If you want to learn more about this period, Jim Egan’s Challenging the Conspiracy of Silence and The Ward, The Life and Loss of Toronto’s First Immigrant neighbourhood are both essential reading. And, to learn more about the federal government’s purge, The Canadian War on Queers by Patrizia Gentile and Gary Kinsman is a key text. More Foolscap interviews, including the one with Elgin Blair, can be found at the Toronto Arquives, which is also home to many of the tabloid newspapers used for this story. 

We dedicate this episode to Sandy de Almeida, our dear departed friend, who was – and always will be – the Mayor of Queer West. 

This podcast also could not have been produced without funding from the Toronto Arts Council, who helped fund the efforts of Tom Hooper, narrator, Scott MacDougall, voice actor, Christine Sismondo, writer and co-producer and Brent Bodrug, sound design, music composer and co-producer.