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Gilbert Rozon's trial disrupted by exchange of insults and threats
Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon is photographed during a break in his trial at the Montreal courthouse on June 2, 2025. (The Canadian Press/Christinne Muschi)
Warning: This story contains details about sexual assault.
The civil trial of Gilbert Rozon, who is being sued by nine women alleging sexual assault by the disgraced former comedy mogul, was the scene of a rare and spectacular outburst on Thursday when actress Danie Frenette, one of the plaintiffs, lashed out at him during a break.
'What kind of person lies like that? He's a f---ing liar. An a--hole,' she shouted in the courtroom after Rozon denied all allegations made against him by Frenette and her stepdaughter, actress Salomé Corbo, during his testimony.
'No class,' Rozon muttered as he left the courtroom.
Threats
After leaving the courtroom, Frenette's husband and Corbo's father, Stefano Corbo, allegedly first pulled Rozon's ear and then grabbed him by the throat and threatened him.
Hurrying past journalists, Rozon criticized the fact that he had been 'insulted in court.'
'I gave my testimony, I took an oath, I told the truth. The allegations are implausible on their face.'
Returning before Judge Chantal Tremblay, Rozon claimed that Stefano Corbo had said to him while grabbing his throat, 'You bastard, you s-n of a b-tch, I'm going to strangle you, I'm going to suffocate you.'
Rozon's lawyer, Mélanie Morin, who witnessed the incident, said she was disturbed by what she had seen.
Judge Tremblay immediately called Stefano Corbo to the witness stand to have him removed from the courtroom and asked him to follow the trial remotely by electronic means for the remainder of the proceedings.
She then adjourned the hearing early for a lunch break to give everyone time to collect their thoughts.
Rozon denies everything
Earlier, Rozon had flatly denied all the allegations made by Frenette, who alleges she was raped twice and sexually touched by Rozon—once at his home during a party held at the end of the 1988 edition of the Just for Laughs Festival.
Frenette had been hired to manage the street art component of the event.
According to her, he allegedly took her to a wooded area on his property, removed her windbreaker, and laid her on the ground before raping her for the first time.
Rozon described the possibility that he committed such acts in front of guests as 'completely implausible,' adding, 'There has never been a wooded area on my property,' and that he had no memory of even seeing her at that party.
He also denied ever engaging in sexual touching on a park bench on Île Sainte-Hélène, saying he never went there with her.
He also denied the second alleged rape, which Frenette claims occurred when he showed up at her home in the middle of the night and demanded she open the door.
'I've never been to her house,' he said. 'I've never had sexual relations with her,' he stated in response to the playback of a recording where she claimed to have later had consensual sexual relations with Rozon.
As for Salomé Corbo—who is not a complainant in this case but testified about similar incidents—the actress told the court that when she was only 13 years old, Rozon allegedly cornered her in a stairwell, also during a festival closing party, and inserted a finger into her vagina.
As a teenager, she got her first job in 1989 as a host at a festival booth.
'Put my finger in her vagina? That's unspeakably crude,' said Rozon, who denied the allegation.
He said he wondered why she would say such a thing and concluded it was 'because she's Danie Frenette's stepdaughter.'
Corbo also testified that about 11 years later, in 2001, he called her an 'f------ tease' during a chance encounter in a bar after a strap had slipped off her shoulder.
'I don't talk like that,' Rozon said firmly. The hearing was scheduled to resume in the afternoon.
A long legal battle
Rozon is being sued in civil court for approximately $14 million by nine women who accuse him of sexually assaulting them.
The lawsuit—filed by Patricia Tulasne, Lyne Charlebois, Anne-Marie Charrette, Annick Charrette, Sophie Moreau, Danie Frenette, Guylaine Courcelles, Mary Sicari, and Martine Roy—followed a 2017 application to file a class action against the businessman by a group of women known as Les Courageuses.
Initially authorized in 2018 at the trial level, Rozon successfully appealed the decision, and the class action was dismissed by the Quebec Court of Appeal in 2020.
Meanwhile, 14 women had filed police complaints, but the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions only moved forward with the case involving Annick Charrette. Rozon was acquitted in 2020 due to reasonable doubt.
Patricia Tulasne, who acted as spokesperson for Les Courageuses, was the first to file a civil suit against Rozon in April 2021. The eight other women followed, and all of the lawsuits were combined into a single civil trial that began last December. The proceedings have been interrupted several times due to legal arguments.
So far, 42 witnesses have testified for the plaintiffs, including the nine complainants and seven other women—among them Julie Snyder, Salomé Corbo, Pénélope McQuade, and Rozon's former partner Véronique Moreau—all of whom testified that they too experienced sexual abuse at the hands of the defendant.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 26, 2025.
By Pierre Saint-Arnaud, The Canadian Press
