Good morning. France faces a reckoning in a landmark rape trial – more on that below, along with the dropped charges against Donald Trump and a Montreal health care project that’s out of this world. But first:
Today’s headlines
- Israel is expected to approve a ceasefire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah
- Trump vows to impose 25-per-cent tariffs on all products from Canada and Mexico
- An NDP MP tabled a motion to compel past and current Canada Soccer officials to testify over spying and culture
Gisele Pelicot outside the Avignon courthouse yesterday.CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images
France
Gisèle Pelicot’s public stand
First came the arrest: In September, 2020, police caught Dominique Pelicot filming up women’s skirts at a supermarket near the small French town of Mazan. His wife of 50 years, Gisèle, initially believed the couple could work through it; perhaps Pelicot would agree to therapy. Then came the discovery: After searching his computer, police found 20,000 graphic photos and videos that they allege showed Pelicot and other men – at least 72 of them – raping Gisèle at home while she was unconscious. The images on his hard drive were organized in a folder labelled “abuse.”
For years, Gisèle Pelicot had sought help from doctors about her frightening memory lapses, which she described as “total blackouts.” She thought it was a brain tumour or Alzheimer’s. Instead, she learned, her husband had been crushing sleeping pills into her dinner, her wine, her raspberry ice cream – enough sedatives to put her into a state closer to a coma than to sleep. Then he would rape her. Often, he would invite over local men he’d met on the internet (in a forum called “without their knowledge”) to rape her, as well. The sexual assaults stretched back nearly a decade.
The only reason the public knows this is because Gisèle Pelicot – now divorced, 71, a mother of three and grandmother of seven – waived her right under French law to keep the rape trial behind closed doors. “It’s not for us to have shame, it’s for them,” she told the panel of judges. For the past three months, as Dominique Pelicot and 50 other defendants (22 men remain at large) have shuffled into the courtroom, many in masks and hats to conceal their identities, Gisèle has arrived each day to applause from supporters. This week, the trial moves to sentencing, and yesterday prosecutors asked for Pelicot to receive the maximum penalty for aggravated rape. “Twenty years between the four walls of a prison,” prosecutor Laure Chabaud said. “It is both a lot and not enough.”
The shock of the familiar
So many details of this case have astonished observers in France and abroad. There’s the length of the abuse, perpetuated by a man whom Gisèle and her family believed to be an ordinary, loving husband. There’s the meticulousness of his crime: The men who came to their home could not smell of smoke or cologne, so they wouldn’t leave traces of their presence, and had to first warm their hands on a radiator, so she wouldn’t be jolted by their cold touch. (No one, however, was told to use a condom, including the HIV-positive man who raped Gisèle Pelicot half a dozen times.) There’s the sheer volume of assailants, ranging in age from 26 to 74 – a truck driver, a soldier, a journalist, a fireman, a nurse, a civil servant, a prison guard. The Avignon court had to build a second glass box just to hold everyone in custody.
A mural outside the courthouse entrance.CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP/Getty Images
But other aspects of the trial have been painfully, predictably familiar. Some of the defence lawyers – there are 40 in all – questioned whether Gisèle Pelicot was truly unconscious. A few suggested she was an alcoholic. One wondered if she “had a secret inclination for exhibitionism.” Although Dominique Pelicot has admitted guilt, telling the court “I am a rapist” and that the men were active participants, most defendants say they believed they were taking part in a game between the couple. “There’s rape and there’s rape,” one lawyer ventured to Gisèle Pelicot. “There are no different types of rape,” she replied.
Changing the narrative
The court is expected to deliver its verdicts and sentences by Dec. 20. (In France, they’re rendered together.) Already, though, this trial and the attention it’s garnered have prompted changes to French policy. Yesterday, Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced new measures to help combat violence against women, including state-funded rape kits and the ability to file complaints in hospitals, not just police stations. Justice Minister Didier Migaud has also said he’s in favour of updating France’s rape law, which does not currently include a lack of consent in its definition of the crime.
This is what Gisèle Pelicot wanted when she insisted the trial remain public. “It’s time that the macho, patriarchal society that trivializes rape changes,” she said last week in her final statement to the judges in Avignon. “It’s time we changed the way we look at rape.” Outside the entrance to the courthouse, a mural spelled out in block letters: “Gisèle, women thank you.” Inside, her son Florian echoed the sentiment. “Usually, in big criminal cases, everyone remembers the bad guy’s name,” he told the court. “This time, it’s different. It’s Gisèle Pelicot’s name that will be remembered.”
The Shot
‘This is a way for us to cut into the curve’
Astronauts in orbit and Canadians alike struggle to access a family doctor.Andrej Ivanov/The Globe and Mail
Canada’s primary-care shortage is so dire that Montreal health officials are trying out an “autonomous care unit” first designed by our space agency to monitor astronauts in orbit. Read more about the possibilities of this high-tech check-up here.
The Wrap
What else we’re following
At home: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he’ll send most working Canadians a $250 cheque next spring – but the NDP and Bloc are now urging his government to add retirees to the mailing list, as well.
Abroad: Since sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution, special counsel Jack Smith has dropped the U.S. election interference charges against Donald Trump.
Ditching lanes: Ontario has passed a fast-tracked bill that will remove bike lanes from three major Toronto roads and limit them in municipalities across the province.
Ditching plans: Dance classes. Soccer games. Piano lessons. Swim clubs. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Are we maybe doing our kids a disservice by keeping them so very busy?