Days before Just for Laughs festival was cancelled, company's assets were seized

A bailiff seized more than $800,000 in assets last week from the Montreal company that runs the Just for Laughs comedy festival after it failed to make a court-ordered payment to a former employee.

The seizure came one week before the company announced on Tuesday it was cancelling this summer's festival in Montreal and taking steps under federal bankruptcy law to protect itself from creditors.

The bailiff was sent after the Quebec Court of Appeal on Feb. 8 ordered the company to compensate an archivist who had been promised a job for life but who was laid off in 2019.

Quebec's highest court said the company, called Groupe Juste pour rire inc., had topay AndrGloutnay more than $660,000, equivalent to the wages he had lost since 2019 and his future expected earnings.

But an enforcement notice filed by a bailiff said that payment was never made.

Meanwhile, PwC, formerly known as PricewaterhouseCoopers, has been appointed to act as insolvency trustee as the comedy company seeks creditor protection.