The Court of Appeal believes that a debate on the statute of limitations in the Gabriel-Ward case is needed to determine whether Jérémy Gabriel’s mother has the right to sue the comedian like her son for damages.
• Also read: The saga between Mike Ward and Jérémy Gabriel continues
Jérémy Gabriel and Mike Ward’s legal battle continues to descend into a maze of proceedings.
First of all, let’s recall that the country’s highest court dismissed Jérémy Gabriel on the grounds that he had used the wrong means, namely discrimination, to bring a lawsuit against the comedian, even though it was more of a case of acted defamation.
Jérémy Gabriel took the Supreme Court at its word and subsequently filed a lawsuit for $288,000 in damages.
Jérémy’s mother also sought $84,600 in damages.
However, Judge Manon Gaudreault dismissed the mother’s lawsuit, ruling that the time limit had expired. The mother had also sued Ward in the Human Rights Court, but that case had been sidelined while Jérémy’s case was being heard in the highest court in Canada, hence the statute of limitations argument in this case.
Gabriel’s lawyer, Me Stéphane Harvey, had therefore approached the Court of Appeal to clarify the question of the statute of limitations.
Two appearances before the Court of Appeal
Therefore, a first expeditious argument was brought before the Court of Appeal for a motion to dismiss the appeal filed by Ward’s attorneys so that this statute of limitations argument would be dismissed expeditiously on the face of it.
However, three judges of the Court of Appeal ruled differently.
Rather, they felt that a factual debate should be held. “We believe the appeal should go ahead,” the three judges decided in an unspecified verdict.
Me Harvey concedes it’s a “small victory” but recalls that if the judges had granted that request, the whole case would have ended. “It could have ended there,” explains the lawyer.
“The appeal is to be continued in the matter,” explains the lawyer.
Therefore, a second round must take place in the coming weeks to hear the arguments of the two parties on the question of the statute of limitations.
Meanwhile, Jérémy Gabriel’s $288,000 lawsuit in the Supreme Court is on hold until this full debate is heard.
Remember that this saga goes back more than 10 years when the comedian made a joke about “little Jérémy”, a child singer with Treacher Collins Syndrome.