Supreme Court of Canada will hear Quebec comedian Mike Ward's appeal

The SupremeCourt of Canada announced Thursday that it will hear comedian Mike Ward's appeal of a 2019ruling that hemust pay$35,000 to a disabled child singer that he mocked for years in his stand-up comedy shows.

In 2016,Quebec's Human Rights Tribunal ruled thatWard must pay Jrmy Gabriel damagesfor making jokes that violated his rights. Ward appealed the ruling, but last year, theQuebec's Court of Appealupheld the first decision.

Ward was ordered to pay $25,000 in moral damages and $10,000 in punitive damages to Gabriel. The tribunal also ordered Ward to pay damages to Gabriel's mother, but the Court of Appeal overturned that part of the decision.

Gabriel, who is now 23, became well-known in Quebec afterhe was flown to Rome to sing for Pope Benedict in 2006.

He hasTreacher Collins syndrome, a congenital disorder characterized by craniofacial deformities.

In Ward's performances between 2010 and 2013, he calledGabriel ugly and wonderedwhy he hadn't died five years after getting his wish to sing in front of the pope.

Gabriel, who has had more than 20 medical procedures to help him with his illness, told the QuebecHuman Rights Tribunal thatvideo circulating online of Ward's stand-up led him to attempt suicide.

"I was12 or 13 when I saw those videos," Gabriel said in 2015. "I didn't have maturity to be strong in the face of thisI lost confidence and hope.It made me think my life is worth less than another's because I'm disabled."

Gabriel and his family filed the complaint against Ward in 2012, when he was 15.

For his part, Ward has maintained that he didn't think the jokes he made about Gabriel crossed the line.

He defended his "edgy" style of comedy and his lawyers have argued that his words fall under Canada's freedom of expression rights.