Gay men have been going missing in Toronto’s gay village since 2010. Last month, an arrest was made by Toronto police and Bruce McArthur has since been charged with 5 counts of first-degree murder. Today, police announced that six bodies were discovered on his property.
In June, I went to Toronto for the Gay Pride Parade. I spent a lot of time in the Gay Village. The first afternoon I was there, a friend took me aside and told me to be careful because people were going missing from the Village.
“Okay,” I agreed. No questions, no surprise. I went to Pride. My friend and I had a great time. We went out. We stayed out. And we were careful.
I was in Toronto visiting friends over Christmas. On New Year’s Eve, my girlfriend at the time and I decided to head to the Village with some friends and hang out at a drag bar.
When we made plans, we were all keenly aware of the fact that there were rumors of a serial killer operating in Toronto’s gay village. We knew because we are queer, and we have queer friends, and we spend time in queer spaces.
In other words, we knew because we had to know.
It took me an afternoon of Googling to piece together how many people had gone missing in Toronto. The articles I did find generally came from the families of some of those who had gone missing, desperately searching for information, or from queer voices out of the Village, wondering why no one had bothered to take notice of a serial killer targeting a specific demographic of Toronto.
It was a rhetorical question. We all know why.
To make matters worse, a strong element of racial bias undergirds the entire investigation. The outcry from Toronto’s LGBTQ community details a sickening degree of racism and willful ignorance.
I should disclose that I live fulltime in Montreal. But my best friend lives in Toronto. I had a girlfriend there for several months. Two of my closest friends visit their parents in the city regularly. I made it my business to know when my friends were headed to the Village, and to make sure they checked in with me at the end of the night. There are some things that you don’t, as friends, always acknowledge openly. As a gang of queers in our early twenties, we tacitly agreed to keep an eye on another as best we could. Certainly no one else does. We knew that, too.
Toronto had a particularly intense cold snap at the end of December, and the city was offering free public transit for New Year’s Eve, so we gladly avoided walking when we could— we stayed warm, and, I thought, avoided ridiculous Uber fares.
“I wouldn’t want to take an Uber anyways,” one of the local girls remarked as I expressed fascination at the efficiency of Toronto’s streetcar system.
“Why not?” As someone who grew up in a small town with minimal public transit, and pitiful taxi service, I couldn’t imagine not taking advantage of [carpooling services].
“Well, they think the guy abducting people from the village has been posing as an Uber driver,” my friend told me nervously. “So I don’t really want to take an Uber to the Village and back. Just in case.”
By this point, 7 people had gone missing from the village since 2010. The latest victim had disappeared only a month prior, on November 25th, 2017.
On New Year’s Eve, I smoked a joint on Bloor and paraded my drunken self up and down the street with no problem. I did not see a single police car or officer.
Toronto’s police force has been under fire for months for abandoning previous investigative projects regarding the missing men. Despite outcry from the LGBTQ community, Toronto police declared last year that there was no evidence of a serial killer at work in the Village.
Between 1975 and 1978, 14 gay men went missing from the Village. Police suspected a serial killer at the time, but half the cases—in which 7 gay men were brutally and violently murdered—remain unsolved today. McArthur was in his mid-twenties at the time.
It took me a fair amount of research and time and reaching out to put together enough information to realize the scale of silence and avoidance on behalf of media across Canada and the Toronto police department. I don’t wonder why. Dead queers are not headline news. Especially if they aren’t White. Or they’re queer women. I suppose, in the end, a serial killer is only as interesting as his victims.
And so this is Toronto—Canada’s largest city, where the crosswalks are painted in rainbow colors. And this is homophobia. This is transphobia. This is racism. And this is Montreal. New York. Every small town, big city, or backwater village in North America. Rainbow flags in storefront windows do not mean a damn thing when we are being picked off and abandoned. We cannot be quiet. I will not be quiet and pretend like this is not happening merely because it is happening to people condemned to expendability by virtue of their sexuality, ethnicity, or gender.
I’m done hearing things about living in a “post-gay” moment. I’m sick of listening to people whine about tolerance and inclusivity and bathroom policies. “It’s 2018,” people sigh at me. “No one cares about this stuff anymore.”
I’m going to start telling people that they’re right. No one does care about this stuff anymore.
I’m just not sure they ever did.
(source)
–
I wish all the victims and all those affected by the atrocities in Toronto–friends, families, fellow queers, and LGBTQ folks alike—peace, wellness, and justice. Don’t sleep on this. We cannot be silent.
RIP.
- Skandaraj “Skanda” Navaratnam
- Abdulbasir “Basir” Faizi
- Majeed “Hamid” Kayhan
- Selim Esen
- Andrew Kinsman
- Alloura Wells
- Chase Kincaid
- Tess Richey
- Majeed Kayhan
- Soroush Mahmud
- Dean Lisowick
@allthecanadianpolitics do you know anything about this?
I’ve posted a LOT about this.
You can find all I’ve posted about this disturbing story under the following hashtags: #Bruce McArthur, #Toronto, #LGBTQ, #Serial Killer, and #Homophobia.
Tonight I posted a new disturbing development in this story:
Remains of 6 people found at property tied to alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur
Tag: racism
‘I Don’t Want To Die In Your Cell,’ Woman Told Police Shortly Before Dying In Jail
A recently released video shows Ralkina Jones discussing her multiple health issues with police.
Find out exactly what transpired here.
Do not leave disabled people out of your activism. This was a disabled POC. She needed her medication and was denied that. People with disibilities are more likely to suffer abuse by government agencies and those who are minorities are at a higher risk. Her name was Ralkina Jones and she was a disabled black women who is dead because of ableism and racism.
[warnings for this post and included source links: buckets and buckets of ableism, especially anti-autism ableism, including uncensored slurs, mentions of abuse and murder, classism, transmisogyny, misgendering, rape apologism, and mentions of other -isms and slavery. please also note that most of the source links contain photographs of the actor in question.]
you know what? I’m pleased that the the majority of Marvel fandom has, from what I’ve seen, taken a staunchly Do Not Want attitude towards the probable casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange
but I am really, really sick of the stock answer to “why don’t you want Cumberbatch to play Strange?” being given as simply “because he’s yet another white cishet dude (and Strange doesn’t need to be white)”
I mean please don’t get me wrong, I absolutely agree that the endless parade of white cishet dudes leading Marvel films is racist and boring as fuck and that casting a MoC as Strange instead would be wonderful; that is certainly one totally valid reason to be highly disappointed and frustrated with the (not-yet-officially-official-but-all-signs-point-to-highly-likely) casting of Cumberbatch, yes
but can we please, please, PLEASE – I am literally begging here – please acknowledge that the problem with Cumberbatch specifically, and the reason so many people are so upset about this rumour, isn’t only that he’s ‘another white cishet dude’
the more pressing issue is that he’s specifically a white cishet dude who has said and done some incredibly vile and disgustingly bigoted things and as a result he is a walking trigger to a sizeable amount of people
this is not just a case of, as I’ve seen people claim, “tumblr collectively deciding to turn on him just because he’s white and he’s said a few slightly problematic things and tumblr is fickle like that”
this is a man who prepared for the role of an iconic fictional monster – a literal nonhuman creature (albeit played in a supposedly sympathetic reimagining) – by watching autistic children like zoo animals (presumably without their consent) and deliberately copying their mannerisms and movement, and publicly described these children as “very upsetting” and “not fully evolved”
who, three years later, apparently has not learned at all from being called out (not nearly enough) on this vileness because he continues to reference this ‘research’ and describes a 17-year-old autistic person as “[having the] the mental age of a one and a half year old. Everything was just about bodily functions. Smell. Sexual arousal. Shitting. Whatever…”
who furthermore has, on multiple occasions, said that’s it’s ‘dangerous’ and ‘lazy’ to interpret any of his characters as autistic or otherwise neurodivergent (including Alan Turing, an actual human being posthumously widely regarded as autistic) because he’s met people with “those conditions” and it’s “a real struggle all the time” and he doesn’t want to “offer false hope for people going through the reality of it” (and also casually throws around the term ‘sociopath’ for good measure), despite the fact that the vast majority of people who headcanon characters as autistic are actual autistic people desperate for positive representation
a man who has literally said things about autistic people identical to things our abusers have said to us, identical to the things that allistic parents say to justify murdering their own children
(need I point out that a fairly large proportion of people in Marvel fandom are neurodivergent?)
a man who unabashedly proclaims that disability should be a punishment for supposed wrongdoing, that if people don’t live (his idea of) “morally decent, contributing lives” then “It makes me want to belt them, make them lame for a bit so they’re dependent on other people’s mercy…”
who said that the Edwardian British class system was “honourable” because “there was a duty of care from the top down”, and has repeatedly complained about “posh bashing” in modern Britain
who continually misgendered Chelsea Manning without even a single attempt to correct himself, and simultaneously defended rapist Julian Assange saying the sexual assault claims were “character assassination”
(and this is just the tip of the iceberg, I’m literally just picking out a few of the most clearly horrific quotes here; I haven’t even touched the countless examples of his more ‘casual’ ableism or his racism or misogyny or heterosexism or ace-erasure or fat-shaming or mansplaining or fandom-shaming… nor the fact that he apparently refused to change his surname to distance himself from his slave-trading ancestors even at his own mother’s request, merely because I can’t currently find a source for that, but I don’t doubt that it’s true)
and if you think that all that is just “a few slightly problematic things”, ignoring the countless people deeply hurt and triggered by his words and actions, then fuck you tbh
so yeah SIGH YET ANOTHER WHITE CISHET MAN, by all means complain (rightly!) about the continuing lack of diversity in the MCU, but look: I for one would accept pretty much any other boring-ass white cishet man in the role if I just never had to see and be triggered by Cumberbatch ever again, and I know there are many other people (particularly neurodivergent and disabled people) who feel the same
he’s not just ‘another white cishet dude’, the point is he’s a particularly vile one who has hurt and continues to hurt a lot of people
and can we just please, please, please stop ignoring that detail when people ask why Marvel-fandom-at-large doesn’t want him? please?
I don’t think that’s an unreasonable request
I LIED. ONE MORE POST ABOUT POOPLEDOOP COOTERSNOOT.
Fact about me: my son is on the spectrum and my youngest sister is deeply (non-verbal) autistic. Anything negative about autism is an automatic one strike and you’re out with me. There is no room for improvement, no second chances.
IDGAF about how “talented” a person is. That’s like saying an abuser buys flowers for elderly people after knocking his family around. SO?!
This is the face of AmeriKKKa.
She’s a professor at my school.
Dear DreamWorks Studios,
As moviegoers and fans of the original 1995 Ghost in the Shell film, we respectfully request that you cast an actress of Japanese descent for the lead role of Motoko Kusanagi rather than Scarlett Johansson.
The American film industry is already unfriendly to Asian actors without roles in major films being changed to exclude them. One recent survey found that in 2013, Asian characters made up only 4.4% of speaking roles in top-grossing Hollywood films.
Please use this opportunity to help talented Asian-American actors receive recognition for their work. There are so few opportunities for them to shine in Hollywood, and this film would be a perfect platform.
Sign the Petition
white people are racist by default (in the united states as well as other countries). are you white? congrats, you’re racist, and here’s the explanation:
you grew up in a racist society -> you were socialized to be racist thanks to racism being a dominant ideology -> you benefit from racism -> you’re racist no matter how much u think you’re not.
unlearning it is going to be a constant battle and u will never unlearn it fully. accept this. it is ingrained in you as a result of your upbringing and the media you’ve consumed. the sooner you come to terms with your own racism, the sooner u can better yourself. recognize the problem in yourself instead of setting yourself apart from those “other” white people.
I fux heavy with the White people who keep putting this post on my dash
American Indian mother of two dies in police custody after her repeated pleas for help ignored
WED JUL 29, 2015 AT 06:09 AM PDT by Shaun King
The ugly American secret has been exposed. All across the country, women and men are dying in police custody and have been by the thousands every year.
Four days before Sandra Bland was arrested in Waller County, Texas, a 24-year-old American Indian woman of the Lakota tribe, Sarah Lee Circle Bear of Clairmont, South Dakota, was arrested on a simple bond violation.
Witnesses stated that before being transferred to a holding cell, Circle Bear pleaded to jailers that she was in excruciating pain. Jail staff responded by dismissing her cries for help, telling her to “knock it off,” and “quit faking.” Inmates cried out for the jail staff to help Circle Bear, to which they eventually responded by picking her up off of the floor, dragging her out of the cell, and transferring her to a holding cell. Circle Bear was later found unresponsive in the holding cell.
This is completely despicable. It’s worse than that—the actions (or inaction) of the jail directly caused Sarah’s death. The American justice system is full of so many egregious human rights violations that it truly needs to be shut down and rebooted from scratch.
Sarah was a mother of two babies. The entire trajectory and quality of their lives will be forever changed by this. Ralkina Jones, another beloved mother of young children, died in police custody in Cleveland under very similar circumstances.
What we now know is that American Indians, relative to their size of the population, actually make up three of the five most likely demographics to be killed by police in America. In other words, while many of us think of the deep injustices faced by our indigenous sisters and brothers as historic, they are actually very present and current.
As we have done for Sandra Bland, we must now demand answers and evidence in the death of Sarah Lee Circle Bear.
American Indian mother of two dies in police custody after her repeated pleas for help ignored
BREAKING UPDATE
Teen who recorded the incident at a McKinney suburban community pool is speaking out about what happened. She said that it all started when two white women made racial slurs/comments to the black teens. When the women wouldn’t stop after several warnings, that’s when a fight ensued.
It just keeps getting worse….
I'd Much Rather Have a Dragon 