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We have questions not only about why these lives were lost,

but about the LGBTQ community's relationship

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of trust with the city in general.

How is it that they were able to go missing?

Because they were Middle Eastern or South Asian,

we kind of said, hmm, maybe they had their own

reasons for disappearing.

Are they linked? Is there something more to this?

Why are these brown men going missing?

I often ask myself why.

It's not just a matter of us sitting back and saying,

well, we hope the police figure everything out.

The evidence today tells us that there is not a serial killer

based on the evidence that's involved.

A lot of times what we see is that serial killers are able

to get away with killing repeatedly

because the people that they target are marginalized

in some way, shape or form.

They're much more likely to slip through the cracks.

Andrew Kinsman has been missing for 10 days now,

and tonight, Toronto police say they cannot rule out

or nor can they rule in the possibility

that his disappearance may be linked

to three unsolved mysteries,

three men who disappeared from the gay village

and have never been found.

It's known as The Village, and for decades,

this neighborhood has been the heart

of Toronto's LGBTQ community.

But after a series of unsolved deaths

and suspicious disappearances, it's now a crime scene.

I'll start from the beginning.

Back in September of 2010,

the first person went missing, a 40-year-old man

who was at a bar in the Church and Wellesley Street area.

He left with an unknown man,

but what the investigation 51 division did,

they looked at other similarities of other cases.

So they came up with two other missing men.

They frequented the Church

and Wellesley Street area as well.

Police announced their fears that the disappearances

of those three men were suspicious and connected.

They created a task force and dubbed it Project Houston,

but the men have never been found.

The obvious question with the disappearance

now of another middle-aged man from The Village,

could Andrew Kinsman's case be connected.

Dating back to 2010, 2012,

there was preconceptions that hindered investigations

into missing cases around gay men.

If a man goes missing, the assumption is,

well, he's left of his own accord

because men have agency and men make decisions

and they decide to go missing.

Whereas if it was a woman, it would be suspicious

and would be automatically considered something abnormal

because, you know, women don't just decide to go missing.

We noticed that people fit a certain profile.

They were men of color, largely new Canadians,

or at least what we perceived to be new Canadians.

The discussion was, are they linked?

Is there something more to this?

Why are these brown men going missing?

It there --- or are they connected in any way?

So there was a lot of questions, but very few answers.

They sat there and reviewed old missing persons cases

to find linkages, and they found linkages.

They -- they linked three cases that were incredibly similar,

both in terms of age, sexuality, ethnicity,

bars frequented.

In some cases and one particular case,

it was even personal connections.

They all had a connection to a guy named Bruce McArthur

that led them to interview Bruce McArthur.

I remember in 2013, I was out on the street

reporting on this issue and talking to people,

and police were doing the same.

From where I was standing, they were doing their job,

but now we hear that people were dismissed.

In some cases, I've heard that they were even mocked

because of their suspicions of a serial killer.

And it is really in keeping with a relationship

that the queer community has had with -- with the police.

I've been living in Toronto, the gay area in Toronto.

The gay are being near Church and Wellesley

for about 48 years now, and it's changed enormously.

I mean, it wasn't The Village back in the '70s

where the gay areas were over along Young Street

between Carlton and Wellesley.

The gay life in the '70s is very different than today.

It was a very secret world.

It was kind of a, well,

in some ways it was a gay fantasy land.

I mean, there were all these secret.

It part like being part of a cult, you know?

You wanted to meet men, there were clubs.

The police were very...

It wasn't a priority for them to go after homosexuals,

but when they did, they were quite nasty

because they -- they considered homosexuals criminals.

A friend of mine, George Hyslop, at the time,

tried to talk to the police in the

'70s, 60s about having liaison with the gay community.

And they said, "Liaison?

Why would we want liaison

with a criminal group, you know?

Homosexuals are criminals.

Why would we want liaison with criminals?"

That was the mindset

of a lot of people, for whatever reason,

still hold those negative beliefs

about certain marginalized people.

I worked homicide for eight and a half years, ran homicide,

and I can tell you there is no diminishment of investigation

due to type of lifestyle or individual.

Every single case was aggressively investigated

with as much passion and as much, uh, vigor

necessary to solve the case.

What led you to conclude that there might be a serial killer

behind the disappearance of these men?

So, one case by itself might not be a big red flag.

When you have three cases in the span of less

than two years of three guys who share so many similarities,

who are tied to one relatively small geographic area,

it's so incredibly unlikely that they would just disappear.

A lot of times what we see is that serial killers are able

to get away with killing repeatedly

because the people that they target are marginalized

in some way, shape or form.

They're much more likely to slip through the cracks.

They target certain populations that they know

are not going to elicit a lot of public attention,

whether from the news,

whether from community members or even the police.

There is no evidence at this point in time

which in any way establishes the disappearances

of Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman

are linked to the disappearance of the males

from the Project Houston investigation.

The evidence today tells us that there is not a serial killer

based on the evidence that's involved.

One more question.

I remember reading and hearing about men going missing

and police investigations with different names and so forth,

and you can't look in detail

at every single file that's going on in the city,

but you assume that the system is working as it should,

that everything is being investigated

that possibly can be, that that maximum effort is being made.

And it is only later, sometimes with the benefit of hindsight

admittedly, that you realize that, you know,

things were not as they should have been.

This morning, at approximately 10:25 A.M.,

police arrested 66-year-old

Bruce McArthur of the city of Toronto.

He is self-employed as a landscaper,

and he lives in the Thorncliffe Park area.

He has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder

in relation to Mr. Kinsman and Mr. Esen.

And we believe he is responsible for the deaths

of other men who have yet to be identified.

In other words, we believe there are other victims.

It'd be hard to define a more gruesome way

to dispose of someone after you've killed them.

It's one thing to kill them.

It's quite another to dismember them,

and it's quite another to really, quite callously,

put those remains into planters

on properties of different people around the city.

They say the investigation still centers on this home

here on Mallory Crescent,

as well as the Thorncliffe Park apartment.

But here they've been seizing planters

containing human remains.

And yesterday, police charged Bruce McArthur

with three more counts of first-degree murder.

And we believe there are more victims on top of those five,

and as we identify those victims, I --

I can't give you any idea about a number,

but I do expect more charges to be laid.

When I heard that Bruce McArthur would volunteer

as Santa Claus during the holidays,

you know, it immediately reminded me of John Wayne Gacy,

who was a clown at children's birthday parties.

And, you know, a lot of times serial killers will don a mask

that is so far removed from the secret and dark fantasy life

that they have because they get a thrill out of tricking people.

As you know, on January the 18th,

Bruce McArthur was arrested.

He has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder.

One of the focuses of the investigation

has been on human remains

found within planters from Mallory Crescent.

I can now add that the pathologists have identified

the remains of Selim Esen, Dean Lisowick

and Abdulbasir Faizi.

Detective Sergeant, having worked on

Project Houston and today for the first time

saying that all three of the people

who were being investigated are dead and allegedly murdered

by Bruce McArthur, do you do see the closure

of Houston is a problem?

I mean, is there something you regret and something perhaps

you might apologize to the gay community

for just letting it go?

I know it wasn't just you,

but it was just let go in April of 2014,

and nothing much was done form that period until August --

July of 17.

All I can say about Houston,

it was an exhaustive investigation,

and the occurrences were never closed in April of 2014.

It just merely got to a point where there was nothing,

nothing left that the investigators could do.

Hindsight is always 20/20.

You can always go back and look at things

that you did do or didn't do.

All I can say is that I was familiar with Houston.

I've looked back at those occurrences now,

and I'm quite -- quite content of the job

that was done by 51 division in those days.

- Detective Sergeant? - The cold cases...

James Dubro, you came here as an activist, right?

Yes, as an activist.

I'm an elder in the community now, almost 72.

So, how do you feel about the fact

that Faizi, from Project Houston has finally --

that -- that McArthur's been charged with his murder?

I think that since August, since July and August,

the police have done an incredible job

in investigating McArthur and identifying the victims

and identifying the remains, charging him with murder.

I mean, they've done an awful lot in eight months,

so we must never forget that.

As bad as it was for seven and a half years,

the last seven or eight months they made up for it.

I had a bookstore for several years,

and a lot of the bookstore

ended up with me.

Back in the '70s,

'71 to the late '80s, mid '80s, we had a gay publication,

a very serious gay publication called the Body Politic.

Okay, back in '79, a very good writer at the Body Politic,

and it says here he's likely to be a repressed homosexual.

This is the unsolved murders.

"The killer's likely to be repressed

homosexual rather than homophobic

and violent straight man.

The killers of these gay men may just -- may themselves

have a predisposition to homosexuality.

However, they've been trained to hate homosexuality.

In destroying someone they've gone home with,

that they kill that part of themselves.

They are filled with self-hatred."

Now, that is the psychiatrist

writing about these unsolved murders in the '70s,

and that applies to McArthur, too.

He is obviously a -- obviously homosexual

enjoying sex with men, but obviously trying

to kill that part of himself.

I was intrigued by all these murders

and watching it carefully, but again,

because they were Middle Eastern or South Asian,

like a lot of the police

and a lot of the mainstream gay men,

gay white men, we're privileged, of course,

we kind of said, hmm, maybe they had their own

reasons for disappearing.

In my experience as a brown gay man,

you know, in Toronto, is that you seek out people

who are not going to do you harm.

And they saw Bruce as that safety person,

And I think Bruce himself probably looked for people

who were vulnerable in some way, shape or form.

You know, he may have had questions

of what's your status in Canada

or does your family know that you're gay?

Those kinds of questions that happen online all the time.

Today, Mr. McArthur was brought back before the courts.

Bruce McArthur is now charged with and alleged

to have committed eight murders.

How is it that these people were able to be amongst us

in our lives, in these bars,

in these coffee shops, friends of ours,

all this, and were able to vanish without us,

you know, really doing enough?

and, you know, some degree you can never do enough.

But how is it that they were able to go missing

and we were not able to keep up that pressure long enough

to make sure something happened?

That is a self-reflection.

The other half of that has to be how is it the institutions

that are supposed to protect us

failed so utterly and completely?

If there had been a dedicated missing persons unit,

it may have connected those two missing persons cases in 2010.

"It is saddening and unacceptable

that it took the disappearance of Andrew Kinsman

to potentially link the cases of the missing

South Asian and Middle Eastern men.

We call on the Toronto police and city of Toronto

to commit to the following actions.

Given the circumstances, we must seriously consider

whether the inadequacy of the initial investigations

was because of racism and/or homophobia.

The Toronto Police Services Board

must commission an external review by a third party.

The findings of the external review

must be publicly released."

We put out that letter in January 28th,

and from that we had meetings with the Mayor,

and the Mayor was on board.

And we engage them in conversation.

I'm hoping that the Mayor and the

and the Toronto Police Services are open to that,

and --- and our indications have been that they are,

and especially if they've given us some voice

and they're hearing what we're saying.

But the key really will be going forward once we learn

what we did and figure out what we didn't do,

what we could have done, how we might have treated things

and people differently in order to make sure

that it never happens again.

It's my honor and pleasure to welcome forward

one of the stalwart advocates who has been speaking out

about what's been happening in our LGBTQ community

and the diversity of our community.

Haran Vijayanathan is also the grand marshal

for this year's Pride Parade.

So, Haran, come on up.

Some of us here knew the men intimately and some of us know

the men through the stories we hear

on the news and from others.

Some had identified as openly as gay,

and some we did not know their sexual orientation.

And we have to recognize that there's a lot of refugees

in this country and undocumented workers

who are fleeing persecution for who they are,

who come to this city and into this country together.

And we will get the system to recognize the injustices

throughout this entire thing and we will make that change happen.

Thank you again.

And even within the LGBTQ community,

when those posters went up and people

were talking about the men that went missing,

they were basically saying things like,

well, they might have been deported

or they went, probably, went back to their families

to live their lives and stuff like that.

And so this is an opportunity, again, unfortunately,

under these occasions that we can actually challenge

homophobia within our communities as well.

There are so many layers or onion skins

that we have to peel back of racism, homophobia.

And when I say racism, I mean not just within society,

but also within the LGBTQ communities, right?

Because that exists too, and it's sometimes not given

the attention that it deserves.

You know, could this be a situation where somebody

is actually targeting or hunting gay men of color

because they're not fully out?

That's a reality that gay asylum seekers

and LGBT people who are refugees in places like Canada.

That's the reality that they live.

And so that leads them to a very precarious situation

where they become targets or they could become targets

because of this this identity situation.

I don't think people have any idea

how the rest of the world, not in all places,

but in many places, still have laws

that are incredibly hostile to LGBTQ people

and that they face terrible consequences,

legal and social and other consequences,

and that Canada,

for many of them is a is a beacon of hope.

When I've heard about Bruce McArthur case,

it was shocking, but I have a different

perspective from the rest of, you know,

Canadian LGBT community.

I left Iran in 2005 and I came to Canada as a refugee in 2006.

So, you know, when we were talking about vulnerable cases,

a lot of people doesn't understand

or doesn't get how

or what which level are we talking about.

It is about life and death.

Something that all Middle Eastern LGBT share,

we share a lot of bad memories of rape, assault,

and things became normal for us.

That it's not rape for us anymore.

It's just rape.

It's not the rape.

Bruce McArthur story made me think more about,

you know, what we can do to help these LGBT refugees

because they're living in the deep fear back,

you know, in their countries, in the family,

and then they can escape their country of origin to Turkey

as a bridge to come to a safe country like Canada.

And I think it is our responsibility

or my responsibility

to make them prepare about, you know,

and make them ready to start their new life

and a better life here.

Today, I'm going to meet a lot of Iranian

and Afghan LGBT refugees, and we cannot show their faces

because they have an understandable fear

of being outed to their family.

A lot of them are not out to their family.

That they were, you know, they told their parents

that they are going to go to school,

they're going to to get a visa.

Some of them, they don't even know that they are in Turkey,

so they told their parents that they are

in Germany or other countries.

And still, some of the former refugees who came to Canada

are not out with their family because they cannot tell them.

So, let's speak English.

How many days you will go to Canada? In three days?

In three days, you know?

So your English is good, so you told me that

you have a stressed about your English.

Yeah. You know, because during my living in Turkey,

I never, ever speak English to anybody.

But for someone who believes in Iran and in Turkey,

speaking English like you, it's -- it's like

level four or five.

So it's great.

So, you're going to Canada after how many days or month?

After four years and one month.

Did you already come...?Yeah, yeah.

About the second minute.

Two million, 149,920 minutes living in Turkey.

Yeah.

Four years - is much shorter. - Yeah.

I have lots of stories, you know.

It's exactly like when I come from,

came from Iran to Turkey.

I have lots of stories

because I don't know what's happening in the future.

You know, Arsham, this is my diary book...

Scrap book....during my four years

living in Turkey.

Your bus ticket,

You have my picture as well.

"Life is full of moments.

Live every moment."

A lot of Canadians or American thinks,

"Oh, they are in Turkey, they're safe."

No. But it's not safe.

- Yeah. - And anything might happen

in Canada as well.

Have you heard about the gay serial killers?

Yeah, in Canada, - in Toronto? - Yeah, in Toronto.

Sometimes people even, you know, they can come to Canada

in order to have a peaceful and perfect life.

Those guys who were killed by that, you know, individual,

they didn't know that they're coming to Canada

- and they are being killed. - Yeah.

It's much better than Turkey. It's much better than Iran.

Life has its own challenges, but, you know,

you have an opportunity to -- to build your life.

For 30 years, I live in Iran, and I have to every day,

I say, lie to everybody from my parents,

my close friends, my colleagues, every -- everyone, you know?

Do you have to lie in order to survive?

Every -- every morning you have to put up

a kind of mask your -- your face.

Overstated. Yeah, yeah.

But taking off the mask is another challenge.

I know that it is scary.

Very, very difficult.

Last year, one of our refugees, you know, came to Vancouver

after 13 months of waiting time ingenuously.

And six months later, he jumped from a bridge in Vancouver.

And I don't know why.

I often ask myself why.

Imagine that you have to live in a country or in a city

that you don't know the language, their culture

for 49 months.

It makes you insane. It makes you psycho.

And I told you that when I'm coming to Turkey, I can't sleep.

Because I don't want, if something happens,

I don't want to blame myself that if you didn't escape,

if you spent one hour to talk to that person,

you can change their life.

After he committed suicide, someone sent me a message

that where have you been when he needed you?

Like, I was here when you. Where were you?

I cannot take it, you know?

I cannot take care of everyone.

I need more people to take care of them.

Bruce McArthur currently stands charged

before the courts for eight counts

of first-degree murder.

Remains of seven of the eight victims

were previously located at the rear of

53 Mallory Crescent behind me.

Yesterday, the Toronto Police Service commenced

excavation of the ravine.

We are prioritizing areas which give us the strongest

indications by canine units.

Yesterday afternoon, human remains were located

at one of the first digging sites.

These remains have been brought to Ontario Forensic

Pathology Services for further examination.

The excavation continues, and we anticipate being here

for, well, at least until next week.

Hi, you have reached the office of the chief coroner

of the Toronto region.

We're sorry that we missed your call.

Oh, hello.

This is Haran Vijayanathan,

the executive director of the Alliance

for South Asian AIDS Prevention.

We had registered the organization

to reclaim the remains of the individuals

from the Bruce McArthur case.

For anyone who is not claimed, we would certainly claim them.

But we also have...

My hope and the agency's hope is that a systems change

comes out of this, that we actually truly use this

as a -- as an example of we are not immune

to all of the world's problems.

It can happen right here in this country as well

and in this very city, and systems need to change

to accommodate and account for that

And how do we hold people accountable,

how we all hold systems accountable.

How you are, James? - How's it going.

You're well? What?

You're well? Oh, yeah.

Well, well, you know, for 72.

Just getting up in the morning is good, right?

How's everything going with that committee?

We wanted to make sure that all

the missing persons aspects get recognized.

Right. That's -- that's the important thing of all this.

The key question then is,

if you want to avoid Bruce,

why did they stop the investigation in April of 14

and not do anything until August?

That's -- and that's - what we're getting at. - That's important

We wanted to make sure Houston was in there.

Yeah. And...

I've been saying that for about a year, you know>

And I should have been saying it earlier.

This is an important event that happens each year

in the life of our wonderful city,

but this year it carries a special poignancy

as we have all just stood here together to acknowledge

and remember of the missing and lost individuals

within the Church, Wellesley community.

We have questions not only about why these lives were lost,

but about the LGBTQ community's relationship

of trust with the city in general.

But we can bring about change.

In fact, people who came before me and before us

that are here today fought hard for that change.

And we and those of us here today and others who can't be

will continue to do that together.

I still believe that our systems that govern

and protect us are still flawed,

and it takes a system change for there ever to be justice.

This was very apparent when the news of eight men

whose lives were taken by one of our own right in our community.

The murdered men, Skandaraj Navaratnam,

Abdulbasir Faizi, Majeed Kayhan,

Soroush Mahmudi, Dean Lisowick, Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam,

Selim Esen and Andrew Kinsman.

- I was really, really good. - Thank you. Thank you so much.

I just want to congratulate you.

Thank you. Thank you.

I just want to say thank you so much

for everything that you've done with us,

supporting the mission persons unit.

I'm looking forward to seeing you

at the head of the parade on Sunday.

- Good luck on Sunday. - Thank you so much.

We're going to be behind you.

Oh, amazing. Good.

I went from a nobody and nobody knew me

except for the people that worked with me and --

and the community and my family, and all of a sudden now,

I'm being recognized all over the place

and being asked to speak at different things

and going from, you know, the back of the parade

in a corner somewhere to watch the parade

to now leading the parade.

You never think a little boy, a little brown boy from Winnipeg

would -- would do this,

and a brown gay boy from Winnipeg would do this.

- Right here. - Thank you so much for coming.

It's a little insane. We're trying to set up our float.

As you can see, it's not the greatest looking

thing in the world to be at the front of the parade,

but it is what it is.

And going from the back

of the parade in the corner somewhere,

to now at the front of the parade, openly proud

and -- and having my mom and my sister come along,

I think that's really -- really an achievement.

So, this is my mom, Raj,

and this is my youngest sister, Shigani.

You know, having both of them here,

they were my strongest supports

when I first came out.

And my sisters, I think, already knew.

They were just waiting for me to confirm.

I think my mom knew as well, so when I came out,

I wrote the letters and stuff and left it in the mailbox,

and -- and they've been very supportive.

So it's really nice to have them here

on my 40th year of being in this world

and then being the grand marshal of the parade

and then having my family with me,

who are my greatest supports.

Our parents never talk or anything like this about it,

and we don't go out -- we don't know anything.

It's -- and he put the letter in the mailbox.

I don't know what this means.

What did the letter say?

That he's a gay.

I was shocked inside, but I don't want

to say anything.

He's my only son. That's all I thought.

I think if it happened in Sri Lanka

or even with my dad around, he probably would be dead.

Him?

Like, my dad would have definitely

done something to him.

If not, people would have --

I feel people would have found a way to get at him

and get him, like, kill him, because for some reason

they feel like it's -- it's a sin or it's wrong.

I'm not sure why.

- Happy Pride! - Happy Pride!

This is our first Pride together.

Alright. This is our first Pride together.

Okay, so there you go. Okay.

Amazing. Thank you, guys.

When I look back in January,

the intention of the letter writing

was not for a spotlight to be on me or the agency.

The intention was for me to put to the board

to say that this agency who serves South Asia

and Middle Eastern communities to take a stance on this issue,

because if we don't do it, no one will.

My name is Sam Masemi.

I'm a political refugee from Iran.

We are here to support the LGBT rights all over the world,

including Islamic countries.

It's not a matter of attacking a religion.

It's a matter of radicalism

and how LGBT are treated in Islamic countries,

and nobody in the liberal left in the media

is talking about it, and these are our friends.

These are our relatives that are being killed and persecuted

in those countries, and nobody --

if you talk about it here, they say you're Islamophobic.

No, everybody in my family is a Muslim.

I can't be Islamophobic, but I know radicalism,

and nobody is taking a stance

as if it's not anybody's business.

Why?

How does that make you feel?

We're never, ever going to stop people from doing things,

but what we can do is put systems in place

and ensure that there's a safe way for community

to access those things, right?

And people don't have to wait eight years

to find their loved ones,

and we don't have to wait for a particular person

in a particular community

to go missing for them to be taken seriously.

I always said that, you know, I was born in Iran.

I didn't have any choice,

and when I went to Canada, it was my second birthday.

I was born again, but I had rights.

I knew who I am. I knew what I can do.

And indeed, it is a second birthday.

Happy birthday, and you're going to have

birthdays in the future as well.

And he said, I'm so happy that Peyman is leaving,

and it's very tough that -- You know, I'm 35.

It's very -- I've been starting from scratch many, many times.

I hope that I go somewhere that I don't need to start

from scratch one more time.

And he said that we all had family.

We didn't have choice to choose our family members,

but he had the privilege to choose the new family members.

For each of the people that there are in this room,

some of the pieces going to Canada.

And he hopes that one day all these pieces joined together

and become one.

- How you doing? - Hey, how are you?

- Good, how are you? - How are you?

- Good. - We finally get to meet in person. Haran.

Haran. Nice to meet you.

You, too.

Thank you again for connecting us with the families.

- How's that working? - It's actually working really good.

I'm in touch with a few of them...

Yeah. ...and the others are kind of in,

so we'll keep trying that until we get there.

Yeah. I had a good chance this week

with one of the family members.

It was very enlightening.

Good stuff.

As you know, on January 18, 2018,

Bruce McArthur was arrested.

He has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder.

Although the examination and identification

of remains continues,

we do not have any evidence to suggest

that Mr. McArthur is responsible

for anything more than the eight murders

to which he currently stands charged.

At this time, we have no evidence to suggest

that there are any further remains

to be located at any further locations.

The review of numerous cold cases

and outstanding missing persons cases continues.

Mr. Hank, take care.

How do you feel about today's announcement

that seems to be kind of closing the circle?

It's a sad state of affairs.

However, there's at least some closure,

and as we go in through the whole review process and stuff,

I think more answers will come out.

Why is it so important for you to be here

and almost lend a voice to the victims

who can no longer speak.

It's important for me to be here because we were outspoken

right from the get go in January,

and it's important for us to follow through on that process

and be present and continue

so that it doesn't feel like we started something

and we just dropped the ball.

We have to find ways to make sure

that community members and police

are always able to communicate,

that there's open lines of communication,

that there's mutual respect.

That's something that always kind of comes out

in the aftermath of a serial homicide case

that somewhere along the line,

the lines of communication between a vulnerable community

and the police have maybe not broken down totally,

but that there are ways

to improve those lines of communication.

I had a deep sense of sorrow for what these men

probably went through in their final hours.

To me, it's just the most disgusting manipulation

you could possibly imagine.

You know, like finding somebody who's out-ish

and then exploiting that, using the trust of a newcomer,

which is pure and genuine in many cases.

They just have come here hoping for a new life,

hoping for finally to have a chance

to be gay without persecution.

You know, like we just thought, that didn't happen here

because we were accepting.

And I guess, you know, we obviously have learned

some lessons from all of this, in terms of how

we deal with missing people, and those lessons

are in the process of being learned.

I think in a city as dynamic as this,

in a city as diverse as this, you can never stop and say,

you know, we've got this all licked, it's all done.

We've read all of our own press clippings,

and we've concluded this is the greatest city

in the world in which to live.

It is the greatest city in the world in which to live.

But if you stop and rest on your laurels in that regard,

you were going to leave

outstanding issues that do exist,

especially as it effects various marginalized groups of people.

We all look for reasons they might have disappeared,

vanished, because they all vanished without a trace.

You know, they left their cats, dogs, their car, their wives.

In some cases, they vanished without a trace.

And yet the police and even some of us in the gay community

who aren't marginalized, particularly,

maybe they arrange their own disappearance.

That was kind of a rationalization for a while.

At the end of all of this, I think the committee has had

and is having a reckoning with itself, right?

You know, how was it that these men were able to come here

and disappear without us really noticing

or raising the alarm or really freaking out,

for lack of a better word?

Because, you know, for all our finger pointing at police,

both from the media perspective, the community perspective,

you name it, there has to be, you know,

some fingers pointing back, right.

Because, you know, we can say you didn't

put these pieces together, you didn't connect the dots,

but at the same time, we didn't follow up.

We didn't keep on some of these cases.

It's not just a matter of us sitting back and saying,

well, we hope the police figure everything out.

You know, we recognize that's not always possible,

and police aren't perfect.

Systems aren't imperfect. Investigators aren't imperfect.

I think that's a disservice to say here are the two things,

three things, four things. It's a thousand things.

We never decided to be who we are.

It's was -- it wasn't a choice for us.

We didn't decide to be, you know,

a member of the LGBT community. This is who we are.

And right now we are here.

We didn't want to be here, but this is the reality.

We had to leave our country. We are here.

There's a lot of challenges, and my expectation

is that people see us and understand us

and give us a lot -- a little bit of an opportunity

and room to -- to be who we are.

We have to be optimistic.

There are a lot of times that we were in motion,

you know, about our sad part of our life,

but it doesn't mean that I have to give up.

That when they come to Canada, that hope doesn't break.

That, oh, if Canada is like another Iran.

It doesn't matter that you're being killed by broods

or being executed by Iranian regime.

We need somewhere to go, because, you know,

yes, we have a home that our parents live.

But, you know, we need a place to call it home

and they feel safe.