(Ottawa) It is this Friday morning that the Supreme Court of Canada decides if Mike Ward had the right to make fun of Jérémy Gabriel.
On February 15, the court heard from both parties – the comedian and the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse – as well as seven interveners, including Mr. Gabriel himself.
The commission and Mr. Gabriel plan to respond to the judgment before the end of the morning. They called together a press conference in Montreal.
The nine judges of the country’s highest court had taken the case under advisement last winter, after hearing arguments for upholding or overturning the lower court’s decision. In November 2019, the Quebec Court of Appeal awarded $ 25,000 in moral damages and $ 10,000 in punitive damages to Mr. Gabriel.
Julius Gray is the attorney representing Mr. Ward.
“There is no right not to be offended,” he had submitted to the court. “Mocking does not deprive someone of a service or a right,” the lawyer said.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Jeremy Gabriel
“It’s about discrimination. Discrimination against a child, discrimination against a disabled child, ”retorted the commission’s lawyer, Mr.e Stéphanie Fournier, referring the judges to “the effect of words on Jérémy’s dignity”.
Suffering from Treacher Collins syndrome, a congenital disease characterized by deformities of the skull and face, Jérémy Gabriel had acquired a certain notoriety when he sang, in 2006, at the age of nine, for Pope Benedict XVI.
In one of his numbers, Mike Ward had chosen to make fun of several famous personalities, one of them being Jérémy Gabriel. The comedian then mocked the physical characteristics of Mr. Gabriel.
The case is being followed with great interest in Quebec, as the highest court in the country determines whether freedom of expression protects artistic discourse as much as political discourse. Judges of the Court also decide whether mocking personal characteristics amounts to discrimination.
To the Association of Professionals of the Comedy Industry, which had the status of intervenor in this cause, we relayed the concern to see self-censorship take hold in the community.