TORONTO — You could call it Canada’s Weinstein moment, take two.

One of the country’s most powerful theater directors, Albert Schultz, on Thursday resigned from his post as leader of the Soulpepper Theater Company after four actresses said this week that they had been sexually harassed, groped, touched and repeatedly propositioned by him over 13 years.

They filed a lawsuit against him and the company, a nonprofit he co-founded, for a combined $6.2 million, or $7.85 million Canadian dollars.

Mr. Schultz said he planned to “vigorously defend myself against the allegations that are being made.”

Before he announced his resignation, the actresses spoke at a news conference in the Toronto offices of one of their lawyers. They said they had felt emboldened to come forward now, in part, because of what they said was a culture shift that began in Hollywood, with actresses openly talking about the behavior of the producer Harvey Weinstein.