Seven years after Léa Clermont-Dion filed a sexual assault complaint against her former boss Michel Venne, she takes up pen to better understand the Big Liner: the grueling trial at the end of which her attacker was found guilty.
“This story has aged me by 10 years, I have lost many illusions,” breathes Léa Clermont-Dion, 32, who published the autobiographical investigation Complaint on Tuesday.
The trial was “definitely a second trauma, the fact that he wasn’t believed before,” says the author, documentary filmmaker and doctor of political science, who took seven years to work on her book.
From the lawsuit against Michel Venne in the middle of the #MeToo movement in 2017 – thirteen years after the events that occurred when she was 17 – to the guilty verdict in 2021, we follow the young woman between more intimate passages and facts surrounding rape culture and the justice system.
We also discover those involved in her trial, from people who tried to silence her – including Lise Payette, who encouraged her to sign a letter denying the attack – to valuable allies, “magical People,” says Ms. Clermont-Dion.
Chantal Poirier / JdeM
Take back your word
Léa Clermont-Dion would like to point out that her work is “not a process about a process”.
“I tried to put the unspeakable into words to understand what happened. When you watch a sexual harassment trial from a distance, it looks dark and dramatic. And it is. But how ? »
“I felt really helpless,” says the young woman about her legal process.
She says she shed a few tears during the process. “I who never cry,” we can read on the pages of the lawsuit. “I didn’t want to worry my loved ones… Especially because I have children in this process… I didn’t want to affect them,” said the mother of Elio, four years old, and Nina, three years old.
“Writing was wonderful for that, a real outlet. It allowed for a regaining of power, in my words,” she admits.
Vulnerable
Here and there in “Bring a Complaint” we sense Léa Clermont-Dion’s vulnerability. We are with her when she gets up on the morning of the trial, transfixed. We witness his grief in the courtroom.
“I made the decision to capture these moments of vulnerability. “I didn’t want to censor it,” she admits. “I also had moments of anger, of hostility. but I didn’t want to stay there. »
There is also life that pulses through the words. “You have to change diapers and pick up the children from daycare. It allowed me to hold on to life.”
Today Léa Clermont-Dion appears calm. “As I leafed through my book, I felt like it was me and not me at the same time. “I am completely detached from the situation,” she explains. “I think it’s a shame that there was no apology and no admission of wrongdoing,” she adds, “but I’ve come to terms with it.” »
Léa Clermont-Dion’s complaint will be available on October 24th.