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Le Journal de Montreal's front-page coverage of the police raid on Truxx and Le
Mystique
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The historic Montreal
police raid on gay leather bar Truxx in the wee morning hours of October 22, 1977, was the largest mass arrest in
Canada
since the War Measures Act. Police charged 146 men with being found-ins in a common
bawdyhouse. Police also simultaneously raid the neighbouring gay bar le
Mystique.
“More than 50 uniformed and plainclothes
police from the divisional morality, mobile and technical squads carried off
the raid” in the early morning hours of Oct 22, The Body
Politic reported. “The heavily
armed members of the technical squad entered with bullet-proof vests and at
least two machine guns.”
The 146 men arrested were held for up to 15
hours at police headquarters “while ‘compulsory’ VD tests were administered.”
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| Andy Warhol's portrait of Conrad Black |
The next night over 2,000 LGBT people
blocked the corner of Ste-Catherine and Stanley in protest, and a few weeks
later, on December 15, 1977,
Quebec’s National Assembly passed Bill 88, banning discrimination based
on sexual orientation in Quebec's Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. The law also made Quebec
the second jurisdiction in the world (after Denmark) to forbid discrimination
on the grounds of sexual orientation
Truxx was also the site where my first
mentor, the late Nick
Auf der Maur — famed Montreal boulvardier, former Montreal city councillor,
columnist for the Montreal Gazette and the father of Melissa Auf der Maur
(rock star with Hole and Smashing Pumpkins) — brought his old friend Conrad
Black, the conservative Canadian-born former newspaper publisher, historian, author,
columnist and convicted felon (in the
United States, for fraud).
Nick gleefully recounted to me for my
Three Dollar Bill column the time he bumped into Black in downtown Montreal one day in 1978,
not long after the Truxx police raid.
“Let’s go for a drink,” Black suggested.
“Let’s go for a drink,” Black suggested.
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January
22, 2014: The façade of the historic Stanley
Street
building that used to house Le Mystique,
Truxx
and the Stanley Pub, has been torn up.
Inside
the building has been gutted.
(Photo
by Richard Burnett)
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“I know just the place,” Nick replied., then mischievously led his old friend to
the Truxx
leather cruising bar above the Stanley Tavern when Montreal’s gay district was still downtown.
“Are you taking me to Sodom and Gomorrah?” Black snapped. “Let’s go to the Ritz!”
Just then a bouncer slid open the peephole and eyed Black in his pinstriped suit. “You can’t come in here,” the bouncer spat.
Nick laughed. “Then Conrad slipped into civil libertarian mode and said, ‘What do you mean I can’t come in here!’ So I pulled out my city councillor’s card and got us in,” Nick told me. “After a drink I offered to go to the Ritz, but Conrad said, ‘No! Let’s have another drink here!’
“He hates it when I tell that story,” Nick added.
Which is why it is worth repeating again and again.
“Are you taking me to Sodom and Gomorrah?” Black snapped. “Let’s go to the Ritz!”
Just then a bouncer slid open the peephole and eyed Black in his pinstriped suit. “You can’t come in here,” the bouncer spat.
Nick laughed. “Then Conrad slipped into civil libertarian mode and said, ‘What do you mean I can’t come in here!’ So I pulled out my city councillor’s card and got us in,” Nick told me. “After a drink I offered to go to the Ritz, but Conrad said, ‘No! Let’s have another drink here!’
“He hates it when I tell that story,” Nick added.
Which is why it is worth repeating again and again.
Click here for CBC TV video footage of the Truxx raid and aftermath.
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