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The true story of how human rights tribunals descended into complete madness

Jamie Sarkonak: They've expanded to threaten the rights and freedoms Canadians hold dear

The joke that initially cost comedian Mike Ward $42,000 had to do with a boy known to Quebec as “Le Petit Jérémy” — Jérémy Gabriel — a regional celebrity who sang for the Pope when he was little. Gabriel has Treacher-Collins syndrome.

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“He was kind of like a Make-a-Wish Foundation type kid, right?” Ward told Joe Rogan when he went on the podcast in 2018.

The true story of how human rights tribunals descended into complete madness Back to video

“The joke was: I was super happy for him at first, this little deaf boy, he’s dying. His dream was to sing for the Pope. He became like front-page news everywhere in Montreal, and then he got a record deal, then he sang for the Canadiens, then he came out with a book. And then at the end I was like, why isn’t he dead yet? Like wasn’t he supposed to die?”

Gabriel was not actually dying; people with Treacher-Collins have about the same life expectancy as those without it. The condition causes facial deformities and sometimes hearing loss. Nevertheless, in the mind of the public, Make-a-Wish is typically thought to be reserved for terminal cases, and, well this one was not. Gabriel had a Terry Fox-esque rise to prominence without the sacrifice and tragedy. 

During the bit, Ward made fun of Gabriel’s appearance, referring to him as “ugly,” as the kid who “sang badly” with “the sub-woofer” on his head (referring to the boy’s hearing aids), among other things. Later on, in a separate video, Ward made a joke about Gabriel, the Pope, and pedophilia.

It was true that the child sang out of tune, but this didn’t hold his career back: in 2018 he was performing covers of “Eye of the Tiger” and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” live without issue.

Gabriel testified that the jokes caused him profound pain: he withdrew and felt “lost, fragile and isolated”; the kids in his school repeated the stand-up jokes back to him. 

It was dark and mean, but was it illegal? The Quebec Human Rights Tribunal gave its answer in 2016: yes. So illegal that it warrants a penalty equivalent in value to a mid-sized SUV: $42,000 in damages to Gabriel and his mother.

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“The effect of Ward’s comments is to differentiate Jérémy from other persons who do not have a handicap,” reasoned the tribunal. “His comments are discriminatory and infringed on the respect of Jérémy’s dignity and honour. This type of behaviour is clearly prohibited by the (Quebec) Charter. What is more, the Tribunal believes Jérémy when he says that he was humiliated by these comments. His testimony clearly indicates that he felt belittled in comparison to others.”

It went on to rule that Ward’s jokes didn’t adequately take human rights into account, and were unjustifiable even in a place where freedom of expression is notionally a core value.

“Having a platform imposes certain responsibilities,” wrote the tribunal. “Comedians may not base their actions solely on the laughter of their audience; they must also take into account the fundamental rights of the victims of their jokes.”

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This was ultimately shut down by the Supreme Court after it was appealed all the way up — but only by a hair. Of the nine judges, only five ruled in favour of Ward. Human rights tribunals could punish discriminatory speech, they said, but only if the speech incites hatred on a prohibited ground of discrimination, and only if a reasonable person, informed of the context, would think that the comments were likely to lead to discriminatory treatment. 

The other four ruled........

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