October 22 Montréal More than fifty […]

When

1977-10-22

Description

October 22 Montréal More than fifty policemen, some wearing bulletproof vests and armed with machine guns, raided the Truxx and La Mystique bars (1424–26, rue Stanley), and arrested 146 men, charging them with being found-ins in a common bawdy house. The arrested men included two lawyers, fifteen teachers, and a school director. The owner of Truxx, Giuseppe Salvaggio, was charged with keeping a common bawdy house. Eight charges of gross indecency and two of possession of illegal drugs were also laid. All of the men charged were taken to police headquarters and held for fifteen hours without bail, and were subjected to compulsory VD testing. All but one of the men pleaded not guilty to the charges. Charges against most of the found-ins were dropped, but only after five years. On December 14, 1982, the charges against 120 men were dismissed after the Crown Attorney advised the judge that he would not be proceeding with the case as it would cost "too much money." This was the largest mass arrest in Canada since the War Measures Act was invoked during the FLQ crisis in October 1970. It came only one week after Montréal had hosted the First National Congress of Gay Men and Lesbians in Québec. Truxx reopened, was renovated, and attracted larger crowds than ever (including women), but the bar closed for good on March 19, 1978. Truxx, a twenty-one-minute film by Keith Lemmon Sutherland Communications Corporation, documented the raid and was shown in the official programme of the Toronto Festival of Festivals in 1978. (See also October 23, 1977; October 26, 1977; October 28, 1977; October 31, 1977; November 2, 1977; November 4, 1977; December 15, 1977; May 8, 1978; May 26–28, 1978; June 17, 1978; June 28–July 3, 1978; September 1978; October 19, 1978; ; November 13–December 8, 1978; November 17, 1978; August 21, 1979; and April 2, 1980.)

All Events

All Places

All People

All Organizations

All Monograph

All Citations