Jingle hell

Pointe Claire’s besieged gay couple look back on a bad year

by MATTHEW HAYS

To say it’s been a bad year for gay couple Roger Thibault and Theo Wouters would be a rather serious understatement. The pair, who moved into their Pointe Claire house some 23 years ago, have lived there peacefully until this year when they suddenly found themselves the brunt of abusive behaviour from a neighbour.

Now, numerous court appearances and umpteen official complaints later, Thibault and Wouters concede they’re exhausted, physically and emotionally, by the ordeal.

Their story is a sad one, especially in a province like Quebec, which has had such a progressive track record on gay rights. Sadly, several of Wouters’ and Thibault’s neighbours aren’t quite as progressive as many other Quebeckers are. Wouters reports that early this year, after his immediate neighbour, Robert Walker, had found out that he had a gay couple living next door, the incidents began. The two chose to ignore the minor incidents, but they became more extreme. At one point Wouters was watering his flowers and Walker reportedly attempted to hit him with his car. “I really couldn’t believe it,” says Wouters. “We’ve lived here peacefully all this time. I realized then he could be very dangerous.”
Walker was charged with assault. Those charges have since accumulated, and Walker now faces five assault charges, something he will face later this week in a courtroom. Wouters and Thibault have also charged him with indecent exposure (charges that will have to be faced in municipal court) and, through the Quebec Human Rights Commission, are suing him for $50,000 for the trouble and suffering he’s caused them.

As the courts and commission hopefully sort themselves out, Wouters, 59, and Thibault, 56, say they can only wait for all the bureaucratic tape to unwind. In the meantime, they held a press conference two weeks ago to bring to light the abuse they were suffering at the hands of other Pointe Claire residents. On several occasions in the past few weeks their house and car were hit with several dozen eggs. Then came the last straw: their new car was left with dents and smashed windows after being stoned in the middle of the night. Wouters and Thibault now have a police car sitting outside their home every night, keeping a watchful eye on them (apparently a direct order from Public Security Minister Serge Ménard).
Wouters says he’s hoping things will move forward and the case can be resolved, so he and his long-time companion can go back to their normal routine. “This has more or less destroyed our way of living. We’re totally public in a way that we weren’t before. The cars slow down now. We’re a tourist attraction.”

The couple have also become a cause celebre, with thousands of people trekking to Pointe Claire this past summer for a rally in their support. “So many young gay people have approached us and said that they would like to have lives like ours, to be in a long-term relationship the way we have been. We know some look at us as role models. We’re so angry about the way we’ve been treated, we can’t let this go. We don’t want this to happen to anyone else.

“We can’t let those young people down. Even if it kills us.” <<