the Murder of Joe Rose (1989 Montreal, Qc)
/a video version is available on Youtube
On the night of March 19, 1989, Joe Rose and his friend Sylvain Dutil were returning home to their Montréal east-end AIDS Hospice after a night out at a gay bar. Joe Rose had been experiencing disabling AIDS symptoms but had decided it would be nice to go out and enjoy the evening. Tragically, that evening would end horrifically for Rose and become one of the most shocking hate crimes in Canadian history.
Joe Rose Jr. was born in North Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. As a young child Rose moved with his family to Montréal, Quebec. At the age of 16 years old, he had come out openly as gay. In 1985, Rose founded Etcetera a queer association and club at Dawson College, a large anglophone CEGEP right in the heart downtown of Montréal. Rose was studying Nursing at the college.
Rose also had hopes of forming a Montréal chapter of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), an international grassroots activist group fighting to improve conditions of people living with AIDS. The group organized through direct actions and demonstrations to help improve medical treatment and research and government policies and legislations. Rose was dedicated to Queer activism and later studied Journalism at Concordia University, writing for the University newspaper The Link. Friends described Rose as brave and brazen, with flamboyant pink hair he was out and proud of being gay. He was also open about his HIV positive status, fighting for the de-stigmatization of people living with HIV/AIDS. Friends claimed that Rose believed that people needed to be open about who they were, as he hoped that it would help change things in the world. Rose’s brother Geoffrey, whom he was close to, being only a few years in age apart; spoke of him as a loving person and proud of who he was stating “he didn’t have a hateful bone in his body”.
The night of March 19, Rose and Sylvain Dutil embarked on the No. 358 eastbound night bus from Atwater metro after their night out. Rose had invited Geoffrey to come out with them that night, but his brother was playing a show at another venue that evening. While riding the bus home, a group of teenagers began taunting the two young men calling them homophobic slurs. Three minors ages 14 and 15, and 19-year-old Patrick Moise began attacking the two. Dutil escaped with minor injuries but Joe was kicked, struck in the head and stabbed. Dutil attempted to resuscitate Rose until the police arrived a few minutes later but Rose had succumbed to his injuries. He was only 23 years old. The public transportation system was later criticized because the bus driver did not hit the emergency button when the attack began, a measure that buses had for emergency situations like this.
It was especially dangerous for people from the queer community during this time period including in Montreal. The HIV/AIDS crisis had created a dangerous environment for queer people. Not just because of the risks of the virus itself, but because of the scape-goating used towards the community, unjustly blaming them for its existence. Homophobia and violence had become more common, and government neglect of the tragic situation allowed thousands of vulnerable people to get sick and die. There were many 2SLGBTQIA+ (two spirit lesbian gay bisexual trans queer intersex asexual etc ) hate crimes and unsolved murders at the time. Murders of queer people were often taken less seriously because of societal homophobia, which also unfortunately happens to other marginalized groups as well.
A year after the brutal crime the murderers were finally sentenced. The three minors were sentenced to a few months each in youth custody. Moise who was legally an adult at the time of the murder was sentenced to 7 years in prison. Rose’s parents sued the transportation company, the STCUM (Société de transport de la Communauté urbaine de Montréal) at the time, for failing to alert authorities during the event and were awarded 25,000$. This murder was one of several murders that took place on and around the cities public transportation system, which forced the STCUM to review their safety protocols.
With much pressure from Rose’s father, Maurice Rose, there was also a review of the Young Offenders Act, which was the standard at the time for minors on trial; which often led to light sentences, such as the ones given in this case. Maurice Rose believed that this act allowed young offenders too much opportunity to get away with violent crimes. The Young Offenders Act replaced the Juvenile Delinquents Act in 1984. The act intended to promote the ideas of rehabilitation rather than punishment. Instead of being incarcerated in prisons, youth are sent to treatment centres or therapeutic homes. For Rose Jr’ s father the punishment was not severe enough for the crime that ended his son’s life.
This merciless crime fueled an uproar of queer activism charged by anger surrounding the danger people of this orientation faced in their daily lives. The years of 1989- 1994 are considered crucial in the history of queer activism in Montréal. Three months later after the murder, the 2SLGBTQIA+ of Montréal stormed the stage of the AIDS conference, demanding space to speak of their concerns. ACTUP opened an office in Montréal and organized a “die-in” protest at the Complex Desjardins in Montréal on the year anniversary of Rose’s death.
Today 33 years later, Montréal is a city like others in Canada with many large active queer communities both within a cultural sense and that of social activism and organizing. While things have changed since the late eighties/ early nineties in some respects, history does not always progressively move forward. History seems to exist more like a pendulum alongside societal events and political changes. People from the 2SLGBTQIA+communities today still have to deal with the fear of violence. While being openly queer is much more common when you walk down the street in Montréal today. Queer people deal with many challenges in our society simply to exist.
Many queer people still deal with being disowned by their families, difficulty securing safe housing, not being given appropriate medical care, not getting the same work opportunities and the threat of violence. These days that is especially in the case with Transgender and gender non-conforming people, that violence is especially prevalent. Specifically, groups such as trans women of colour are disproportionality murdered at an alarming rate. With the rise of alt-right ideologies and neo-conservative movements, being able to exist safely as part of a marginalized group has become more difficult and scary. Perhaps we have a responsibility as a community to educate ourselves and others about acceptance and co-existence with others who may be different from us. It is important to share these stories so that we can learn and not continue the cycle of bigotry, indifference and violence towards others.
-Researched and written by Monica Victoria
Links:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/joe-rose-murder-30-years-1.5062744
https://montrealgazette.com/news/montreal/prejudice-to-pride-the-forgotten-murder-of-joe-rose
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Rose_(activist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ACT_UP
https://montrealgazette.com/news/montreal/prejudice-to-pride-the-forgotten-murder-of-joe-rose
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/joe-rose-frontenac-metro-1.5340281