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HIS FIGHT IS ALSO OURS

As a creator, you’re responsible for what you’ve created, but you must protect and defend your creation, otherwise you betray your work and yourself.
- Claude Robinson

On one side, Claude Robinson, a talented and respected creator, is determined to prove that his work, Les Aventures de Robinson Curiosité, was plagiarized.

On the other, lawyered-up multinationals: Cinar, and its directors Ronald Weinberg and the late Micheline Charest; production company France Animation, Christian Davin, its director and Christophe Izard, executive producer; the German multinational Ravensburger Film and RTV Family Entertainment, its production company.

David versus Goliath. In fact, it’s David versus several Goliaths, which Judge Claude Auclair of the Superior Court of Quebec did not hesitate to define as “white-collar criminals” in his ruling, adding “Their way of conducting business is based on cheating, lying and dishonesty. [...] Even during the trial, they kept on concealing their reprehensible actions.”

In this uneven and disproportionate fight, Claude Robinson investigated for 13 years to prove that his work was plagiarized, by gathering over 40 witness testimonies, 20 765 pages from various documents, 23 previously-filed interrogations, 4 expert reports, over 53 viewing hours of various episodes and a rogatory commission in France. His adversaries are multiplying the delays, obstacles and objections to wane his will to fight.

According to Judge Auclair’s words, they were “years of hell for him and his relatives.” These years have left him physically, psychologically and financially bruised.

On August 2009, the Superior Court of Quebec finally acknowledged that his work was plagiarized by Cinar executives and accomplices, who aired Robinso Sucroé in over 160 countries, and condemned them to pay 5.2 million dollars to Claude Robinson. Factoring in his attorney fees (over 2 million dollars up to this date) and his debts to pay back, will Claude finally be able to get his life back, and the time that was stolen from him by Cinar and the co-defendants?

David has won the first round, but he has a long way to go before the fight is won. A few weeks after the judgement, the defendants announced they will appeal the case and ask for the ruling to be revised downward. Their four law firms have each spent 120 days dissecting the ruling and writing their memorandums. The case should be heard in spring 2011.

To keep on fighting, Claude Robinson needs everyone’s help.

The Fonds d’appui à Claude Robinson was established by the Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinéma (SARTEC) in 2002. To this date, the contributions essentially came from its members and from creative associations.

A group of Claude Robinson’s friends has agreed, along with the SARTEC, to open this fund to the public through this Web site.

All donations will help with Claude’s procedural fees: hearing transcripts, bailiffs, photocopies, reproduction of memorandums, etc. They represent what we call legal disbursements, which exclude attorney fees. The Supreme Court fees alone exceed $250,000. The SARTEC’s support fund has raised $78,898.16 and Claude Robinson while the remaining costs were absorbed by Claude Robinson. The legal disbursements pertaining to the appeal have already reached $55,000, and the account is outstanding. Furthermore, odds are high that the case will end in the Supreme Court.

Thus, all contributions play a key role. Their multiplied effect is what counts.

The SARTEC guarantees openness and security when it comes to the use of the funds gathered. This organization was founded in 1949, and its accounting records are verified. Moreover, the Desjardins Caisse de la Culture, located in Montreal, oversees online donations. These contributions are not tax deductible.

Claude Robinson’s fight is the fight of a creator who is determined to reinstate his work’s authorship. In La Presse, he declared: “As a creator, you’re responsible for what you’ve created, but you must protect and defend your creation, otherwise you betray your work and yourself.”

But, fundamentally, his fight is the fight of a simple citizen who is determined to see truth and justice triumph over unscrupulous and powerful adversaries.

His fight is also ours.