‘For crimes that are beyond words, there will be no words from us’
Solemn remembrance of murder victims linked to Toronto’s Gay Village
Karen Fraser remembers the exact moment police told her she had to vacate her home on a calm Leaside crescent. It fixed her house as ground zero in an expansive police investigation and the focal point of a horrifying international story.
On the morning of Jan. 18, 2018, police arrested Bruce McArthur, the man who landscaped the yard of her home on Mallory Cres . and is now charged with killing eight men with ties to Toronto’s Gay Village.
At the same time, police launched a massive investigation that saw officers fan out across the GTA and sent Fraser and her partner Ron Smith from their home for 22 days.
It was just the first of the difficult days — for the victims’ families, for the LGBTQ community, for Fraser and Smith, for investigators, for the city.
In the coming weeks, police would find human remains on the property Fraser and Smith owned, and yet more remains during a summertime excavation.
As questions arose about past investigations into the disappearance of the missing men — and whether a killer could have been stopped sooner — an external review was launched to probe how police handle miss-
HARAN VIJAYANATHAN,
ing persons investigations.
But it all began that day. And as the anniversary of the arrival of the police approached, Fraser and Smith decided they needed to do something to acknowledge it.
“On the day when everyone’s thinking: ‘It’s been a year?’ — and then they wouldn’t quite know what to do with their reaction — we thought we need something to mark the day,” Fraser said in an interview this week.
And so, at 10:25 a.m. Friday, which is the same time Fraser was ordered out of her home and when McArthur was arrested, a lone bag piper will play a lament for the victims on her driveway.
It will be a simple, wordless acknowledgment that a year has passed — “for crimes that are beyond words, there will be no words from us,” Fraser said.
McArthur, 67, is charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of men spanning from 2010-2017. He appeared briefly in court Wednesday, as pre-trial discussions continue between his lawyers, Crown prosecutors and Ontario Superior Court judge John McMahon.
His trial is scheduled for January 2020.
McArthur’s return to court in the week of the anniversary prompted the organization of a healing circle for anyone affected by the case to offer a space to for them to share their feelings and experiences.
Haran Vijayanathan, executive director at the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention (ASAAP), said the timing was not so much to mark the anniversary of McArthur’s arrest as it was to acknowledge the feelings of those affected by the case.
“When you start thinking about what happened a year ago and when you have him appearing in the same month in court, and that becomes news, it triggers people,” Vijayanathan said.
Held Wednesday evening, the event brought out a small, diverse group of people, including some who knew the victims, or McArthur, and also police officers.
“It was a really nice balance,” Vijayanathan said. “We wanted to encourage people to actively seek support and that they don’t have to sit alone with their thoughts,” he said.
McArthur is scheduled to be back in court Jan. 29.
“We wanted to encourage people to actively seek support and that they don’t have to sit alone with their thoughts.” EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALLIANCE FOR SOUTH ASIAN AIDS PREVENTION