Lawsuit against Mike Ward: Supreme Court dismisses Sylvie Gabriel's application

Comedian Mike Ward speaks to reporters in the lobby of the Quebec Court of Appeal in Montreal on January 16, 2019, as the court hears his dispute with Jérémy Gabriel and his mother Sylvie. (Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press)

The Supreme Court of Canada has put an end to attempts by Sylvie Gabriel, the mother of Jérémy Gabriel, to obtain compensation from Quebec comedian Mike Ward.

On Thursday, the highest court rejected Gabriel's application to overturn an unfavourable decision against her by the Court of Quebec, which was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The decision puts an end to a legal saga that lasted nearly 12 years and was launched by Gabriel and her son after Ward mocked the young disabled singer, who was a teenager at the time, in a show presented from 2010 to 2013.

Time limit expired

The Supreme Court did not give any reasons for its refusal to hear the case, a usual practice in dealing with requests, but it did confirm that the time limit for filing the defamation and harassment suit had expired when she did so, even taking into account all the time spent before multiple courts in recent years.

Gabriel was claiming $84,600 from Mike Ward on the grounds that the joke he had made at her son's expense had caused her significant harm.

Jérémy Gabriel suffers from Treacher Collins syndrome, a congenital disorder characterised by deformities of the skull and face.

According to the Supreme Court, the comments made by the comedian about the boy during a show a few years ago did not meet the discrimination criterion invoked by the plaintiffs.

When Ward mentioned Gabriel in his shows, the teenager was a well-known singer who had appeared alongside Céline Dion and the Pope at the Vatican.

This is not the first time that the Supreme Court has intervened in this case, having ruled in favour of the comedian in 2021 and overturned previous decisions that had ordered Ward to pay the young man $35,000.

In an extremely split 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal did not have jurisdiction to rule on Gabriel's discrimination complaint, since it was a defamation case.

Second setback for the mother

Sylvie Gabriel had already been unsuccessful before the courts.

The long legal road began with a complaint in 2012 to the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse for discrimination.

In 2016, the Quebec Human Rights Tribunal ordered Ward to pay Jérémy Gabriel $35,000 and his mother $7,000 in moral and punitive damages.

The Court of Appeal then upheld the verdict and endorsed the $35,000 payment to the young man, but cancelled the damages to be paid to his mother.

The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, pitting artistic expression in the form of satirical comedy against the protection of human dignity.

The country's highest court concluded that the singer and his mother had chosen the wrong forum — the Human Rights Tribunal — to bring their lawsuit, since it was not a case of discrimination under the Charter, but of defamation.

Like his mother, Jérémy Gabriel had also filed a defamation suit against Ward in Superior Court, claiming damages of $288,000, but it was suspended pending a decision in his mother's case.

He withdrew his action in May 2023.

-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 9, 2025.