Hate Crime: The Murder of Aaron Webster

In the early morning hours of November 17, 2001, officers from the Vancouver Police were dispatched to the Second Beach area of Stanley Park. Several callers to 911 indicated that there had been some kind of altercation and a group of man had badly beaten another man.

Two VPD constables arrived at the Second Beach parking lot within minutes of being called to find a distraught man frantically providing CPR to a bloodied man on the ground. The man on the ground was naked except for socks and shoes. Police assessed the man’s condition and immediately called for an ambulance. The paramedics from the BC Ambulance Service arrived quickly, but determined that it was too late.

Aaron Zane Donald Webster, 42-year-old and a member of Vancouver’s gay community, was dead. He had been brutally beaten with a blunt instrument and his killers had skittered off into the night leaving Aaron to die. Aaron’s death would be come to be recognized as Canada’s most well-known and notorious cases of ‘gay bashing’.

Guest Host: Mathew Stockton (Steve the dog's dad)

Sources:R. v. J.S., 2003 BCPC 442 (CanLII), R. v. A.C., 2003 BCPC 508 (CanLII), R. v. Cran and Rao, 2004 BCSC 1635 (CanLII), R. v. Cran, 2005 BCSC 171 (CanLII), R. v. J.S., 2005 BCPC 556 (CanLII), R. v. Cran, 2006 BCCA 464 (CanLII), [Wright, N. (2011). Murder in the park : civic identity-making and space in Vancouver. University of British Columbia.][Aaron Webster | Xtra Magazine][The murder that changed us | Xtra Magazine][Ten Years After Aaron Webster’s Death, What’s Changed? | The Tyee][Stanley Park Rawlings Trail, Gay Vancouver Cruising Areas][Stanley Park | City of Vancouver][Search - Aaron Webster - 2001 - Newspapers.com][Aaron Webster - CHF BC][Aaron Webster Housing Co-operative – Original Site – Community Land Trust][QMUNITY — BC’s Queer, Trans, and Two-Spirit Resource Centre][Pflag Canada] Support the show: https://www.patreon.com/darkpoutine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices