Supreme Court rejects Quebec woman's attempt to sue comedian who mocked her son
As usual, the court did not publish the reasoning behind its decision; however, lower courts had dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the deadline to file legal action had passed.
Canada's highest court has brought an end to a 12-year legal battle between comedian Mike Ward and the family of a disabled Quebec singer whom he mocked in his performances.
The Supreme Court of Canada recently denied a request to hear an appeal by Sylvie Gabriel, who had been trying to overturn a lower court ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against Ward for making fun of her son, Jérémy Gabriel.
As is typical, the court did not disclose the reasons for its decision. However, the lower courts had dismissed the case because the time limit for filing the lawsuit had expired.
Jérémy Gabriel, who has Treacher Collins syndrome — a congenital condition marked by skull and facial deformities — gained fame in Quebec as a teenager after performing alongside Celine Dion and the Pope.
Ward mocked Gabriel in his routines from 2010 to 2013, once joking that he believed the boy’s illness was terminal and that people were only kind to him because he was expected to die soon.
What started as a 2012 human rights complaint by Gabriel ultimately reached the Supreme Court, which ruled in 2021 that Ward’s mocking comments did not constitute discrimination under Quebec's rights charter.
