Forensic investiagtors remove evidence from home on Mallory Cres. on Thursday. (Bernard Weil / Toronto Star) | Order this photo
Toronto police have now recovered the remains of six people and identified one of them in an investigation into what they have described as the work of a serial killer.
Bruce McArthur, 66, has been charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the disappearances of Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Soroush Mahmudi and Dean Lisowick.
Speaking Thursday at a home on Mallory Cres., near Bayview and Moore Aves., where McArthur mowed the owner’s lawn in exchange for storing landscaping equipment in the garage, Det.-Sgt. Hank Idsinga said Kinsman’s remains are among those recovered.
Police had earlier said the remains of three people had been recovered. On Thursday, Idsinga said police have now found the remains of three more people, and that all the remains were discovered in planters at the Mallory Cres. home. He said police have seized 15 planters, but “exactly where we are on the examination of those planters, I’m not ready to say yet.”
Idsinga said he expects more charges to be laid against McArthur.
Police have been at the Mallory house since Jan. 18, when they arrived with a search warrant forcing Karen Fraser and Ron Smith to leave their home. The owners were briefly allowed back on Feb. 1 to collect personal items and clean their fridge of spoiled food.
Police are now in the process of excavating the backyard starting with thawing the ground which Idsinga says could take about another week. He said police have finished examining the inside of the home, including the garage, and that the owners can return as early as tonight.
Investigators have expanded their search to more than 30 properties tied to McArthur’s landscaping business.
Photo: Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
VICE News has learned that a year-old detention center for undocumented immigrants in Dallas, Texas never opened its unit for transgender people detained by ICE. Prairieland Detention Center had plans to feature a protected, 36-bed pod exclusively for transgender detainees to keep those individuals safe from violence and abuse.
ICE spokesman Carl Ruskok confirmed to VICE News that despite reports a year ago, the wing has never been used to house transgender detainees and there are no plans to do so in the future:
“Due to an increased demand for detention bed space and other foreseen factors, the Prairieland Detention Center currently does not operate a dedicated transgender housing unit.”
The decision to set aside a special unit for trans detainees at Prairieland came under the Obama administration, as ICE policy gradually started to reflect the concerns of LGBTQ and immigrants rights groups over the detention of transgender asylum seekers. In 2015, ICE released a memo with guidelines for appropriate placement and care of trans detainees.
The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority has changed its rules to allow people with HIV to become commercial airline pilots after BuzzFeed News revealed how a man from Glasgow had been denied the chance to take up a training position with EasyJet because of his HIV status.
Equality campaigners were celebrating the historic victory following the announcement of the rule change on Thursday morning by Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA. The move was confirmed in the House of Commons by transport secretary Chris Grayling.
Last month, BuzzFeed News told the story of a man, named as Anthony, who said he had been denied his childhood dream of becoming an airline pilot because of what he said was HIV discrimination by the aviation authorities.
Previously, the CAA had told Anthony that it was bound to follow the rules laid down by the European regulator, the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA), which meant that in order for people with HIV to become pilots they had to have a medical certificate with an addition called an “operational multi-crew limitation”.
But the only way to obtain that would be to already have a commercial flying licence – blocking anyone already with HIV from entering the profession, and meaning that piloting was the only profession outside the armed services that barred HIV-positive people.
But when BuzzFeed News contacted EASA, the regulator insisted the CAA was in fact able to deviate from those rules.
Following the story, the CAA came under intense pressure to change the policy. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, warned that it could be in breach of equality legislation, and Lilian Greenwood, chair of the Commons transport select committee, wrote to the transport secretary about Anthony’s case. He was also supported by HIV Scotland.
Anthony told BuzzFeed News on Thursday: “I am totally overwhelmed. I never expected this to happen so quickly. I’m grateful that it’s happened and very conscious of the fact that it’s not just me, it’s anyone with HIV that can now become a pilot. It’s monumental.
“It’s a huge change and i just hope that it triggers action not just in the UK but in the rest of Europe. Anyone who has felt restricted by the condition, who’s in my situation, can now follow their dreams.”
Philippe Huguen / AFP / Getty Images
He added: “It means that I can now focus on becoming a pilot. It was the last remaining barrier that has now been removed, so I’m going to start discussions as to how I can take up my place with EasyJet and start as soon as possible. This change means I can now realise my dreams.”
On Twitter, he thanked the campaigners who had backed his case.
Nathan Sparling, head of policy and campaigning for HIV Scotland, told BuzzFeed News: “This is a massive win for people living with HIV who want to become pilots. It is because Anthony came forward with his story that the CAA is now taking a more sensible and realistic approach.
“We welcome the move, and look forward to working with everyone concerned to ensure that people living with HIV who want to become pilots can pursue their dreams.”
In his statement announcing that people with HIV could now train as airline pilots, CAA chief executive Haines explained that the regulator has “made representations to EASA … and asked them to undertake the necessary rulemaking activity and associated research without delay, that we hope will lead to a permanent change to the current regulations”.
But in the meantime, he added, “the CAA will issue initial Class 1 Medical certificates with a restriction to multi-pilot operations to applicants wishing to become commercial pilots, subject to the applicants passing their Class 1 Medical assessment”.
Here is the CAA’s statement in full:
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is committed to being one of the most progressive aviation authorities in the world. We have often led aviation regulatory changes that have enabled pilots with medical conditions to keep flying, most recently in our ground-breaking work on insulin-treated diabetes. We have also been responsible for writing international guidelines on pilots living with HIV and have been promoting the need for changes to the current regulations regarding the restrictions applicable to pilots with certain medical conditions, including HIV.
In relation to HIV, we have made representations to EASA, which is the governing body responsible for medical standards, and asked them to undertake the necessary rulemaking activity and associated research without delay, that we hope will lead to a permanent change to the current regulations.
We recognise that this research will take time and we will continue to offer our full support to this work in any way we can. In the meantime, the CAA will issue initial Class 1 Medical certificates with a restriction to multi-pilot operations to applicants wishing to become commercial pilots, subject to the applicants passing their Class 1 Medical assessment.
On Monday Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe ruled that owner Cathy Miller can continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same sex couples.
“The State cannot succeed on the facts presented as a matter of law. The right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment outweighs the State’s interest in ensuring a freely accessible marketplace,” Lampe wrote in his ruling. “The right of freedom of thought guaranteed by the First Amendment includes the right to speak, and the right to refrain from speaking. Sometimes the most profound protest is silence.”
The case, which has received national attention, began in August when Miller – a conservative Christian – refused to make a wedding cake for Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio.
Miller said it went against her Christian beliefs to make a cake for a same sex couple.
The Rodriguez-Del Rioses made a complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that Miller had violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The Act prohibits public businesses from denying service to anyone on the basis of a number of characteristics including race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.
Lawyers for DFEH filed suit against Tastries and Miller, who was defended pro-bono by the Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund.
Miller, at a prayer rally before the court hearing on Friday, said God gave her the ability to make beautiful cakes and she is committed to using it in the way she believes God wants her to.
“If we’re not able to follow our conscience we’re no longer able to be who God created us to be,” Miller said. “I am incapable of doing something that would hurt my Lord and Savior.”
In court her attorney, Charles LiMandri, made the argument that Miller’s free speech rights and her right to free expression of religion trump the state’s arguments that she violated a law against discrimination.
“It’s a work of art as far as my client is concerned,” LiMandri said. “In my client’s mind this is a free exercise case.”
Lampe, in essence, ruled that Miller’s First Amendment rights trumped the state law she violated.
His argument, however was closely tied to Miller’s role as an artist in producing cakes which – he found – are protected artistic expression.
“A wedding cake is not just a cake in a Free Speech analysis. It is an artistic expression by the person making it that is to be used traditionally as a centerpiece in the celebration of a marriage,” Lampe wrote. “There could not be a greater form of expressive conduct. Here, Rodriguez—Del Rios plan to engage in speech. They
plan a celebration to declare the validity of their marital union and their enduring love for one another. The State asks this court to compel Miller against her will and religion to allow her artistic expression in celebration of marriage to be co-opted to promote the message desired by same-sex marital partners, and with which Miller disagrees.”
But Lampe wrote that his ruling was tied closely to the fact that Miller was being asked to create a cake for an event.
And he cautioned that religion does not give businesses a right to refuse service to groups protected by the Unruh Act in other circumstances.
“A retail tire shop may not refuse to sell a tire because the owner does not want to sell tires to same sex couples. There is nothing sacred or expressive about a tire. No artist, having placed their work for public sale, may refuse to sell for an unlawful discriminatory purpose. No baker may place their wares in a public display case, open their shop, and then refuse to sell because of race, religion, gender, or gender identification,” Lampe wrote.
His distinction, he said, is between the act of selling a product to a same-sex couple and creating a product for the same couple.
“The difference here is that the cake in question is not yet baked,” Lampe wrote. “The State is not petitioning the court to order defendants to sell a cake. The State asks this court to compel Miller to use her talents to design and create a cake she has not yet conceived with the knowledge that her work will be displayed in
celebration of a marital union her religion forbids. For this court to force such compliance would do violence to the essentials of Free Speech guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
LiMandri expressed his satisfaction with the outcome in a statement Monday evening.
“This is a significant victory for faith and freedom because the judge indicated in his ruling that the State cannot succeed in this case as a matter of law. No doubt the California officials will continue their persecution of Cathy, but it is clear that she has the Constitution on her side,” he wrote.
Miller said Tuesday she was surprised and overjoyed by the ruling.
“We were so joyful. We weren’t expecting it to be so soon. We started screaming and praising God because we felt we had been heard,” she said.
She said she respected the distinction Lampe made between the sales of a cake and the creation of one.
“I am very happy to serve everything from my cases to anybody,” she said. “But I cannot be a part of a celebration that goes against my lord and savior.”
Miller thanked her lawyers who she called, “amazing men of god.”
Patricia Ziegler-Lopez, the attorney for the Rodriquez-Del Rioses and the couple themselves were not immediately available for comment Tuesday morning.
#QTHEVOTE, a digital voter registration platform for the LGBTQ community and their allies, launched today as its flagship website went live at www.qthevote.com. #QTHEVOTE was founded by serial entrepreneur Trevor Burgess who was the first openly gay CEO of a publicly traded bank in the United States. #QTHEVOTE leverages cutting-edge voter registration tools from vote.org and aims to register as many LGBTQIA+ Americans as possible in advance of the November 2018 elections.
“We’ve seen it time and time again, one vote can make all the difference. Our community has a duty to the next generation to make sure we are heard at the ballot box,” said #QTHEVOTE founder Trevor Burgess.
In the 2016 national election, five states were decided by less than 1.5% of the vote. #QTHEVOTE estimates that there were more unregistered gay and lesbian Americans in each of those states than was the difference between winner and loser.
State
2016
Winner
Vote
Difference
Estimated LGBT
Unregistered Voters
Michigan
Trump
13,080
87,071
New Hampshire
Clinton
2,701
14,207
Wisconsin
Trump
27,257
45,321
Pennsylvania
Trump
68,236
106,030
Florida
Trump
114,455
202,709
“It’s simple math, analyzing data from Gallup and Project Vote, if every LGBT American had voted in 2016 we would not have our fundamental rights under attack today,” said #QTHEVOTE founder Trevor Burgess adding, “we can and should be the most powerful and passionate voters in America.”
#QTHEVOTE plans to target unregistered LGBTQIA+ Americans through social media, online advertising and through partnerships with direct outreach organizations.
Q The Vote, Inc. has made application for 501(c)(3) status and is accepting donations on its website www.qthevote.com. #QTHEVOTE is nonpartisan and does not support nor endorse any particular candidate for public office.
The Leadership Conference Education Fund released “Without Justice: Trump’s Across-the-Board Assault on Civil and Human Rights,” a report on the Trump administration’s first year and its attacks on our nation’s hard-fought civil and human rights achievements. The report is the 2018 edition of The Education Fund’s annual Civil Rights Monitor and comes the day after President Trump failed to mention the words ‘civil rights’ or ‘human rights’ in his first State of the Union address.
In 1982, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (now The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Education Fund’s sister organization) published a report, “Without Justice,” documenting the Justice Department’s attacks on civil rights during the first year of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. This year’s version of “Without Justice” recalls that dark moment in our nation’s history and reminds us that civil rights progress in the United States has never been linear.
This edition of the Civil Rights Monitor examines the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on voting rights, criminal justice and policing issues, education, LGBTQ rights, economic security and workers’ rights, immigrant rights and protections, media and telecommunications, and a fair and accurate 2020 Census. It also highlights the Republican-led Congress’ rubber-stamping of Trump’s judicial nominees, its use of the Congressional Review Act to repeal critical protections, and its misguided efforts to strip health care from millions and give large tax cuts to millionaires, billionaires, and wealthy corporations.
“Since taking office, President Trump and his administration have demonstrated a well-documented hostility to civil and human rights,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of The Education Fund. “Moreover, the Republican-led Congress has been unwilling to consider and pass desperately needed reforms on a host of issues, and has proven ineffective at advancing policies to promote and protect the civil and human rights of everyone in the United States. At the same time, the federal judiciary is being shaped in the president’s image, at a cost to fair and impartial courts. The civil and human rights community has fought back every step of the way, and we will continue to fight back to ensure that the United States lives up to its ideals.”
Click here to read this year’s Civil Rights Monitor.
The Leadership Conference also issued a timeline of the Trump administration’s rollbacks on civil and human rights. That list is available here.
The Trump-Pence administration has refused to sign a statement in support of an Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ ruling on marriage equality and transgender rights.
Earlier this month, the court issued an opinion that Costa Rica is in violation of its treaty obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) by not providing marriage equality or providing legal options for transgender people to change their gender marker on identity documents. While seven of the eight countries in the Organization of American States (OAS) LGBTI Core Group signed on to a statement supporting the court’s opinion, the United States did not.
“The Trump-Pence administration’s refusal to sign this statement in support of marriage equality and transgender rights is deeply troubling,” said Ty Cobb, director of HRC Global. “As the administration unleashes a torrent of attacks on the LGBTQ community here at home, it is also abandoning LGBTQ people around the world. We are in desperate need of leadership that will advance America’s commitment to LGBTQ human rights in the U.S. and abroad.”
The seven nations that signed the statement on January 22 are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Uruguay. While the United States has not ratified the ACHR, Canada also has not, but that did not prevent their leadership from signing the statement. It is also notable that Chile, which does not yet have marriage equality, and a number of countries that do not offer transgender individuals the option to legally change their official gender markers, signed the statement.
Coachella co-owner Philip Anschutz has once again come under scrutiny for bankrolling right-wing, anti-LGBTQ organizations at odds with the progressively minded music festival.
A new tax filing shows The Anschutz Foundation donated at least $325,000 between Dec. 2015 and Nov. 2016 to organizations with an explicit anti-LGBTQ mission, which was first reported by Pitchfork.
Anschutz, 78, owns Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and AEG Live, which is the second most-successful live-events promoter in the world. The company is responsible for a wide array of touring acts via AEG Presents including Elton John, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Billy Joel, Lorde and more.
AEG also owns Coachella organizer Goldenvoice, which also puts on Panorama, Firefly, FYF, Stagecoach and other music festivals.
Anschutz’s history of contributing to anti-LGBTQ organizations prompted criticism in January 2017, when tax filings confirmed an earlier report that Anschutz’s foundation gave $190,000 to anti-LGBTQ groups between 2010 and 2013.
News of Anschutz’s donations prompted activists to launch a #BoycottCoachella campaign last year on social media.
The billionaire businessman denied claims he was anti-LGBTQ as “fake news” and “garbage.”
“I unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation,” Anschutz said in a statement at the time.
He also immediately ceased contributions to certain groups upon learning of their anti-LGBTQ mission.
But The Anschutz Foundation’s latest annual filing reveals financial support for anti-LGBTQ organizations continued through at least Nov. 2016.
Lady Gaga, who has been very vocal about her support for LGBTQ rights, headlined Coachella in 2017.
(Christopher Polk/Getty Images for Coachella)
The Anschutz Foundation donated $40,000 on Nov. 15, 2016 to The Navigators, which listed being LGBTQ alongside incest and sexual abuse as behavior leading to “sexual brokenness” on its website in 2013.
The CEO of Dare 2 Share Ministries, which received $50,000 from the foundation on Aug. 23, 2016, wrote in a 2008 blog post that “homosexuality is a Satanic perversion of God’s gift of sex.”
Star Parker, the founder of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, said on “Fox & Friends” last year the rainbow pride flag and the Confederate flag “represent the exact same thing.”
The Anschutz Foundation donated $25,000 to Parker’s organization on Aug. 23, 2016.
The filing confirms the foundation ceased funding in 2016 for three organizations were the focus of the original controversy: Alliance Defending Freedom, Family Research Council and National Christian Foundation.
Beyond support for anti-LGBTQ causes, The Anschutz Foundation contributed to conservative and libertarian organizations the Koch-backed Americans Prosperity and The Federalist Society.
The foundation also supported Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which opposes cannabis legalization.
Coachella has banned marijuana from its grounds despite the fact the recreational use is now legal in California.
Neither Anschutz nor a representative for the Anschutz Foundation responded to the Daily News’ requests for comment.
Reached for comment, Anschutz’s lawyer told Pitchfork, “One year ago we stated publicly that we unequivocally support the rights of all people without regard to sexual orientation. We stand by those words and reaffirm the commitment we made at that time that The Anschutz Foundation would not knowingly fund any organization that would support anti-LGBTQ initiatives.”
There is no evidence The Anschutz Foundation continues to contribute to anti-LGBTQ groups, as the latest filing only covers contributions made up until Nov. 2016.
Anschutz’s lawyer said the foundation contributes to 800 charities annually, which makes it difficult to determine which groups espouse homophobic views.
For this latest tax filing, the foundation dispersed a total of $63.7 million in grants.
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival will take place in Indio, Calif., April 13-15 and April 20-22, and will feature headliners Beyoncé, Eminem and The Weeknd.
Civil and LGBT rights advocacy groups reacted with disappointment at Trump’s speech criticizing heavily contested topics which were at the forefront of Trump’s speech including immigration, tax reform, and religious freedom. Trump did not mention “LGBT” or commit to safeguarding the protections and civil rights of LGBT people in his speech.
“Managing to read a pre-written speech off a teleprompter does not make one Presidential or lend a single ounce of legitimacy to Trump’s anti-LGBTQ agenda,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD. “Trump has spent the past year targeting vulnerable communities and surrounding himself with anti-black, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-women, and anti-LGBTQ activists with the goal of exacerbating discrimination and erasing LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation.”
Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of MALDE, the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization said, “Amidst the torrent of undeserved self-congratulation, Donald Trump continued to sound disturbing themes of nativism last night. Repeatedly invoking words like ‘great’ and ‘beautiful’ as often as possible cannot change an ongoing pattern of demonizing – and terrifying through an unprecedented campaign of domestic rhetorical warfare – immigrants throughout this country.
“Suggesting that virtue – which is present throughout the nation, including among millions of undocumented immigrants – coincides with native-born citizenship, while strongly implying that MS-13 and violent criminal activity characterize all immigrants, Trump continued, in only slightly muted form, his verbal assault on immigrants of color in general and Latino immigrants in particular. In actual practice, this ugly pattern of scurrilous assertions continues to lead to regular deportations of peaceful immigrants unfairly labeled ‘criminal’, and his proposed immigration framework would lead to much, much more of the same.
“The fact the handlers can prepare a speech for Trump to read that is slightly more subtle in its nativism than the uncensored tweeter-in-chief’s usual blather cannot change policy fact. In the end, it’s just lipstick on a pig. The Kelly-Miller immigration framework would take us back a hundred years; it is a nativist plan with no place in 21st-century policymaking.”
Criticizing Trump on his statements about immigrants Jessica Stern, executive director of OutRight Action International said,
“OutRight is very proud to be the oldest international LGBTI rights organization in the United States. And we are very clear how we achieved 28 years of impact. Two-thirds of our staff in the US is an immigrant or child of immigrants. Our staff around the world are based in the Philippines, Singapore, Spain, the U.K., and St. Lucia. This rich combination of immigrants to the US and global talent gives OutRight the resources to be effective.
“And so, when we listened to last night’s State of the Union, we rejected the coded language and explicit attacks on immigrants or anyone not American. We heard a right-wing fantasy where manufacturing and automobiles rule, where military force makes Americans safer, and where the Constitution is frozen in time. This is Trump’s moral panic, and we reject his world view.
“As a leading American organization, we declare our love of immigrants and people who are not American. We love all workers not just veterans. We love healthcare. We love equal rights and non-discrimination, not coded “religious freedom.” We love modern interpretations of the US Constitution. We love the visa lottery. We love all families, not just the nuclear family. We call for the radical principle of love to be the new state of the union.”
A CNN/SSRS poll of Trump’s first State of the Union address showed that 48 percent of those surveyed had a “very positive” reaction to his speech last night.
Regarded as the first organization of its kind, Gay American Indians (GAI) was established in San Francisco in 1975 at the height of gay liberation. Founded by Barbara Cameron (1954-2002) and Randy Burns, GAI initially was a social club for queer American Indians who often felt unwelcome in the LGBTQ community due to prejudice and in American Indian organizations due to homophobia. The group went on to reclaim tribal traditions honoring two-spirit people who embraced mixed gender identities and roles.
The archives of the GLBT Historical Society hold a small number of collections of organizational records and personal papers documenting GAI and other two-spirit groups and individuals. Among the most significant:
The Randy Burns Papers, with a sampling of materials from 1968 through 2002 reflecting Burns’ activism as well the work of GAI and other LGBTQ American Indian organizations across North America. Topics include initiatives to uncover two-spirit history and to respond to the AIDS crisis in American Indian communities.
The Gay American Indian Records, consisting primarily of materials related to academic conferences in the 1990s where two-spirit activists asserted their own histories and identities in opposition to perspectives anthropologists had imposed on them.
In addition, our Periodicals Collection includes a handful of scarce newsletters and zines reflecting American Indian experience, culture and organizing: B.A.A.I.T-S: Newsletter of the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (2000); Buffalo Hide (1993); Seasons: The Native American AIDS Prevention Center Quarterly (1989-1991); and Two-Spirit News (1996).
To learn more about the GLBT Historical Society’s collections on American Indians, search our online archives catalog. We’re committed to further documenting the history and culture of two-spirit people in Northern California; if you have materials you might wish to donate, email our managing archivist, Joanna Black.
Gerard Koskovich is communications director at the GLBT Historical Society.