Those who think that I am happy about the tsunami that has hit France following Vanessa Springora’s denunciation of the paedophile Gabriel Matzneff are mistaken.

The girl who was withered by him between the ages of 13 and a half and 15 describes her ordeal in a book, Le Consentement (Consent), published Thursday in France.

Tradotto da Fausto Giudice

Ever since I challenged this man, so praised by the Parisian elite, on Bernard Pivot’s talk show Apostrophes in 1990, I have always felt alone. 

Especially since I myself was convicted in Quebec in the Superior Court and then in the Court of Appeal in the 1990s for having denounced the comments of a psychologist who publicly praised paedophilia. 

Furthermore, I have always been insulted by paedophiles and their defenders without flinching. I have even become the “badly fucked” [fr. “mal baisée”, i.e. sexually frustrated, an old sexist insult against any kind of feminists, translator’s note] for my opponents. It is worth noting that no man who confronts them is called “no balls”. At worst, he will be accused of being a sanctimonious person.

Courage 

My denunciation of the repulsive Matzneff is 30 years old. In her book, Vanessa Springora writes that it was my word, immediately decried at the time by a certain gamy literary milieu in Paris, that gave her the strength and courage to reveal herself. But she lived 30 years filled with anguish, depression and raw wounds before she was able to speak out. 

My experience in France and Quebec confirmed my judgment about human beings and their sexuality. The truth is, you never know who you are talking to. Because child predators are more numerous than we think. 

I testify here for all those child victims who have had their childhood stolen from them by having their bodies and minds taken away in the name of the right to desire. The desire of the paedophile is not only criminal but morbid. Paedophiles are therefore “killers” of children and adolescents. 

Hate 

Never in my profession have I experienced such promiscuity of hatred as in the milieu of paedophiles. For I have symbolically placed myself between them and the child. 

I will always be the “badly fucked” whenever I get indignant. But I have selective indignation and I ignore nothing of human weakness. I know, however, that true strength is nourished by sensitivities, doubts and some values that inspire a life. 

I have retained from my religious culture the sense of the sacred and the conviction that evil exists. I do not believe that all human behaviour is excusable. I am skeptical of the idea that everything can be forgiven. I will continue to protect children with my only weapon: words. Given what is shaking France today, these words prove that my patience has not been in vain. And that it will not be so one day in Quebec. Who knows?