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They could not sort it out then and there, but over time, the wonder lingered. Another student of Gilad’s asked him about it. Eventually, Abramovitz forwarded the fake email to Gilad, who replied: “I’ve never seen that in my life.”

“That’s when I knew that something underhanded was afoot,” Abramovitz said. One day in 2015, he and a friend set about trying to gain access to the fake email account, and because Abramovitz and Lee once shared a computer, he knew one of her passwords, which he tried.

“Miraculously, it logged right in,” he said. Her email was listed as the recovery email, her phone was the recovery phone. “We felt like Sherlock Holmes.”

Abramovitz also said she did a similar thing involving fake emails with his successful application to the Juilliard School in New York, causing him to decline it.

He said he is not certain he will be able to collect his damages, as he does not know where she is and she has blocked him on social media.

Lee could not be reached. She did not appear at the proceeding that led to this default judgment against her. Much of the ruling is taken up with the judge’s decision on why the case was properly heard in Ontario, Lee’s primary residence, and not Quebec.

The damages she must pay him are for “loss of educational opportunity and loss of income caused by redirection of Mr. Abramovitz’s career resulting from Ms. Lee’s wrongful conduct,” the judge wrote. Ambramovitz also sued for loss of reputation, and although the judge decided there was some, he decided his scathing ruling would more or less solve that problem by pointing out Abramovitz was found worthy of the opportunity to study with Gilad, and it was entirely Lee’s fault that he did not.

“Imagining how his life would have been different if he had studied for two years under Mr. Gilad, and earned his teacher’s respect and support, requires more speculation than the law permits. One hears, particularly in the arts, of the ‘big breaks’ that can launch a promising artist to a stratospheric career. I cannot speculate as to how high and how quickly Mr. Abramovitz’s career might have soared, but for the interference by Ms. Lee. But the law does recognize that the loss of a chance is a very real and compensable loss.”

• Email: jbrean@nationalpost.com | Twitter: josephbrean