Libel lawsuit: Julie Snyder and Penelope McQuade lose a round

After failing to dismiss the $450,000 defamation suit brought by Gilbert Rozon, Julie Snyder and Pénélope McQuade are now asking the Court of Appeal to rule in favor of their gag thesis.

“Rozon undertakes his request […] with the aim of silencing the alleged victims publicly denouncing it, ”says Ms.^me McQuade in his recently filed appeal to the Montreal courthouse.

It is that the host digests badly the decision of the judge Yves Poirier, who summarily rejected his request aiming at putting an end to the lawsuit brought by the magnate of the fallen humor.

“The requests [en abus de procédure] do not have a reasonable chance of success”, concluded the magistrate in a very short decision.

This had allowed the founder of Just for Laughs to continue to move forward against the two women to whom he accuses of “libelous, vexatious and seriously defamatory” remarks made during a program of The week of the 4 Julies in 2019.

Defamation

Host Julie Snyder then claimed that Rozon sexually assaulted her in her sleep some 20 years ago. M^me McQuade, invited on the set, had added, claiming to have also been assaulted by the same man.

“No harm can be proven [par Rozon]his reputation for his sexual behavior towards women having been destroyed long before the show,” says Ms.^me McQuade in his appeal request.

Adding that much worse things had been said publicly against Rozon, she said she was convinced that there had been no defamation and that she could continue to talk about debate on social issues.

“The mere existence of a SLAPP can be a source of prejudice,” she adds in the lawsuit, citing comments already made by a judge of the Court of Appeal.

M^me McQuade therefore asks the court to set aside the trial judgment, which contains no explanation.

“The judgment suggests, with great respect, that little attention was paid to the case,” reads the appeal request.

Recall that Rozon, who had been accused of rape, was finally acquitted in 2020. The collective action of more than $10 million against him brought by a group of women also fell through, but several of them then sued him individually. These procedures are still ongoing.