Two well-known authors accuse comedian Fred Dubé of sexual assault
Authors Mélodie Drouin and Catherine Ethier denounce comedian Fred Dubé of sexual assault on social networks.
“On June 21, 2017, in his Montreal apartment, comedian Fred Dubé attacked me,” wrote Ms. Drouin bluntly on her Facebook page. The allegations published last Saturday tarnish the comedian for acts of sexual violence and at the same time, his spouse at the time, Catherine Ethier, who would have put “spreads in the wheels” of his denunciation efforts.
In another Facebook post written in response to the accusations this Sunday, Catherine Ethier denies having supported Mr. Dubé in his efforts with the police to “silence” the alleged victim and claims to have also been the victim of sexual assaults by the part of the comedian, in addition to psychological and verbal violence.
Also on Facebook, Fred Dubé denied the accusations, but has since deleted his profile. However, his remarks are still accessible on the Last Hour QC website. Moreover, following the accusations, the citizen newspaper Mouton Noir suspended Dubé, to whom the latter collaborated.
A show of virtue
In her publication, Mélodie Drouin writes that she confronted Mr. Dubé a year after the alleged facts on the advice of a worker from the Sexual Assault Assistance Center (CALACS). She also relates that Fred Dubé and Catherine Ethier would, at that time, have filed a complaint with the police against her and would have given her formal notice in the summer of 2020.
Mélodie Drouin today denounces Fred Dubé with his face uncovered in order to stand up “in the face of the current hypocrisy, in front of my aggressor who uses feminism and activism to shine publicly, in front of what is advanced in chronicles and articles of activists on prejudice against victims, I write to name”, can we read on his Facebook status.
Fred Dubé is recognized for his leftist and pro-feminist positions. In particular, he signed an open letter in Le Devoir against the culture of rape and sexual violence with the Collective of people against the culture of rape.
What I write publicly, I thought I would do it a million times over the past 5 years. I do it because I can't stand silence any longer in front of the spectacle of virtue.
Mélodie Drouin, alleged victim of sexual assault by comedian Fred Dubé
Despite her anger directed at Catherine Ethier, Mélodie believes that in a patriarchal context, the two women in the story are victims. «I write to name. Here. All alone. Although I believe that we are two victims in this story. Victims of a patriarchal violence which dissociates us, which pits us against each other,” she writes.
Catherine Ethier also denounces< /h3>
Catherine Ethier
Photo: Josie Desmarais
Columnist and author Catherine Ethier addresses Mélodie Drouin's accusations via a post on her personal page on the 20th November.
During this relationship, Fred Dubé sexually assaulted me. He threatened me physically, without ever hitting me. These people know when to stop the fist. I experienced psychological, verbal and sexual violence.
Catherine Ethier, alleged victim of sexual assault by comedian Fred Dubé
She mentions that during her first exchanges with Mélodie Drouin in 2017, at a time when she was still a couple with Dubé, Mélodie had not mentioned having been the victim of rape. She would only have exchanged with Ethier to warn him that she was having an affair with her spouse. Their exchanges stopped there.
Catherine Ethier reports that it’s a few months after their brief exchange that she learned that Mélodie Drouin would have been sexually assaulted by Fred Dubé. According to Ms. Ethier, at that time, Mélodie Drouin contacted Dubé's employers and relatives “to warn them that they were rubbing shoulders with an aggressor”. Catherine Ethier would then have left Fred Dubé, but without breaking their communications.
The ex-spouse of Fred Dubé, who is also a public figure, then denies having put a spoke in the wheels of Mélodie Drouin as to her denunciation efforts.
I did not attempt to contact or dissuade this person from reporting Fred Dubé. It is his strictest right. And no matter how much I turn this around, I would have been very stupid to try to silence her, given my position, my public posture, my values and what I defend almost every week on the radio.
Catherine Ethier
Catherine Ethier also denies having filed a police complaint with Fred Dubé against Mélodie Drouin, which Mélodie accuses her of in her publication. According to her, Dubé would have taken these steps alone.
As for Fred Dubé, he emits in his deleted publication that it’s him and Ethier who filed a complaint. However, later in Catherine Ethier's publication, she announces that Dubé has often tried to use her image to whitewash hers.
