Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler calls multiple sexual assault allegations false

Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler is denying accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by multiple people.

Numerous people told the online music publication Pitchfork that Butler's reputation in public is very different from when he steps offstage.

Three women, the Pitchfork article writes, said Butler had sexual interactions with them that were inappropriate given the singer's age, power as a music celebrity, and the context.

All the women were between 18 and 23 at the start of their interactions with Butler between 2016 and 2020 when Butler was between 36 and 39.

A fourth person, who is non-binary, said Butler assaulted them twice in 2015 when they were 21 (Butler was 34). Once in a car, and once at their apartment "despite text messages admonishing him not to come."

Butler admitted to having "consensual relationships outside of marriage" to his wife and bandmate Régine Chassagne from Montreal. In the statement, he admits to having relationships with the four people.

"Most importantly, every single one of these interactions has been mutual and always between consenting adults. It is deeply revisionist, and frankly just wrong, for anyone to suggest otherwise," he wrote.

"I have never touched a woman against her will, and any implication that I have is simply false. I vehemently deny any suggestion that I forced myself on a woman or demanded sexual favours. That simply, and unequivocally, never happened."

In the statement, Butler called Chassagne his "soulmate," but wrote that "it has been difficult to balance being the father, husband, and bandmate I want to be."

He writes about struggling with mental health issues and that he started drinking heavily in his 30s after the couple experienced a miscarriage.

"None of this is intended to excuse my behaviour, but I do want to give some context and share what was happening in my life around this time," he wrote.

"I no longer recognized myself or the person I had become."

None of the allegations have been proven in court.

Marc Hogan, the Pitchfork reporter that broke the story on Saturday, says he first became aware of the allegations from social media posts which were posted in May.

"It was just a matter of checking them out and seeing what was there, and then realizing that, unfortunately, there was a lot there," he told CTV News.

He says most of the alleged victims he spoke with were "huge fans of Arcade Fire," he said. "That was the main similarity between them."

FLorence-Olivia Genesse is a Ph.D. candidate in Law at Durham university and specializes in sexual violence. She said the music industry is one where power's fame or reputation rarely suffers even after allegations are proven.

"It is well-known that the music industry, especially men in positions of power, have abused the fame and attention that comes with the lifestyle they have," she said. "It is also well-known that even after allegations and accusations are proven in court, the perpetrator's career remains the same, usually after a short pause outside the public's eye."

Genesse said more men have been sanctioned or dropped from high-level positions in wake of the #metoo movement, but that it's not the majority of cases.

Butler's age and position of power cannot be discounted in this case, Genesse said.

"The first thing to know is that sexual assaults, misconducts, and non-consensual acts are done for power by people who assume they have power over another's response, i.e. no freely given 'yes,'" she said. "Victims of rape face more scrutiny and judgment than the defendant because there is often insufficient physical evidence to determine whether consent occurred. It is clear from what we know so far that there is also the presence of many coercive circumstances such as age gap and celebrity status; it is very difficult to establish, when so many coercive factors are present, that there was consent."