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MONTREAL–A popular Quebec comedian, who turned the high-profile case of a missing girl into a punchline, claims he is being shunned by neighbours and has become the target of death threats.
Francophone comic Mike Ward has come under fire in Quebec for using 10-year-old Cédrika Provencher, who vanished almost a year ago, in one of his jokes.
In his June 27 stand-up routine during Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival, Ward cracked that the provincial tax collection department would take the children of those who owe money.
"Revenu Québec, they're mentally ill," he quipped during his act. "You owe them $8 and they'll kidnap your kids. They're the ones who have little Cédrika."
Ever since Le Journal de Montréal reported the story last week, he has been chastised by prominent media personalities for delivering a tasteless punchline.
Now he says his joke has turned into a personal nightmare.
"Since Friday, I have not been able to leave my place," Ward says in a video posted Monday on his website. "Everywhere I go people stare at me, they judge me."
Ward says two people have been hanging around outside his home for days and he claims to have received death threats.
In the profanity-laced video, Ward insists he never said anything mean about the girl.
Provencher disappeared July 31, 2007 from her neighbourhood in Trois-Rivières, Que.
Her family still holds hope of finding the freckle-faced, brown-eyed girl.
Provencher's grandfather said while there is nothing funny about Cédrika's disappearance, he doesn't think the comedian intended to be malicious.
"It's a bad joke for us," Henri Provencher said in a telephone interview. "It's not the right (time) to make this joke because the situation with Cédrika is not a joke."
He also condemned any threats against Ward.
"The population must be calm," he said.
The elder Provencher, who has seen Ward perform before, said the comic probably didn't realize the joke would be painful for family members.
"I don't think he had bad intentions," he said.
"But he should have paid attention and not used Cédrika's name. It wouldn't have taken away from the quality of his show and I think the punchline would have been good anyway."
