With Tuesday’s guilty plea from Ontario man Bruce McArthur in the murder of eight men from the gay village area in Toronto, Greater Moncton’s River of Pride says the news may trigger some bad memories for some.
Project Coordinator Charles MacDougall says there’s definitely a sense of relief in some ways, now that a chapter of that gruesome story has been closed.
“How is the community in Toronto and even across Canada, is going to see what safety means for our community, and how we can be safe either with help from police, or help from community organizations,” says MacDougall.
He says this may particularly hit the younger generation of LGBTQ+ community, who have largely seen positive progress over the course of their lifetimes.
“There’s so much positive news that is coming out, and this really was a slap in the face to show us that some people can still be predatory, and still be violent towards people who are gay, or otherwise queer,” explains MacDougall.
He calls it a pyramid of violence, adding at the bottom there are homophobic jokes, or slurs, then moving up towards threats of violence.
“Sometimes you have actual violence, that still happens here in Moncton, whether it be physical or mental,” says MacDougall. “As long as we’re allowing the stuff at the bottom of the pyramid to continue, then we’re paving the way for violent people to commit a murder or series of murders.”
McArthur pleaded guilty to eight counts of first degree murder, and the minimum sentence he will get is life behind bars with no chance of parole for 25 years.
