Mike Ward’s mockery of le p’tit Jérémy declared not discriminatory

In a 5–4 ruling this morning, the Supreme Court of Canada decided that the jokes made by Quebec comedian Mike Ward about disabled singer (le p’tit) Jérémy Gabriel were not discriminatory according to the Quebec Charter of Rights. Today’s decision followed Ward’s appeal of a 2019 ruling ordering the comedian to pay $35,000 in punitive damages.

This is the end of nine-year legal battle over a joke that Ward made about Gabriel’s meeting with the Pope in comedy shows between 2010 and 2013. Gabriel has Treacher Collins syndrome and Ward joked that he only got to meet the Pope because he was “supposed to die.”

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