Hundreds of protesters opposing the parole of Trois-Rivières engineer Simon Houle gathered outside the Trois-Rivières courthouse on Friday midday.
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The demonstrators denounced, among other things, the “too lenient” sentence handed down by Judge Matthieu Poliquin and did not hesitate to make their opinion known loud and clear with a bang of “fuck you, sir” and “where is justice”.
This type of comment has not been uncommon since the judgment was published.
“There is clearly an attempt at intimidation,” said Trois-Rivières’ lawyer Michel Lebrun.
“I think the courts act independently and know how to protect themselves from this type of behavior. […] Judge Poliquin said it well in his decision, he is a person to be judged. No two files are identical. You really need to look at the facts of this case,” he said.
For the CALACS of Trois-Rivières, which organized the event together with two other organizations, this judgment will have a negative impact on women victims of sex crimes. “At the protest I met a woman who I have been with for the last few years. She is awaiting her trial. She has been in court for four years. Such a situation directly affects his confidence, esteem and hope,” said intervener Marie-Soleil Desrosiers.
In addition, the victim of Simon Houle also suffered from significant difficulties, both psychological, physical and social.
In a 17-page document we can read a list of the consequences that the victim lives with on a daily basis: sadness, disappointment, anger, frustration, shame, embarrassment, fear of meeting the accused, over-vigilance, loss of confidence, isolation, insomnia, nightmares , guilt and injustice.
“His alcohol and drug use has increased. Dark thoughts led to his seven-day psychiatric hospitalization. She also consulted several psychologists. Intimacy with her spouse was compromised for several months,” the document reads.
She further specifies that “several school absences led to failures and delayed the end of his university career by one session. She was unable to work for five months, resulting in financial hardship for more than two years. Although there were no significant physical injuries, the extent of his psychological injuries indirectly caused him physical pain. The length of the court case caused him disappointment and stress. His family and spouse also experienced misunderstanding and frustration, increasing the victim’s guilt. Over time, his fear of seeing the defendant again or being in a similar situation again diminished.
Despite the impact on the victim, the judge stated that “a parole is a fair and appropriate response here. It is not for the courts to exclude penalties that the legislature itself has not excluded,” the judgment said.
Recall that the judge granted parole in connection with a $6,000 donation to CALACS in Trois-Rivières. The court also ordered the defendant to comply with the Sex Offender Information Registration Act for a period of twenty years.
recall of facts
The judge described the facts as follows: “In April 2019, the defendant and the victim attend the same college. They don’t study in the same field, but they know each other because they belong to the same circle of friends. On the evening of the events, they are in a bar with several friends. There is alcohol consumption. When the facility closed, some of them, including the accused and the victim, continued the evening at a friend’s lodgings. This is where the accused and victims discuss together. In particular, it is about the loss of a parent on their side. This discussion makes the victim emotional. She calls her mother, who offers to pick her up. The victim replies that this is not necessary. The defendant also calms the mother down. A little later, the victim goes into the room of the tenant of the apartment. She lies down next to him in her bed. She is lying on her back, fully clothed and over the blanket. She falls asleep while the accused is not in the room.
The victim is awakened by the light from a camera. She feels fingers moving back and forth inside her vagina. She also feels that her camisole is up and her bra has come off the front. She panics. She moves slightly and the defendant pulls his fingers out of her vagina. She gets up, laces up her bra, pulls down her bodice and goes into the kitchen, where she lies down on the floor. The accused joins her. He takes her in his arms and brings her back to the bedroom on the bed. In the end she falls asleep. When she wakes up, she realizes what happened to her that night.
She calls her husband and tells him that she believes the defendant photographed her while she was sleeping. The victim’s spouse confronts the accused via text message. The suspect quickly joins the victim in the bedroom, throws his cell phone at him and tells him to check. Without looking at the phone, she asks him to leave, which the accused does. A few days later, a friend of the defendant looks into the defendant’s phone to determine that this incident would have happened. Then he finds photos of a woman’s genitals in the camera compartment. He informs the victim, who officially files a report with the police.
Nine photos were secured on the accused’s cell phone. They are shown to the victim, who recognizes his body. The defendant is arrested and remains at large throughout the trial.”