The murder of Aaron Webster in Stanley Park

On 17 November 2001, Aaron Webster dies in Vancouver. That night the forty-one-year-old is in Stanley Park, near the woodland paths that have been known for decades as a meeting place for gay men. A group of young men roams the park with baseball bats and a pool cue. By their own account, they are looking for "peepers". They find Webster.

They chase him to the car park, knock him down and keep beating him long after he is on the ground. A close friend who happens to be there too finds him shortly afterwards in the headlights of his car. He tries to revive him. In vain.

The next day shows what this murder sets in motion. Around a hundred people initially come to a spontaneously organised rally. When the march sets off, thousands are waiting on Davie Street, the heart of the queer West End. They march almost in silence. A police inspector calls the crime a hate crime in front of the crowd, even though the investigation has only just begun.

In court, things look different. The indictment does not even mention that Webster was gay. A youth court judge does expressly describe the crime as an attack on gay men. In the case of the group's adult ringleader, however, the prosecutor denies a hate motive, prompting loud protests from spectators in the courtroom. The verdict is manslaughter, six years in prison. There was a lack of evidence about the victim's sexual orientation, the judge notes.

Nevertheless, the case changes a great deal. For the first time, the police and the queer community seriously seek dialogue. Schools expand programmes against homophobia. And two and a half years after the crime, the Canadian parliament adds sexual orientation to the criminal law's protection against hate, with the support of the Vancouver police.

Aaron Webster is now regarded as the best-known victim of anti-gay violence in Canada. His last words to his attackers are said to have been: "That's enough, guys." For many in Vancouver, they became a motto.