Graph Legend
10 Events
5 Places
8 People
2 Orgs
9 Titles
August 9 Toronto At a press […]
When
1977-08-09
Description
August 9 Toronto At a press conference held at the CHAT centre, Tom Warner, coordinator of CGRO, charged that some press accounts of the recent murder of Emanuel Jaques had transferred guilt onto the entire gay community by using such terms as "homosexual orgy." Warner asked that civic leaders, particularly Mayor David Crombie, issue public statements to dispel these false accusations. He also asked that any attempt to "clean up" the Yonge Street body-parlour strip not include a drive against gay people. (Shortly after the Jaques murder, Ontario Attorney-General Roy McMurtry had called for the re-introduction of vagrancy laws as a way to eliminate male street prostitution in Toronto.) At the same conference, George Hislop, the president of CHAT, charged that the press had neglected to report accurately his role in bringing about the arrest of Saul David Betesh, one of the accused men. Hislop was the target of several death threats after the Jaques murder; death or bomb threats were also telephoned to the CHAT Centre, the Body Politic, to GATE, the 519 Church Street Community Centre, and to Glad Day Bookshop. In the weeks following the Emanuel Jaques murder, some journalists such as Peter Worthington and Claire Hoy, both of the Toronto Sun, would claim that gay activists were to blame for Jaques's murder.
