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Promoter Loses Appeal Against Agency
When illness forced
– Harvest PicnicJean-Paul Gauthier of September Seventh Entertainment accused the agency of violating radius clauses and not taking responsibility for the cancellation, which he claimed ultimately damaged the festival. Hamilton Superior Court Justice Alan Whitten dismissed the case in January, saying Gauthier overestimated his own expenses and didn’t pay others, according to the CBC. The suit reportedly asked for $27 million, a number Whitten said was far too high.
“[C]onsidering a complete lack of success and a clear wording of the performance contracts involved, any such request for costs for the plaintiff’s corporation is denied,” Whitten’s ruling read, according to the CBC.
Gauthier appealed the decision, claiming the judge was biased against his indigenous heritage, but a group of judges quickly threw out Gauthier’s appeal Oct. 19. The judges said his argument was “specious” and “undermine[d] the integrity of others involved in the justice process and trivialize[d] legitimate issues faced by indigenous people in our community,” according to a copy of the decision obtained by Pollstar.
The judges ordered Gauthier to pay the agency’s court costs, but the promoter still has suits filed against artists Johnny Reid and Cowboy Junkies, the former of which has filed a countersuit saying he hasn’t been paid in full, according to The Hamilton Spectator.
“From our standpoint anyone who doesn’t honor their contract or pay our artists – and then make outrageous claims — can expect us to stand up to those claims to the fullest extent of the law,” Jeff Craib of The Feldman Agency told Pollstar. “It isn’t our preferred path but in this specific case with Harvest, there was no other option other than to defend our clients and our business.”
Gauthier also works with the Hamilton Music Awards. He was unavailable for comment at press time.