An online campaign has raised nearly $50,000 for a man whose leg was broken during a confrontation with anti-gay street preachers in Vancouver.
In a series of Tweets, Sportsnets 650 host Justin Morissette writes that "anti-gay evangelical bullies in the West End" purposefully broke his leg because he told them to stop chanting. He adds that he is going to, "have metal plates in my leg for the rest of my life."
In an email, VPD Spokesperson Sgt. Aaron Roed tells Vancouver Is Awesome that officers responded to a disturbance in the area of Davie and Thurlow Streets on Saturday, Aug. 22 around 8 p.m. He says that a group of people using a microphone and amplifier were preaching about religion and anti-gay chants.
"A short time after the preaching started one individual approached the group and asked them to stop the anti-gay chants and to stop speaking into the microphone," writes Roed. "A disturbance ensued and the individual is suspected to have been thrown to the ground, where they unfortunately broke their leg."
Roed adds that two men from the group who were chanting were arrested for aggravated assault and mischief and transported to jail. Since then, both men have been released with conditions to attend court at a later date.
Now, Justin's brother, Kevin Morissette, has launched a gofundme campaign to help with Justin's medical bills, loss of income, legal fees, rent and living costs. He notes that it will be quite a bit of time before his rehabilitation is complete and he is able to return to work.
In the campaign, Kevin writes that this was the second time this summer that anti-gay street preachers had set up speakers and a microphone at the corner of Burnaby and Thurlow Streets. The first time, he says the group ranted for an hour and residents called police.
"2020 has brought with it the call to action for civilians to stand up and fight against intolerance and bigotry. Justin did exactly this by confronting this group of religious extremist who believed they had a right to spread hate speech," writes Kevin. "Justin is proud of what he did but unfortunately he was violently assaulted and seriously injured."
At the time of this writing, the campaign has raised a whopping $48,650 from over 1,000 donors.
Find out more information about the campaign HERE.
