Brody's Notes... Prominent Canadian LGBTQ Rights Activist & Journalist Murdered In Nova Scotia

Raymond Taavel via Facebook

By Brody Levesque | HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, CANADA -- The former editor of the LGBTQ magazine Wayves and former co-chair of PrideWeek Halifax was found beaten to death outside a popular gay bar early Tuesday morning. Raymond Taavel, 49, was found unconscious and bleeding outside near the Menz & Mollyz bar in Halifax at about 2:30 this morning by a passerby who called 911.

A spokesperson for the RCMP-Halifax Regional Police major crimes task force, Constable Brian Palmeter, told LGBTQNation that according to witnesses, Taavel and another man were accosted by an individual just outside the bar in the 2100 block of Gottingen Street. One witness told police investigators that he saw a large man attack two smaller men, one of whom fled as the attacker slammed the other man's head into the street. Two other witnesses told police the attacker used homophobic slurs during the beating. Palmeter said the male victim, (Taavel) died at the scene as a result of his injuries.

A police K-9 unit was used to track the assailant to a nearby alley where he was hiding behind some trash cans. Andre Noel Denny, 32, is scheduled to appear in Halifax Provincial Court Wednesday on a charge of murder according to Palmeter.

Denny is a psychiatric patient from the nearby East Coast Forensic Hospital who failed to return to the facility after a one-hour leave. He is one of three patients who did not return to the hospital Monday. One of those patients is still at large.

Capital Health, the private organization that runs the hospital, told LGBTQNation that it has launched an internal review into the matter and will not make further comment pending the outcome of that inquiry.

The CBC reported that Denny was sent to the facility after being found not criminally responsible on a charge of assault causing bodily harm in Sydney.

In court documents, the man is described as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. He is also described as being grossly psychotic with a history of aggressive impulsivity and unpredictability.

Tributes to Taavel have been expressed by scores of Halifax citizens and fellow activists shocked by his murder. "I think I have the same sense of shock as everyone else who is connected to the community," says Kevin Kindred, of the Nova Scotia Rainbow Action Project. "Raymond was well known on a personal level by many of us, and well respected by many people in the community. "It’s hard to say what the impact will be," he adds. "I think people will exercise caution when they go out, at the same time the community tends to respond to these things viscerally and people will want to claim back their power and claim back their rights to feel safe on the streets."

"It’s incalculable, he was such a beautiful spirit," says Halifax activist Hugo Dann. "Anyone who got involved in gay rights in Halifax, knew Raymond. Raymond took his knocks, but he never stopped smiling and he never failed in kindness. That’s the loss that will stick with me because he was unfailingly kind.... I think people will want to go out, to be together. I don’t think our community ever hides."