Lusk strikes back

A Pointe Claire man found to have been homophobic toward his immediate neighbours, Theo Wouters and Roger Thibault, by the Quebec Human Rights Commission in a verdict earlier this month reneges the accusations and is likely to fight against them at a higher court, one of his attorneys told The Chronicle.

"They tried to charge him criminally, those charges were dropped (by the Montreal Municipal Court)," said Michael Stober on behalf of Gordon Lusk, in reference to death threats the couple claimed were made by the latter.

The two parties are in dispute over what happened on a day in 2004. According to Stober, Lusk's son and friends were playing street hockey on Parkdale Avenue in Pointe Claire, where both parties live.

"One of (the couple) drove by in a reckless way," Stober told The Chronicle.

Having seen the incident, Lusk walked to the couple's doorstep in order to strongly urge them to be careful, Stober said.

However, according to Theo Wouters and the Centre for Research and Race Relations, a minority advocacy group that helped the couple file their accusation at the human rights commission, things unfolded differently.

"Of course, they had to be careful not to hit the kids," the centre's executive director, Fo Niemi, said, adding there was no reckless driving involved.

According to Wouters, Lusk was enraged when he came over to their house, knocking on a metal gate the couple has installed there and inviting them to come out.

"I have him on video. He is asking us to come onto the street so he can kill us," Wouters said.

Niemi added the couple claims that Lusk used defamatory language, such as the word "faggots."

Both these death threats and harassment charges were denied by Stober.

He also minimized the importance of a verdict handed down by the Municipal Court of Montreal in 2006 which asked Lusk to sign a restraining order and donate $500 to a charity.

"That's not a fine, it's a donation to a charity," Stober said, adding that court dropped criminal charges of death threats against Lusk after the opposing party could not prove anything.

As for the restraining order, Stober said Lusk agreed to sign it simply because he had no interest whatsoever in seeing Wouters or Thibault again after the incident.

This is not the first time Wouters and Thibault are involved in a homophobia case with neighbours. In November 2002, another of their neighbours, Robert Walker, was acquitted of harassment charges by the Court of Quebec in a case that made national headlines.

In that decision, Judge Jean P. Falardeau called into question the credibility of all parties involved, but ultimately ruled Walker was innocent.

Lusk had not presented his case publicly prior to the publication of this story.

Should he choose to fight the commission's recommendation to pay $20,000, he will have to take up his case with the Quebec Human Rights Commission.