail’s defence.
Salvail is charged with sexual assault, harassment and unlawful confinement. When he testified in his defence he denied any wrongdoing. The charges involve incidents that allegedly occurred in 1993.
Once one of Quebec’s most popular entertainers, he departed show business in 2017 after allegations of sexual misconduct became public. He had his own TV production company, hosted a popular talk show on the V network and was a fixture on afternoon radio.