Mike Ward Norm Macdonald P'tit Jérémy Gabriel
Comedy, News

Mike Ward’s first comment on Supreme Court win: A message to Norm Macdonald

by Lorraine Carpenter

A controversial joke by the Quebec comic was ruled not discriminatory following a nine-year legal battle.

Quebec comedian Mike Ward won a nine-year legal battle this morning, with the Supreme Court of Canada ruling 5–4 that the jokes he made about disabled singer (le p’tit) Jérémy Gabriel were not discriminatory according to the Quebec Charter of Rights. After the news broke, the first comment from Mike Ward was a message to the late Norm Macdonald, who had expressed his support for Ward (and called him a genius) back in 2016.

“We did it Norm. We won.”

—Mike Ward

The first comment by Mike Ward following his Supreme Court win was a message to Norm Macdonald.

In comedy shows between 2010 and 2013, Ward did a bit about Gabriel, who has Treacher Collins syndrome and had become a bit of a Quebec celebrity at the time, and his meeting with the Pope. Ward joked that the only reason Gabriel got to meet the Pope was because he was “supposed to die.”

Today’s decision followed Ward’s appeal of a 2019 ruling ordering the comedian to pay $35,000 in punitive damages.

A word from fellow Montreal bilingual comedian Sugar Sammy.

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Posted in Comedy, News

by Lorraine Carpenter

Editor in chief
Lorraine Carpenter was born in Montreal and studied communications and journalism at Concordia. She co-founded Cult MTL in 2012 following 12 years at the now-defunct Montreal alt weekly the Mirror, where she worked in editorial as copy editor and music editor. She’s dedicated to supporting the cultural scene in Montreal.