MONTREAL – As the head of the Canadian Olympic Committee awaits the results of an investigation into a sexual harassment complaint, two other women have come forward with their own allegations against him.
Marcel Aubut temporarily stepped aside as president of the committee and chairman of the Canadian Olympic Foundation late Wednesday after a a sexual harassment allegation came to light.
On Thursday, more complaints surfaced. Montreal lawyer Amelia Salehabadi-Fouques gave several interviews about her interactions with Aubut. As well, TVA broadcast an interview with a woman the television network said worked closely Aubut.
READ MORE: Canadian Olympic Committee head steps down after sexual harassment complaint
The COC said in a statement that a former chief justice of the Quebec Superior Court, Francois Rolland, has been retained to investigate the initial complaint. The allegations have not been proven.
In his own statement on the initial complaint, Aubut described the allegations as a “remark he allegedly made to a colleague” and that he’d offered his “unconditional support” to those investigating the matter.
He called it a “normal process” that should be completed by mid-October.
The name of the complainant in the initial matter has not been made public.
- Freeland set to table 2024 federal budget in the House of Commons
- All a-boot tradition: A look at finance ministers’ budget shoes through the years
- Inflation ticked higher in March. Are Bank of Canada rate cuts still in the cards?
- Food service strike: Air Canada, WestJet refine menus at Toronto Pearson
Salehabadi-Fouques, who specializes in sports law and has been a member of the board of the Canadian Soccer Association since 2013, says she was the victim of harassment by Aubut on three occasions, beginning when she met him four years ago.
Her unproven claims include an allegation of a forced kiss during their first meeting and allegations of sexually charged comments on their next two encounters.
Attempts to reach both Salehabadi-Fouques and Aubut by The Canadian Press were unsuccessful on Thursday. When asked about Salehabadi-Fouques’s allegations, a COC spokesman simply referred to the committee’s previous statement on the matter.
In interviews with several French-language media, including Montreal radio station 98.5 FM, Salehabadi-Fouques said she contacted Aubut about four years ago, while teaching at Universite de Montreal, because she hoped to get involved in the Canadian Olympic Committee.
They arranged to meet at a swanky restaurant in downtown Montreal, but she said she was surprised the meeting took place at the bar instead of at a table.
“It became clear the only thing he was interested in was not my professional experience, but my physique, etcetera,” Salehabadi-Fouques told 98.5 FM. “There were very personal remarks, questions of a private nature about me.”
She said he kissed her with his tongue later in the evening.
She said at the end of the evening she took a taxi by herself.
In the various interviews, she spoke about another alleged incident, in Quebec City last year, when she said she was asked to attend a business meeting that others were to attend, but where only Aubut showed up.
She alleged the only hotel room that had been reserved had been done so in Aubut’s name.
“He said to me, ‘When am I coming to your bedroom? I’ve asked for keys for your room,”‘ she said, adding she didn’t sleep that night.
She said there was a final incident where Aubut allegedly harassed her at a match at the women’s under-20 soccer World Cup last year at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium.
“It was in front of my 15-year-old son,” Salehabadi-Fouques said.
“We were walking in the tunnel toward the VIP room and he came next to me and said ‘When are we sleeping together?’.”
She said she ignored Aubut’s comment, but her son, who’d been within earshot, asked his mother if he’d heard correctly.
“He (my son) repeated it to me and that, to me, was the final straw,” she said.
Salehabadi-Fouques told the radio station she hasn’t decided whether she’ll file any sort of formal complaint.
But when reading that a COC employee had come forward with a complaint, the mother of three said she decided she couldn’t stay silent any longer.
In a TVA interview that aired later Thursday, a woman alleged that several sexual harassment incidents involving Aubut occurred in 2011 when he was working at a law firm in Montreal.
The woman was not named but the network said she worked with him.
The woman alleged he would put his hands around her waist and that they would go progressively lower each time. She also said he would put his hands on her shoulders and then touch her breasts.
She said she had to quit for health reasons after the incidents, which she said also included him wearing boxer shorts at the law firm on one occasion.
Aubut, 67, has been a member of the COC since 2000 and formally took over the presidency in April 2010.
He previously served as chief executive officer of the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques until the team moved to Colorado in 1995.
He notably helped retired NHL hockey players Anton, Marian and Peter Stastny defect from communist Czechoslovakia to Canada in 1980 to play for the Nordiques.
He was inducted into the Order of Canada as a member in 1986 and was promoted to officer in 1993. In 2006, he was made an officer of the National Order of Quebec.
Aubut was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.
He continues to practise law and is a partner, lawyer and vice-chairman of the board of directors at BCF, a Montreal-based law firm.
The firm put out a statement Wednesday saying it would not comment on the inve
Comments