Lawsuits against Mike Ward | Who has the right ?

There is law and judicial decisions. Then there is public opinion and the People’s Court, which sometimes weigh more heavily than legal texts and case law.

Jérémy Gabriel and his mother Sylvie Gabriel filed separate civil liability suits against Mike Ward, respectively in the Superior Court and the Court of Quebec. They are claiming damages totaling $372,600 for the “destructive effect” the comedian’s jokes had on them.

When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mike Ward last fall in his years-long dispute with Jérémy Gabriel, it concluded that despite the fact that the comedian’s jokes were “disgusting”, they were not discriminatory within the meaning of the Quebec and Canadian charters.

“The appeal in discrimination is not, and should not become, a remedy defamation (in italics in the judgment), recalled the five judges of the majority. They concluded, in short, that it would have been wiser for Jérémy Gabriel to bring this case before a common law court in a defamation suit rather than before an administrative tribunal on grounds of discrimination.

Jérémy Gabriel decided to take them at their word.

We have seen much more frivolous lawsuits, based on much less solid foundations. We can’t help but wonder if this is a good idea.

Why inflict on yourself a new legal process that could drag on (at great expense), with no more guarantee of winning your case? Why submit to more popular vindictiveness, in particular from certain admirers of Mike Ward, not all recognized for their politeness, their sagacity and their interpersonal skills?

Ward’s attorney, Mr.^and Julius Grey, argues that these new lawsuits constitute “relentlessness” and that the limitation periods for defamation have expired. Whether he is right or not, some already criticize Jérémy Gabriel for a form of relentlessness in prolonging this affair. Which is cruelly ironic.

In his show Mike Ward exposes himself, the comedian made fun – for three years and some 230 performances – of the handicap of Jérémy Gabriel, born prematurely and suffering from Treacher-Collins syndrome, the cause of his malformations and severe deafness.

Ward notably declared that Gabriel’s illness was: “Y’est lette! and that he had tried to drown him, but he was “not killable”. These jokes have been reprinted in DVD format and in popular web capsules. Jérémy Gabriel, who was 13 at the time of the show, was the target of teasing, suffered from psychological distress and contemplated suicide.

From a strictly legal point of view, Jérémy Gabriel has every reason to sue Mike Ward today for defamation. “Freedom of expression cannot confer on the artist a higher degree of protection than that of his fellow citizens”, ruled the Supreme Court, specifying that artistic freedom was “not a category in its own right, whose status would be superior to that of general freedom of expression”.

On the other hand, if I was in Jérémy Gabriel’s entourage, I would have tried to dissuade him from taking the legal route again. Because he has a lot to lose. By not letting go, Gabriel makes the ordeal last, in a way, on his own.

This lawsuit risks being counterproductive, or even making Mike Ward look like a victim in the collective psyche. While the victim in this case is and has always been Jérémy Gabriel. In the schoolyard, as a teenager, students insulted him and repeated Ward’s jokes. He still suffers the psychological consequences today.

I can already guess the content of the mail that this column will bring me. Insults from Mike Ward fans who don’t accept criticism aimed at their local free-speech enthusiast. And compliments from people who have never seen Ward on stage or listened to an episode of his podcast, but who nevertheless authoritatively decree that he is insignificant, despicable and talentless.

Mike Ward’s jokes about Jeremy Gabriel, whom he stalked for far too long, were “disgusting”, as the Supreme Court pointed out. The fact remains that Ward is one of the most talented comedians in Quebec. When he’s not wasting his time playing the martyr, he excels at making people laugh, with a devilishly effective dark and grating humour. If his humor is not to everyone’s taste, it is often mine.

We will however grant it to his detractors: Mike Ward sometimes lacks judgment, nuance and discernment. In his admiration of controversial figures or his new-rich reflexes, for example. Charity is not a social program. Even when you think you’re Mother Teresa of Hochelaga.

Although I sympathize with Jérémy Gabriel, it seems to me that it would have been better to stop there, at this shared decision of the Supreme Court. Because Mike Ward is nasty, part of his audience is too, and the cost of this retrial – if it happens – may outweigh the benefits to Gabriel’s reputation and mental health.

But who am I, who are we all, to tell a young man who has suffered that he is wrong to assert his rights?