‘Missing From The Village’ Is About So Much More Than A Serial Killer In Toronto’s Gay Village
Missing from the Village was an incredibly hard, but important read. Those who are from Toronto likely remember hearing about Bruce McArthur, a man who murdered eight men between 2010 and 2017. Yes, he was a serial killer, and he targeted Toronto’s queer community.
That's what this book is about, but it's “not a true crime book which spectates from afar,” as author Justin Ling puts it. Ling is a journalist who actively investigated and reported on the cases of these missing and murdered men for years. And while the book does cover the story of McArthur, the focus is on the victims and society’s failings to keep them safe (just as the full title suggests).
Parts of this book were hard to read, as you can imagine. But as a fellow Torontonian, I thought it was so necessary to understand the experience that Toronto’s LGBTQ2+ community went through. Ling does an incredible job at diving into the history of Toronto’s Gay Village and community to provide context and to demonstrate how police systems, homophobia and systemic racism all contributed to this tragedy.
One point that stuck with me was when Ling wrote, “To be prioritized as a missing person, you need social capital. And social capital is not an infinite resource. It is not equally available to everyone. This is a fundamental, structural failure of the way every single police department in the world handles violence against marginalized people.”
I admire Ling for the way he approached this story. He gave space for the victims’ friends and families to be heard, while acknowledging their grief. He also dedicated years of his life to conduct in-depth reporting on the cases of these men. As a former lifestyle journalist, I am in awe of him, especially considering how tough it must have been to cover these stories as someone who is also part of the LGBTQ2+ community.
💥𝐓𝐋;𝐃𝐑: This book covers such complex issues from homophobia to police failures, but it’s a must read so we can all learn how we can be better and prevent future tragedies from happening. 5/5
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