The serial killer who harassed and terrorized Toronto's gay neighborhood was sentenced to life in prison

For years, members of Toronto's gay community have warned that a serial killer is at liberty.that vulnerable men would disappear, that the streets were not safe. They were right.

On Friday, Bruce McArthur, landscaper and Santa Claus interpreter at a mall, He was sentenced to life without parole for 25 years for eight counts of first degree murder, put an end to a lawsuit that shook a city – and a country – that likes to see itself as inclusive and safe.

McArthur has been accused of killing and mutilating eight men between 2010 and 2017hiding seven corpses in planters and the eighth in a ravine. He pleaded guilty last month.

At a hearing that ended Tuesday, Canadians learned how he had seduced and murdered men he had met at Toronto's Gay Village. (Homobaduals in Toronto) then put the corpses in costumes, keeping the photographs of each victim in numbered files.

They learned that McArthur was arrested when police broke into his home, looking for a man tied to bed. According to the court, he was a ninth potential victim and McArthur had a pending record.

In a city that prides itself on being "gay-friendly" and welcoming new Canadians, McArthur was looking for men who were marginalized by their baduality, ethnicity, immigrant status, or poverty. The majority of the victims were refugees or immigrants. Many fought against addiction. Some did not disclose that they were homobaduals.

The details of the case are so brutal, the crimes so depraved, that headlines sometimes hide the fact that eight men – Skandaraj Navaratnam, Majeed Kayhan, Abdulbasir Faizi, Mahmudi Soroush, Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Dean Lisowick, Selim Esen and Andrew Kings – They were killed.

Now that the trial is over, defenders want to know why so many people have died before the police settle the case.. Homophobia and Racism Hindered Police Response – that the authorities could have acted more quickly if different men had disappeared.

Questioned by these allegations, Meaghan Gray, Toronto Police spokesman, said the authorities had opened two investigations, Project Houston and Project Prism, "do everything possible to locate the missing men".

"We will continue to do everything in our power to support the community and look for opportunities to improve our relationships"he said in an email.

Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the South Asia Alliance for AIDS Prevention (AID) and long-time advocate for the victims and their families, He commended the team of detectives who captured McArthur, but expressed his anger because it seemed like there was to be the death of a white man, Kinsman, to promote measures.

"It's a real awakening for Canada" said Vijayanathan.

Gay Village Toronto is just a few blocks from shops, restaurants and bars in the heart of the city. It was here that, in early 1980, public spa raids reinforced the movement for gay rights in Canada.

McArthur was a regular in the area. Kyle Rae, the city's first openly homobadual counselor, remembered seeing him nearby. "I remember seeing Bruce McArthur sitting outside Starbucks, he was a regular," he said.

The first victim to disappear is Navaratnam, a refugee who fled Sri Lanka and settled in Toronto. The last time was seen leaving a bar in September 2010.

In December of the same year, Faizi, a native of Afghanistan, disappeared. For 2012, Kayhan, also an immigrant from Afghanistan, left without a trace.

The disappearances of the three men opened an investigation called Proyecto Houston, for which agents questioned McArthur. With time, the effort is dissolved.

In 2016, McArthur was interviewed a second time after a man claimed that McArthur had attempted to strangle him. The investigators did not file a complaint. Sergeant Paul Gauthier, the officer who handled the case, is now facing charges of professional misconduct.

The case broke down in June 2017, when Kinsman, a white Canadian activist with close ties to the community, disappeared. In July, the Prism Project was launched to investigate his disappearance and another recent case.

Many members of the community said they were convinced of the leak of a serial killer, an idea that the police sent back until one month before McArthur's capture.

"We follow the evidence, and the evidence tells us that it is not the case at the moment" Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters in December 2017. "Today's tests tell us that there is no serial killer. "

Rae, a former city councilor, said the resistance to thinking that there was a serial killer was due to the need to believe that the city was a safe place.

"It's part of the culture of Toronto and Canada, we are" Toronto the good guy "- it can not happen here, but this kind of crime can happen here." he said.

In January 2018, police arrested McArthur on two counts of murder. After months sifting through the buried remains of a property he once worked on, the police charged him with eight counts of murder.

By the time he pleaded guilty, one of the detectives who helped gather evidence of McArthur's crimes said he hoped it would mean the end of the lawsuit for families. "People wanted answers," Detective David Dickinson told reporters. "I hope we gave you those answers."

The city, despite everything, is not finished with the questions. A recent editorial in the Toronto Star expressed the hope that an independent report submitted to the inquiries would make it possible to determine whether systemic bias could play a role in the management of disappearances.

"Why does not the police seem to be more interested in the issues of the LGBTQ community?" Ask the publication.

"Would the police have acted faster and better if the victims of McArthur had not been homobaduals or people of color, homeless or drug addicts?" it is read in the editorial.

"The answers to these questions are those that the community still needs to really close this case."