On Monday, Paul Haggis, who was found liable for rape in 2022, took part in a public panel at the Rome Independent Film Festival — the same day that two female actors sexually abused by a well-known Italian theatre director held a news conference across town to highlight a recent ruling ordering the man and the theatre he worked for to pay them $180,000 Cdn in damages.

Veronica Stecchetti, 28, and Federica Ombrato, 37, testified that the director kept them isolated in an empty theatre late at night, coerced them into sexualized acting and assaulted one of them, among other violations.

“It’s a historic decision,” said Elisa Ercoli, president of Differenza Donna, the feminist association whose lawyers represented the women. “It establishes the duty of organizations to prevent male violence

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