Montreal Gazette Monday » May 6 » 2002
Gay politics inflames squabble
A homosexual couple are famous for battling their 'homophobic' next-door neighbours in Pointe Claire. But some wonder whether it's all just political correctness run amok.
SUE MONTGOMERY
Montreal Gazette
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| GAZETTE - Bob and Norah Walker, accused of being homophobic, describe themselves as hard-working regular Joes. |
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To walk down Parkdale Ave. in Pointe Claire's sleepy Valois village is a little like going back in time.
Neat matchbox houses are nestled on large, manicured lots covered with mature trees; you can hear birds singing and kids playing.
It's so peaceful, you'd almost expect an apron-clad June Cleaver to peek out of one of the postwar houses and call Ward and the boys in for dinner.
But as you approach one end of the street, there are hints of a dispute between neighbours that has spiraled out of control, a dispute so sensitive that only one lawyer in Montreal's legal-aid department would agree to take it on.
Lining the front yard of 101 Parkdale are posts topped with rainbow flags, the universal symbol of the gay community - a community to which Théo Wouters and Roger Thibault not only belong, but for which they are becoming poster boys.
In the neighbouring back yard is yellow police tape to mark the 20-foot limit that Norah and Bob Walker are to keep, by court order, between themselves and their homosexual neighbours.
For 18 years, the two couples lived side by side, and while there was never a close relationship, both agree they'd often exchange greetings.
Then, two years ago, Wouters and Thibault began criticizing their neighbours for everything from a smelly compost to where they placed their lawn furniture, and accused them of making homophobic remarks.
By their own admission, Wouters and Thibault have called police at least 50 times during the past two years, culminating in charges being laid against Bob Walker for assault and harassment and a recent recommendation from the Quebec Human Rights Commission that the gay couple be paid damages.
Wouters and Thibault have become celebrities. They're appearing in an ad for a Montreal optician and are about to have their faces splashed on city buses. They've also had their story told in international media and are planning to mark the first anniversary of last year's "tolerance march" in the park near their home, which they've tried unsuccessfully to rename Rainbow Park. They even had their own Web site, until one neighbour got a temporary injunction to shut it down.
"We are showing gay communities and minorities that you don't let yourself be pushed in a corner because you are different," Thibault said in an interview. Carrying on the fight, says Wouters, is their "political duty."
The local media have unabashedly taken up the cause, with television remote trucks at times setting up shop on the wide, leafy street. It made for great headlines: Homophobia rears its ugly head in the suburbs.
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But until recently, only one side of the story was being told.
The Walkers, who say they had faith the whole kerfuffle would blow over or be settled in court, decided early on not to get into a media war with Thibault and Wouters.
"I thought it'd be over quickly," said Bob Walker, who grew up in Pointe Claire.
He and his wife bought their house in 1984 and knew then their neighbours were gay - a fact, they say, that never fazed them.
They describe themselves as hard-working regular Joes; Bob Walker is a salesman who volunteers with the Scouts, Norah works with palliative care and meals-on-wheels. They have one teenage son.
"If I was living next to Roger and Théo and someone was truly harassing them, I'd be the first to support them," Walker said.
But their initial refusal to speak out might have been their downfall. They were, by virtue of their silence, automatically judged guilty. In the vacuum, people's imaginations went wild, conjuring up images of redneck gay bashers from the U.S. deep south.
The way other neighbours on the street tell it, the controversy boils down to this: you're either with Thibault and Wouters, or you're deemed a homophobe. For a long time, many refused to take sides, hoping the courts would sort it out.
But recently, more have been willing to come forward and say that while they have nothing against gay neighbours, they do have a problem with neighbours who use their sexuality to make a statement, turning everyone's life into a living hell.
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The Walkers' lawyer, Salvatore Mascia, said he became convinced there was a political battle being fought when Wouters and Thibault complained about him to the Quebec Bar Association, saying Mascia had a reputation for defending homophobes.
"He's using his profession to play out his fantasies," they wrote to the bar.
The way Mascia sees it, Thibault and Wouters are using what began as a backyard squabble to make "political hay," and people, both gay and straight, are blindly lining up behind them because it's the politically correct thing to do.
"It's the kind of case a legal-aid lawyer dreams about," he said. "It's your client against the mob mentality, your client against a lynch mob."
Both couples maintain thick files in which they have meticulously detailed each other's actions and statements. Both accuse the other of being great actors and duping the media. And both agree they are sick to death of the whole thing.
Wouter's and Thibault's file, which contains license-plate numbers, times and dates, but very little in concrete evidence of harassment, goes back to 1997.
"It was a horrible feeling to see that file," said Nora Walker, noting the gay couple had recorded their every coming and going for three years before confronting them.
In their file, Thibault and Wouters claim Walker and another neighbour, Greg Inglis, who is suing TVA and the gay couple for defamation, have become "experts in frame-ups against us in order to create an argument with us."
In the entry for July 19, 2000, at 6:30 a.m., Thibault describes a walk he took with his dog past the Walkers' house, during which Bob Walker was standing outside with a suitcase. (Walker says he was waiting for a taxi to go to the airport for a business trip.) "He looked so bizarre that my dogs became curious, and me, I did not look, but I must say that it is quite intimidating."
Another entry says Bob Walker walked past their house "and he almost stops in front of our home, looking at us as though he wanted to start an argument or to attack us."
All these allegations were sent to the Quebec Human Rights Commission, where, in February 2001, investigator Marcelle Arcand asked to be taken off the case. After reading Thibault's psychological report, she said, she was worried about the mistrust, if not extreme hatred, Thibault showed toward her. And she asked that he be evaluated to judge his potential for danger.
Wouters explained they were going to send a petition around the gay community demanding her resignation anyway. "We are swimming for our rights here."
When the recommendation for damages came from the commission last month, Walker refused it, saying it was based on allegations to which he was not given a chance to respond. It now goes before a human-rights tribunal.
Walker also trying to change the restraining order that forces him to stay 20 feet from the couple while on his own property and a distance of 50 feet while anywhere else - an order, he says, that's being abused by Thibault and Wouters.
For example, Walker was in a Pointe Claire shopping mall parking lot May 5, 2001, barbecuing hot dogs for a fundraiser, when, he said, Wouters and Thibault showed up and called police, claiming Walker was stalking them. Another time they called police when both parties ended up in a grocery store together. When police refused to press charges, Wouters and Thibault accused the police of homophobia.
For their part, Wouters and Thibault point to two reports that claim their neighbours made homophobic remarks. One, written in French by a police officer on Nov. 11, 2000, six months after the alleged incident, says Inglis told him: "I have two children and I don't want homosexuals in my neighbourhood." But it also says, "He spoke in English and I don't remember the exact words but he basically said he didn't want homosexuals having a bad influence on his children."
The other report, written Dec. 12, 2000 - also six months after the incident - by a local public security officer, says: "I remember both (Inglis and Walker) said, laughing, you know they're fags, no?" Both deny saying that.
Like modern-day heroes, Wouters and Thibault have their followers and believers. Their biggest fan, say those close to them, is straight businessman Peter Sergakis, who knows a money-making scheme when he sees one.
Sergakis, owner of the Sky Pub Club on Ste. Catherine St. E., a popular hangout for affluent, white-collar gays, paid for buses to transport people from downtown to the May 2001 march in Pointe Claire.
He says they're hoping to get at least 40 busloads of people out to Pointe Claire on May 26, when another gathering is planned in the same park the couple petitioned to call Rainbow Park.
(The request was refused on the grounds parks are named after people or events of historical importance, not a social issue.)
"They're celebrities and they're going to become even more well known," Sergakis said, adding Wouters and Thibault are at Sky daily, where they have their "office."
The two have posed for an advertisement for Georges Laoun Opticians, which appeared in the April edition of the gay monthly Fugues, and will appear on city buses soon.
The ad, a spoof on the engagement photos that appear in the New York Times, is of Wouters and Thibault side by side. Underneath, it says simply, Roger and Theo. Above is the caption, "After 30 years are you ready for a peaceful life in the suburbs?" - a double entendre on the neighbourhood nightmare and their July 18 wedding, which they hope will be the first in Quebec between two men.
"Of course, the ad wouldn't work if they weren't recognizable," Sherif Laoun said, adding the idea came up in a conversation with the couple during which one of them mentioned they were getting married.
Like celebrities, the two are often stopped and congratulated as they walk on Ste. Catherine St.
Walker is to appear in court in October to face charges of assault with a weapon (his car) and harassment, hopefully bringing to a close a neighbourhood dispute that is reaching movie-script proportions.
"I can't wait until the trial is over and the truth comes out because I still have faith in the justice system," he said. "I just want the neighbourhood to get back to normal."
But such an outcome might not be enough to restore peace, at least in the eyes of his next-door neighbours.
"If the decision doesn't come down in our favour, the whole community will revolt," Thibault said. "Not just the gay community but the heterosexual community as well."
- Sue Montgomery's E-mail address is smontgomery@thegazette.southam.ca.
© Copyright 2002 Montreal Gazette
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