How sad it is, this saga of singer Jérémy Gabriel who is once again pursuing Mike Ward. Make way for the story of an acute trauma, of an inner peace impossible to find for a disabled artist. The comedian had so much mocked the physique of this child in a supposedly comic number between 2010 and 2013 that he wanted to hang himself. Alongside his mother, we had seen the young man demanding justice, from one court to another, sometimes winning, sometimes losing. Finally dismissed in the Supreme Court, after brandishing the Charter of Rights and Freedoms for discriminatory remarks against him. The judgment, very divided, had surprised after two victories of Jérémy Gabriel before the previous courts. But Mike Ward’s freedom of expression had prevailed.
The mother-son tandem therefore filed a civil complaint on Tuesday, pleading this time intimidation.
Make way for the history of the rights of each other. To that of the social networks which will have heated the backstage of this drama by slapping each other over the head. Make way for the open wounds of the pugilists. And are they measured on the two scales of justice, these wounds? The word “relentlessness” initially pronounced by Jérémy Gabriel, we now hear it uttered by Julius Grey, Mike Ward’s lawyer. The sprinkler is sprinkled and the same arguments fuse everywhere.
Make way for the saga of two men who have been fighting each other since 2015, inevitably exhausted, their destinies linked, without the possibility of really turning the page. As chain companions, like former convicts. Transformed and haunted by their face-to-face, but in which intimate areas? And with what consequences? Each camp sees itself flanked by its partisans, its spokespersons; faithful yet weary, their tongues on the ground, today crying “pity! Stop the fight! »
Since the beginning of this affair, a pandemic has passed over their rams’ heads. Trump’s bewildering reign set the United States and the planet ablaze, the Capitol was stormed behind the mascot of a horned Viking. At home, the CAQ sent the old parties to the ropes. Here we are masked, jostled, vaccinated, flanked by health passports that beep when they are swept away. The truckers honked their horns loudly, the conspirators invaded the streets of the estates to cries of “Libarté! Minorities went to the front, books were burned, the powerful tried prison for sordid sex crimes. The Earth with its broken habitat, its viruses with spiky spikes, has turned three times on its base like a hallucinated top. And here are Jérémy Gabriel and Mike Ward back in the ring. Ouch!
This week, many people find this new pursuit superfluous. Because the subject is not new, the spirits are elsewhere and the spectators want to zap.
Place, however, also in the chaotic adventure of culture, more than ever torn between invitations to clean up in the courtyard of the arts, to take into account the new challenges of society and freedom of expression, in love with flights without hindrances. After all, many duels similar to that of the two Quebecers make the headlines here or elsewhere, leading or not to pleas in togas.
What if this Quebec legal saga keeps bouncing back precisely because it is not settled? Could it be, by the way? Lean to one side, lean to the other; the statue of justice itself develops a stiff neck. The Gabriel/Ward case will perhaps one day end in favor of one of the parties involved — barring endless circles — without posterity being able to determine whether the judges erred or not. Too many threads are tangled on the skein of changes in morals and individual rights to see clearly.
Today, the polarization of ideas pushes people to cling to a single point of view, defended with all claws out and without nuances. Social networks do little to awaken clairvoyance, with their floods of insults. It would be better to develop one’s judgment to separate the wheat from the chaff in each specific case. Because the West is well and truly tossed about by contrary winds. Let’s defend human rights and social causes, says one. Preserve freedom of expression, launches the other. The arguments of each camp are defended and confuse or direct the spirits.
Getting out of these brew-comrades to open up to dialogue would already be a first step towards the light. And stop providing simple solutions to complicated questions. What if we instead tried to dig deep in order to discover new ways to travel tomorrow? Our society keeps the battles of Ward and Gabriel alive within it. Are we going to be surprised to see them drag on like this…