A Quebec Superior Court judge is expected to hear a request on Tuesday from four other women who were abused and allegedly abused by former national ski coach Bertrand Charest as they seek to have publications bans on their identities lifted.
The four are following in the footsteps of Gail Kelly, Amelie Frederique-Gagnon, Anna Prchal and former Olympic skier Geneviève Simard who requested that similar publication bans be lifted last week so they could speak publicly about what they suffered. Justice Hélène Di Salvo granted the requests last week because both the Crown and Charest’s defence lawyer did not object.
Charest is serving a 12-year sentence after he was convicted last year on 37 charges involving nine victims he sexually assaulted and abused during the 1990s while he was their coach. Charest’s trial last year involved allegations from 12 women in all but he was acquitted on charges involving three. Some of the four women who will ask that the publication bans to be lifted from their names on Tuesday are among those who Charest was not convicted of having sexually assaulted or abused.
The victims he was convicted of abusing were between the ages of 12 and 19 when it occurred. Simard and the three other women spoke out about the abuse on Monday during a press conference aimed at convincing the federal government to make changes to how young people are trained for sport.
“Within the frame of their path toward healing, they hope today to speak openly about what happened to them to inform the public about sexual assault and abuse in the sports milieu,” the athletes stated in the motion that will be brought before Di Salvo at the Montreal courthouse on Tuesday.
“They also see the public’s openness (to listen) as a positive element in their therapeutic rehabilitation.”
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Victims of Bertrand Charest, from left, Amelie-Frederique Gagnon, Gail Kelly, Anna Prchal and Genevieve Simard attend a press conference in Montreal June 4, 2018.