Mike Ward will not have to pay $ 35,000 to Jérémy Gabriel, ruled the Supreme Court by affirming that the comedian did not discriminate by making fun of the singer’s handicap in the context of a show.
“Placed in their context, his words cannot be taken at face value. Although Mr. Ward utters spiteful words and shameful remarks related to Mr. Gabriel’s disability, his words do not encourage the audience to treat him as an inferior being, ”reads the decision rendered this morning. by the highest court in the land.
So, after a six-year saga in which Ward suffered setback after setback against the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, he finally won his case.
Close victory
But his victory was narrowly acquired. Because if the majority of the nine magistrates of the Supreme Court – including Chief Justice Richard Wagner – agreed with him, four of them would have maintained his conviction.
“The justifications put forward by Mr. Ward, namely that he did not intend to discriminate, that he treated Jérémy Gabriel like any other celebrity and that his artistic freedom as a comedian gave him the right to make fun of a disabled child, are devoid of legal basis, ”we read in the dissent.
The majority of judges, however, ruled in favor of freedom of expression which “presupposes the tolerance of society towards unpopular, derogatory or repulsive expressions”, she recalled.
Discrimination c. defamation
She also recalled having been seized of an action for discrimination, and not defamation.
“The action for discrimination is not, and should not become, an action for defamation,” recalls the court. Mr. Gabriel could have sued for libel. “
Without considering this aspect, the majority judges however considered that there had been no discrimination in the jokes of Mike Ward in his comedy show, started in 2010 and presented 230 times in three years.
To denounce the “sacred cows” of which we can not laugh, Ward had devoted several jokes on the young artist, in particular on his disease causing a deformation of the skull and the face. Jérémy Gabriel was then between 10 and 13 years old and was best known for having sung in front of Pope Benedict XVI.
“His jokes about his attempt to drown Mr. Gabriel were inspired by pernicious stereotypes that people with disabilities are objects of pity and burdens on society that we can get rid of,” recalled the dissenting judges.
These words had pushed the young artist to isolate himself and even to have suicidal thoughts.
Long saga
A complaint was filed with the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse in 2015 and the following year, a court ordered Mike Ward to pay Jérémy Gabriel $ 35,000 and his mother $ 7,000 as a moral and punitive damages.
The case had been appealed, but in 2019, the judgment was upheld apart from compensation to the singer’s mother. The decision was not unanimous, however: one of the judges had found it unreasonable to conclude that the comedian’s comments were discriminatory.
After hearing the parties last February, the Supreme Court mostly leaned in this direction.
During the hearings, the Association of Professionals of the Comedy Industry intervened to defend the freedom of expression of comedians, fearing that a judgment limiting their “playground” would push them to self-censorship.