2023-04-18 13:00:00
The young woman sexually assaulted in October 2017 by former Rimouski MP Harold Lebel is none other than the current mayor of Longueuil Catherine Fournier.
• Read also: “I’m proud to have been there” -Catherine Fournier
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The court order protecting the identity of Ms.me Fournier was lifted Tuesday morning, at the latter’s request, to allow the broadcast of a documentary from our Bureau of Investigation which followed her throughout the legal process.
The one who was deputy for Marie-Victorin in the National Assembly at the time of the events now wishes to “do useful work” and contribute to “making the justice system more accessible”.
“Even if I am someone who is informed, educated, equipped, that I was an MP, there are plenty of steps in this process that I did not know,” she confides in an interview.
“If I can use my experience to improve our knowledge of the justice system or convince people to file a complaint because they will be less afraid of facing this unknown then, for me, it will be mission accomplished,” adds she.
Informed choice
In his decision to lift the publication ban, Judge Serge Francoeur underlines that Catherine Fournier’s request is an “informed, free, voluntary choice and with the aim of being able to speak publicly regarding her experience through the judicial system”. .
The film, titled Witness CF in reference to the initials used in the indictment once morest Harold Lebel, will be available to the general public on the platform TRUE tomorrow. It will also be presented to the media today at 2 p.m.
The 70-minute documentary offers an unprecedented window on the main stages of the procedures through which Catherine Fournier had to go.
Asked regarding the production of this documentary during a reopening of the investigation into the trial of Harold LeBel, Ms.me Fournier had explained that she initially had no intention of embarking on such a project.
She then recalled that the fact that her identity was protected by a publication ban was what had convinced her in the first place to file a complaint with the police.
However, when the former PQ MP was arrested in December 2020, the disclosure in the media of certain details had made it possible to identify him. On social networks and even on television, his name had then circulated at high speed.
SCREENSHOT, VAT NEWS
Harold Lebel
“I thought my identity was going to be protected. I have never cried so much in my life”, she had thus testified before the Court.
54 days in jail
Harold LeBel assaulted Catherine Fournier in October 2017, while she was spending the night in Rimouski with a friend during a business trip.
Found guilty and sentenced to 8 months in prison, Harold LeBel was finally granted his parole on March 21.
He was able to benefit from a preparatory release for parole and was to stay in a halfway house until last Sunday.
In total, the former member for Rimouski will therefore have served 54 of the 243 days of detention to which he was sentenced on January 26, 2023 by judge Serge Francoeur.
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