Police in Vancouver have recommended assault charges against two men following a brawl that erupted in the city’s LGBTQ district Saturday night. The incident left popular Canadian wrestling commentator Justin Morissette with a broken leg.
Morissette, who identifies as straight, happened on the scene in Vancouver’s West End. There, he encountered a group of protesters with a loudspeaker chanting anti-gay chants. Reports have placed the group throughout the city on Saturday, in each instance, spouting homophobic religious rhetoric.
I stood up to anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End this evening, and they purposefully broke my leg for the trouble. I don’t know why I did this. It felt like the right thing to do and no one else would. I’m going to have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life.
— Justin Morissette ?? (@JustinMoris) August 23, 2020
Global News reports that Morissette approached the group and asked them to stop causing “a disturbance.” A physical confrontation ensued, which resulted in Morissette getting pushed to the ground, breaking his leg.
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“I stood up to anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End this evening,” Morisette tweeted following the incident, “and they purposefully broke my leg for the trouble. I don’t know why I did this. It felt like the right thing to do and no one else would. I’m going to have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life.”
I’m only tweeting about this because there have been too many instances of unchecked racism and during the pandemic, videos of people spewing hate while everyone just sits there and ignores it. Do not allow yourself to do that. That behavior is not welcome in our communities.
— Justin Morissette ?? (@JustinMoris) August 23, 2020
“I’m only tweeting about this because there have been too many instances of unchecked racism and during the pandemic videos of people spewing hate while everyone just sits there and ignores it,” he added in a subsequent tweet. “Do not allow yourself to do that.”
Morissette later required surgery for his injuries. He tweeted out a picture of his heavily-bandaged leg, telling concerned fans “I’m still standing.”
I’m still standing pic.twitter.com/Pe1AsbD7uO
— Justin Morissette ?? (@JustinMoris) August 24, 2020
When police arrived on the scene, they arrested two men including the preacher in question. Vancouver law enforcement is also currently exploring if the incident will also warrant hate crime charges. In the meantime, Morissette’s brother has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for Justin’s extensive surgeries and rehab costs.
dali
WARNING: We have free health care in Canada. So that GoFundMe page set up by his brother is wrong. The funds will not go to so-called ¨extensive sugeries and rehab costs¨, as these are paid by the Canadian taxpayers. Don’t give and stop giving.
jayceecook
To be fair Queerty is the one who is saying extensive surgeries and rehab costs not the GFM page. That states the money is to help “with medical bills, a loss of income, legal fees, rent and living costs. It will be some time before rehab is completed and he is able to return to work.”
As I do not live in Canada and do not have a enough knowledge of their healthcare system I need to ask, are all medical bills covered? Are there private hospitals that people can choose to use instead of the publicly funded ones? Is there any circumstances in which a citizen of Canada would receive any kind of medical bill for services rendered?
otttovan
Yeah, the medical care is free, but a whole bunch of stuff isn’t, including physiotherapy. Canadian healthcare does have it’s limitations, and quite a bit of this man’s recovery won’t be cheap.
BRElliot
Just as an update the people who broke Justin’s leg are counter-suing him so the $25,000 is probably too little considering the cost of lawyers. His medical bills and much of his recovery costs will be covered by Canada’s universal medical care but things like prescriptions and some of his physiotherapy won’t be covered. Also, as mentioned he can no longer work so he needs money to eat, pay rent, car insurance, etc. etc.
dali
But does this counter suing even exists in this country, as we have compensation for victims of violent crimes? and is it even admissibole according to our laws. I doubt it.
jayceecook
@dali If you don’t know your own country’s legal system and healthcare system then you should STFU and quit leaving “WARNING” comments until you do.
Thanks to some other people here and a little research I’ve better informed myself about the questions I asked, and failed to get an answer from, you previously.
Now I do know a bit about Canada’s legal system. Countersuing means to sue somebody in return. It’s referred to as a counterclaim. In Canada it’s sometimes called a Defendant’s Claim. All it means is a person or company being sued turns around and sues the person or persons suing them. I don’t know the specifics of this alleged counterclaim but I do know his attackers are saying he attacked them first when he took their microphone. Now I don’t know if that constitutes an attack in your country given it’s odd laws around assault and consent. Which is actually something that contributed to this man’s assault.
See the people who attacked him do this kind of stuff all over Canada. They have a YouTube page where they even document it. The one man who helped break his leg assaulted another man two weeks prior. But he wasn’t arrested because the police deemed it “a mutual fight”. If Canada didn’t have these odd consent laws around assault his attackers would have been arrested then and probably not been able to continue their anti-LGBTQ hate antics which led to them violently assaulting Morissette. It’s tragic AF that it took them commiting such a heinous act for the police to finally do something. In fact since June the police have had to intervene in an incident with these preachers but failed to recommend charges until now.
I’m not sure what your beef is with Morissette or the GFM page but you need to check yourself. Then get educated. Because you’d also know that since the goal was met he has asked people to donate to charities instead, provided links to where they can, and has said that any funds that don’t get used for his recovery, legal bills, etc will go to charity. Specifically Qmunity.
justgeo
Thanks insurance does not recover all of life! Hope he wins the counter suing and gets. their balls cut off and fed to them!
Osterfool
On a side note, he deserves a thank you for standing up in the first place and raising awareness. As a straight man he didn’t need to and now he is injured because of it. So I’m thankful to him and truly sorry about what he got in return. I hope his attackers are brought to justice.
yup5hioop
loving all the careful debate on this – I would like to think that the younger probably inebriated me would have helped him with these “religion of peace” types but glad he stepped up thanks glad most of the world is just into tiktok dancing instead of medieval ideologies.