A iendly garner and mall Santa, McArthur may also have been the worst ever serial killer of gay men. Did police turn a bld eye?
Contents:
- ANTI-GAY BIAS HRED TORONTO POLICE AS A SERIAL KILLER ROAMED
- BCE MCARTHUR: GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE
- CRACKG THE TORONTO GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER CASE: HOW BCE MCARTHUR WAS FALLY CGHT
- ANTI-GAY BIAS LED TO 'SER FLAWS' TORONTO SERIAL KILLER VTIGATN
- SERIAL KILLER WHO STALKED AND TERRORIZED TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE SENTENCED TO LIFE
- UNEXPECTED VICTIM MAY HAVE REVEALED CANADA'S 'GAY VILLAGE' SERIAL KILLER
- LANDSPER PLEADS GUILTY MURRS THAT SHOOK TORONTO’S GAY COMMUNY
ANTI-GAY BIAS HRED TORONTO POLICE AS A SERIAL KILLER ROAMED
An quiry found that systemic discrimatn terfered wh efforts to tch a murrer who targeted gay men, mostly of Middle Eastern or South Asian scent. * gay killer canada *
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTAn quiry found that systemic discrimatn terfered wh efforts to tch a murrer who targeted gay men, mostly of Middle Eastern or South Asian Vcent Elkaim for The New York TimOTTAWA — A two-and-half-year vtigatn of the Toronto police has found that “systemic discrimatn” wh the force helped a serial killer who murred eight gay men, mostly of Middle Eastern or South Asian scent, eva tectn over a span of seven years.
”The report, missned by the board that overse the Toronto police, also strongly cricized Mark Snrs, who stepped down as the cy’s chief of police last year, for publicly dismissg ncerns that a serial killer was targetg Toronto’s gay muny, fdg that he rrod public nfince wh that the top of the 151 remendatns the four-volume report is a proposal that police turn over some missg persons vtigatns to public health and social servic agenci and nonprof muny report also propos that wh the police force, missg person s be ordated by civilians and be centralized rather than spread out through dividual preccts. McArthur will not be eligible for parole before he is source, Toronto Police/BBCImage ptn, Clockwise om upper left: Selim Esen, Andrew Ksman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Soroh MahmudiMost of his victims had ti to Toronto's Gay Village neighbourhood, as did McArthur were Selim Esen, Andrew Ksman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam and Soroh Mahmudi.
BCE MCARTHUR: GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE
For almost a , Bce McArthur ed Toronto's Gay Village as a huntg ground for victims. * gay killer canada *
A serial killer who dismembered his victims after meetg them wh the largt gay muny Canada has admted murrg eight McArthur, 67, plead guilty to eight unts of first-gree murr Toronto after beg arrted nnectn wh several disappearanc the so-lled Gay Village area. Most rints of the neighbourhood, which is ntled the downtown district of the cy, are gay and each year plays host to one of the largt pri ftivals the LGBTQ muny had long voiced ncerns about a potential serial killer by the time police set up a special task force to vtigate several spic disappearanc. The 49-year-old was a popular activist and former bartenr who vanished the day after the annual gay pri para, promptg wispread ncern for his long after, the remas of seven men were found large plant pots at the property where McArthur worked and an eighth victim was found a nearby rave.
Most of his victims were of Middle Eastern or South Asian scent, and one of them had hidn the fact that he was gay om his Mlim fay. Some argued that police were too slow to warn the muny of a possible serial killer, sayg liv uld have been make matters worse, Toronto police appeared to put some blame on the gay muny for the killgs when chief Mark Snrs told reporters that they might have ught McArthur sooner had rints of the gay village been more forthg.
CRACKG THE TORONTO GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER CASE: HOW BCE MCARTHUR WAS FALLY CGHT
The se of Bce McArthur has drawn parisons to that of Stephen Port, who poisoned and killed gay young men he met onle. * gay killer canada *
”Toronto police had already been banned 2017 om the Gay Pri para, followg lobbyg om Toronto’s chapter of Black Liv Matter. Their requt to participate 2018 was, April, a move that some have terpreted as an acknowledgment of their neglect of the gay muny, police announced that they were reopeng 25 ld s – all murrs associated wh Toronto’s gay date om 1997 all the way back to no one is suggtg is Santa to serial killerWhile vtigators are still velopg a profile of the alleged serial killer, they are certa of one thg.
ANTI-GAY BIAS LED TO 'SER FLAWS' TORONTO SERIAL KILLER VTIGATN
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His age, as well as his unthreateng appearance – round featur and a broad, cheery se – ma him seem approachable to children shoppg wh their parents, as well as to gay men seekg a dark sexual enunter wh someone they uld McArthur a photo posted on a social media acunt. Photograph: RtersAfter divorcg his wife, McArthur, who had been active on his church board Oshawa, east of Toronto, beme a regular the cy’s gay village. McArthur had been brought to the attentn of lol police 2002, when he was arrted for attackg a gay prostute wh a metal bar.
He was sentenced 2003 to two years probatn and told to stay away om the gay 2010, reports started to e through of men gog missg om the village.
SERIAL KILLER WHO STALKED AND TERRORIZED TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE SENTENCED TO LIFE
Bce McArthur "staged" and photographed his victims, most of whom had lks to Toronto's Gay Village. * gay killer canada *
The first, Skandaraj Navaratnam, rts particularly heavily on the md of Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian Aids Preventn (ASAAP) men are Sri Lankan, Ta and gay. Jt as gay men om North Bay and Moose Jaw flocked to Toronto the 1970s to live ee and open liv, a new generatn of gay men om south Asia and the Middle East have been drawn to Canada the last 20 years for the same reasons.
Gay men – particularly gay refuge or other relatively new Canadians – f to a populatn that clus prostut, aborigal women and then there is what Lee refers to as “missg whe woman syndrome”: the ia that police, media and the public are ls cled to pay attentn to crim that are perpetrated on margalized muni.
UNEXPECTED VICTIM MAY HAVE REVEALED CANADA'S 'GAY VILLAGE' SERIAL KILLER
A serial killer hidg bodi planters is horrifyg and mabre enough — but the early vtigatn to what beme the Bce McArthur se went off on a pletely different, and twisted, tangent. From 2010 to 2017, several men disappeared om Toronto’s predomantly gay neighborhood The Village. In 2018, the killer was unmasked: 66-year-old Bce McArthur, a genial landsper who ocsnally moonlighted as a mall Santa. McArthur eventually plead guilty to murrg eight men, mostly gay men of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern scent. He is Canada’s most prolific serial killer ever. The story is a chillg one, and as seen the Oxygen special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur,” the vtigatn to the strg of murrs actually first foced on the possibily of a nnibal killer. On Sept. 6, 2010, Skandaraj Navaratnam left a gay bar The Village wh an unknown man. He was never seen aga. A few months later, on Dec. 29, 2010, Abdulbasir Faizi told his wife he was headg out to meet a iend. Instead, he was last seen equentg a lol bathhoe The Village. Then, 2012, Majeed Kayhan was reported missg by his son. He had last been seen alive on Oct. 8, 2012. All the men vanished wh blocks of each other, acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” However, the missg men did not ially receive much attentn om thori. It was only when they were ntacted by Interpol (the Internatnal Crimal Police Organizatn) 2012 that they realized somethg was serly amiss. Interpol ntacted Toronto thori bee a source Swzerland had a nversatn wh a person on a nnibal fantasy webse lled Zambian Meat, where ers discsed torturg and eatg people, CTV News reported 2018. This er particular claimed he had killed and eaten a man Toronto. “When you’re first told that, ’s unbelievable, ’s like, ‘A nnibal, really?’” Det. Sgt. Hank Idsga wh the Toronto Police Service told “Catchg A Killer: Bce McArthur.” “Then, hold up, well, actually we do have a missg man om Toronto that fs the profile this person is talkg about.” Authori believed the victim the er was referrg to was Skandaraj Navaratnam, as the er allegedly referred to “Skanda” durg nversatns, CBC News reported 2019. They also realized they had a few other men who matched the scriptn — Majeed Kayhan and Abdulbasir Faizi — and after flyg to Swzerland to terview the source and termg the tip credible, they lnched an vtigatn to the three missg men, dubbed Project Hoton, after the famo phrase, “Hoton, we’ve got a problem,” acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” Invtigators were able to trace the er qutn — “Chefmate50” — and learn his real inty: Jam Alex Bnton, a married former hospal technician livg Peterborough, Ontar, CTV News reported. Those workg on Project Hoton lled him “Spect Zero.” For seven months, they surveilled Bnton as they vtigated his potential volvement. They also nsired a possible lk between him and another notor Canadian killer: Le Magnotta, a young man who rerd a vio of himself murrg and dismemberg llege stunt Jun L 2012, acrdg to CBC News. Magnotta mailed the victim’s hands and feet to schools and polil party headquarters, and he ate some of the body parts, the New York Daily News reported 2017. Magnotta, who also posted several onle vios where he tortured ts, was recently the foc of the doceri “Don’t F—k Wh Cats.” Magnotta was ctody durg the vtigatn, and the possible nnibal nnectn, as well as several other clu, drove thori to see if Bnton and Magnotta had any lks. While chattg wh other young men onle about nnibalism, Bnton often mentned a nnibal named “Nathan,” who worked as a dancer at a club lled Remgton’s, CBC News reported. Magnotta had also once worked as a dancer at that club and had lled himself “Nathan” text msag, acrdg to the outlet. Magnotta had even put up onle ads lookg for Middle Eastern men only a few months before Navaratnam, the first victim, vanished. Pl, when Magnotta was a teenager, he lived only a few blocks away om Bnton. All of the cinc alarmed vtigators, but the evince was clear: They nclud Bnton’s nnibalism fantasi were jt that — make believe. Neher Magnotta nor Bnton were ever nnected to the aths o Navaratnam, Faizi and Kayhan. Project Hoton was over. Bnton, however, was nvicted of child pornography charg 2014, CBC News reported. In the end, the man behd all the murrs was Bce McArthur. And while would take several more years for Toronto thori to tch him, Project Hoton did first surface McArthur’s name to vtigators, CBS News reported. A ername and email addrs, "silverfoxx51,” was found Navaratnam and Faizi’s puter data. After fdg a rrpondg number to the email addrs Navaratnam’s ntact list, tectiv were able to intify silverfoxx51 as McArthur. McArthur was terviewed as part of Project Hoton 2013 as a potential wns, acrdg to CBC News, but not as a spect. Six years later, McArthur was sentenced to life prison for murrg eight men. For more on this se, watch Oxygen’s special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur” here. * gay killer canada *
Vijayanathan, who is one of the most outspoken crics of how Toronto let s gay muny down, sists that police only took the vtigatns serly when Andrew Ksman, one of two whe victims, was reported he also pots to racism wh the gay muny – parg the massive lol search mounted after the reported disappearance of the other whe victim, Andrew Ksman, wh the slower and ls hive rponse to the disappearanc of the brown-skned victims.
LANDSPER PLEADS GUILTY MURRS THAT SHOOK TORONTO’S GAY COMMUNY
"Systemic bias" and "ser flaws" imped the Toronto police vtigatn of a serial killer who preyed on gay and bisexual men for seven years, an pennt review found. * gay killer canada *
Vijayanathan also believ the fai of some of the missg immigrant men failed to report their some s, he says, the disappearanc were the first time fay members learned their relative was gay (or MSM, men who have sex wh men but don’t intify as gay).
For example, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam was a Ta refugee who me to Canada 2016 and was never reported missg, and after Navaratnam’s refugee claim was nied he rarely left the nf of the gay village. “Throughout our history, people have e to the cy as a refuge and a place to explore their sexualy – often whout the knowledge of their fay and iends, ” says Tom Hooper, a York Universy historian who has voted much of his studi to the gay experience Toronto the Hooper also pots the fger at police. “For both gay men the 1970s and queer people of lour today, the police have been enforcers but not protectors.
”Homophobic atmosphereThe difficult relatnship between Toronto’s gay muny and police force cis wh reports of missg gay men gog back s.
As officials Canada tried to track down a serial killer who targeted gay men Toronto’s Village, they were thrown off by a post on a nnibalism fantasy fom. * gay killer canada *
Seven of those s rema btal stabbg ath of William Dunn Robson at his home November 1978 me shortly after the popular 1970s gay magaze the Body Polic to qutn the sluggish police rponse to the strg of murrs, and the official stance that they were unrelated: “Could they have been mted by one man? Crics dispute that theory by potg to a very different manner of executn and body disposal: the 1970s murrs were mostly stabbgs, and the victims were left where they were is disputable is that police never ught the killer, or killers – and ’s hardly a stretch to image that they didn’t feel much prsure to do so the homophobic atmosphere of the was a holiday tradn each Halloween durg the 1960s and 70s for Toronto rints to tnt gay men, pecially drag queens, as they entered bars on Yonge Street like the St Charl Tavern and the Parksi. They pelted eggs, which turned to rocks, which turned to beatgs on darkened si mostly looked the other way, rells the Rev Brent Hawk, a longtime lear of the cy’s gay rights movement who was once himself rtraed on a siwalk by two officers as a third punched him.
If you were married and lived the suburbs – and you were gay – you had to hook up on your lunch break. Photograph: Frank Lennon/Toronto Star/GettyThe nstant harassment by police reach the boilg pot 1981, when 200 police officers scend on four gay bathho. Like the Stonewall rts New York, the bathhoe raids igned a fury that led to the cy’s morn gay pri movement.
In a se that opened a rift between Toronto’s gay muny and s police, a landsper has plead guilty to eight murrs the cy’s gay district. * gay killer canada *
Photograph: Ian Willms/Getty ImagBut even as Toronto’s more tablished gay muny gas strength, new arrivals ntue to lead margal, vulnerable Hank Idsga, 50, the lead vtigator on the most high-profile of murr s, is keenly aware of media cricism that police did not take the missg persons reports or speculatn of a serial killer serly bee the men were gay and mostly brown-skned.
” He pots out that he was recently sld by a reporter for g the exprsn “gay liftyle”, and promis: “I will avoid the term om now on.