A man with a long history of handing out homophobic literature across Canada over the last two decades has been charged in connection with the dissemination of hate literature during Pride Month in 2016.
Toronto police say that they received multiple complaints during Pride Month in 2016 about a man handing out hateful anti-gay literature.
The suspect was allegedly dressed as a green “gay zombie” and handed out pamphlets to unsuspecting passersby.
He was able to register to attend Pride by using an alias: The Gay Zombies Canada Cannabis Consumer’s Association.
Toronto police hate crime detectives investigated the incident and issued a Canada-wide warrant for a suspect identified as 51-year-old William “Bill” Whatcott of Leduc, Alberta.
CTV Calgary reports that Whatcott surrendered at a police station in Calgary on Friday, where he was greeted by a number of supporters.
He was returned to Toronto and charged with one count of willful promotion of hatred against an identifiable group.
He will appear in court at College Park on Monday to answer to the charge.
The owner of a Village bar, Christopher Hudspeth, and former Ontario deputy premier George Smitherman sued Whatcott, seeking $104 million in damages related to the flyer incident at Pride in 2016.
In 2013, Whatcott lost an appeal at the Supreme Court over a 2001 Saskatchewan Human Rights Tribunal ruling that fined him for going door to door in that province with flyers promoting hatred against homosexuals in public schools.
