Canadian True Crime - 50 The Murder of Tracy Tom

Episode Date: July 15, 2019

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIAIn 2003, a local dry cleaner was opening up his shop for the morning, when he saw an abandoned shopping cart with a large object slumped into it.Find out more about:True Crime Podcasts - Live in Toronto - August 18The Royal Cinema’s monthly signature seriesTrans Pulse ProjectGender Bandit.comPodcast recommendationsCrime Writers On (true crime podcast and documentary reviews, pop culture, and more)CBC's Uncover: The Cat Lady CaseWant to support my sponsors? Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsors* Correction notice: in the final paragraphs of this episode, a report from Statistics Canada was quoted. “….“Police-reported hate crime in Canada, 2017”, reports that from 2010 to 2017, there were 31 hate crimes targeting transgender or asexual people that were reported to police.” - Please note that the published report used incorrect terminology - the word asexual should actually be agender. Statistics Canada have been notified of this error and have promised to update their report.Credits: Research and education: Eliot Waddingham, transgender activist and educator. Gender Bandit.comWriting, narration, music arrangement, audio production: Kristi LeeAudio editing: We Talk of DreamsDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True Crime Other credits and sources can be found on the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My name's John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna, because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you've freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Radical starring Kiefer Sutherland. New series now streaming, exclusively on Paramount Plus. Hi everyone. This is my last episode before I go on a break for the summer.

So I wanted to update you on just a couple of things. After this episode, I'll be back with my next case on September the 15th, and I have some exciting things coming up later. Several more two-part is one of which is my most requested case yet. I also just got back from the True Crime podcast festival in Chicago, and I had such an amazing time doing a live show and then participating in like a large scale meet and greet with 80 other podcasters. There's pictures on my Instagram account in the story highlights, and I'll also be uploading photos to my website in the next few days. Chicago was so amazing, and a big highlight for me was meeting some of my favorite podcasters.

In particular, Crime Writers On, who also did a live show there. If you are not listening to Crime Writers On, you're in for a treat. It's basically a panel of four, you guessed it, crime journalists, led by Rebecca LaVoy along with Kevin, Toby and Lara. They discuss and review True Crime podcasts as well as new TV shows and documentaries in the space. I love their smart, insightful and witty takes, and I've also picked up many great new True Crime podcasts thanks to their recommendations, and got the heads up about which ones to skip.

So if this sounds like something you might like as much as I do, take a second, pause this episode and subscribe to Crime Writers On, or you can find them at CrimeWritersOn.com. In case you haven't heard, our live show in Toronto is on August the 18th, it's a Sunday afternoon, at the historic Royal Cinema downtown. There'll be me, Jordan from the Nighttime podcast, Aaron from the Generation Y, Nina from Already Gone and Robin from the Trail Went Cold. And now we're excited to announce we'll be joined by Lee Mellor,

criminologist and author, this guy really knows his stuff. You'll also know him from the Murder Was The Case podcast which I've recommended here before. He'll be joining us for a chat, along with True Crime author Nate Henley, and that brings us to the next thing. We will be presenting the case of the Donnellys, the well-known historic Canadian story of a gritty and brutal pioneer feud. Join us to find out what really happened. The presentation has been written by Nate Henley based on his book Black Donnellys.

There'll also be a meet and greet and Q&A. Come and join us, it's August the 18th at the Royal Cinema. For tickets, go to the news section at my website CanadianTrueCrime.ca or look in the show notes. And while I'm here, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to the Royal Cinema, who are partnering with us for this event and have been so nice and helpful. If you're in the Toronto area and love indie or art house cinema, you have to check out The Royal.

It's a historic art modern cinema in the heart of Toronto's little Italy, with the best of both worlds, extensive renovations and upgrades to state-of-the-art audio visual equipment, but still boasting gorgeous architecture. The Royal Cinema is also known for excellent programming. Their monthly signature series brings films and shows to suit all tastes. If you like classic and contemporary horror, check out the CinemaCarb Movie Nights. If you like something a little more bizarre, don't miss Retropath.

There's also the Neon Dreams Cinema Club, the best and delightfully surreal neo-noir cinema from the 70s, 80s and beyond. That's just a few. With at least eight series celebrating cinema, you'll be sure to find something that you like. To check it out and find out what's coming up, just go to TheRoyal.to or Google The Royal Cinema for social media.

And now on with the episode. With themes and content of a violent and disturbing nature, listener discretion is advised. It was May 31, 2003, in North Vancouver, British Columbia. A local store owner was in the alleyway behind his family-owned dry cleaning business, opening up the store for the day. He saw a suspicious-looking large item crumpled in an abandoned shopping cart. When he got a bit closer, he thought it looked like the body of a person.

He immediately called the North Vancouver RCMP. It was a body, wrapped in a mattress pad and covered in garbage bags, one over the torso and lower body, and one over the head, an upper portion of the body. When the body was unwrapped, the police could see that it was a woman. The state of the body told them that she'd been dead for a few days. The RCMP set to work in finding everything they could about who this woman was, how she got an abandoned shopping cart in an alleyway,

and of course, who was responsible. This is Christy, and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 50. The mattress pad that the woman's body was wrapped in had a Motel logo on it, the nearby Travel Lodge Motel. The RCMP went to the hotel to make inquiries, and it didn't take too long before they zeroed in on a guest in Room 214. The occupant also had been seen in the company of a sex worker. An RCMP constable went to Room 214, found the occupant there,

and observed that one of the beds was missing a mattress pad. The occupant's name was Jatin Patel, he was 29 years old. Jatin was taken to RCMP Detachment for questioning, where he confirmed that he'd used the services of a sex worker called Cara, who he said had blonde hair. After more questioning, he told them he also had recent dealings with a second sex worker. He gave a description of her, attractive, dark hair, and of Asian descent. The description that he gave was an uncanny match to the body that had been found

in the abandoned shopping cart. Her name was Tracy Tom, and she was 40 years old. Shelby Tracy Tom was born in 1963, and was one of seven children. Her family was notoriously private, so not much is publicly known about her childhood, or even her early adulthood, but we do know that she eventually got into sex work where she went by the name Tracy. She was known for her charismatic personality. Her sister Angie described her as stunning, gorgeous,

one of those people that if she walked into a room, knew knew she was there. In the sex work industry, she was known as an intelligent and generous person. Jamie Lee Hamilton, a local advocate for sex workers, knew Tracy as a friend for more than 20 years, and described her as a beautiful woman inside and out, who loved life and loved her friends. Quote, She was genuine and giving.

Tracy never had a bad word to say about anyone. She was a gentle woman. She could dislike the rest of us, however, she always displayed respect and dignity to all she met. When it came to life in Vancouver's sex trade industry, Tracy wasn't a survival sex worker. She was described by Jamie Lee Hamilton as, quote, a hard-working, high-track, high-priced prostitute

who was proud of her half-million-dollar West End condo, her Mercedes, and her beloved pet Beagle. Tracy was also exceptionally generous, often helping the disadvantaged in Vancouver's downtown Eastside, the area known for survival street work. Tracy didn't want to be in sex work forever, though. She'd worked hard to earn a degree in education and planned to leave the industry one day.

Unfortunately, that day would never come. It took the RCMP several days to inform the local Vancouver sex worker community about Tracy's murder. This was in 2003, just a year after the arrest of downtown Eastside serial killer Robert Picton. The community was already reeling in shock

after he'd been able to continue preying on the local sex worker community for so many years, thanks to continued mistakes and negligence in the investigation. When the RCMP finally announced that yet another sex worker had been found dead, the community was incensed and scared. Advocate Jamie Lee Hamilton spoke out to the media, asking why it took the RCMP several days

to announce that Tracy had been murdered. She felt that they could have warned people and not doing so showed a lack of caring on the behalf of the police. Quote, The community held a candlelight memorial for Tracy Tom on June the 12th, 2003, almost two weeks after her body had been found.

Back in the police station, the RCMP entered the interview with Jatin Patel by arresting him for the second-degree murder of Tracy Tom. He was read his rights and then spoke with a legal-aid lawyer. After being booked at the station, the police had to gather enough evidence to place charges, and Jatin wasn't really talking yet.

So they placed an undercover cell plant into his cell to see if he would talk when caught off guard. Jatin and the undercover officer engaged in minimal conversation. Jatin told the officer that he'd only been in the city for four days. He said he didn't think he'd be getting out of jail any time soon.

He added that he'd be fine if he was only in jail for two to three years, because he believed that jail in Canada was easy. Jatin Patel was born in Toronto on September the 9th, 1974. His birth was described as unusual. His mother apparently went into labour at home by herself, and both mother and baby were later discovered on the floor in the house by a neighbour.

Jatin was born with several congenital disabilities, including a closed anus and an external tumour on the back of his head. He had difficulty breathing and was hospitalised for several months where he received several corrective surgeries. The Patel family lived in Canada for a few years before they moved to the southern part of the United States to start a business in the hospitality industry.

They would buy motels, renovate them, run them for a while before flipping them for a profit. The family moved around a lot. Their longest stay was in Statesboro, Georgia, where Jatin attended school from kindergarten to the fifth grade. He would later tell a court psychiatrist that his family was old-fashioned, and while they were traditionally Indian,

they were not well connected to their culture and the local community. As such, Jatin wasn't allowed to play with other children outside of their family. At 10 years old, he experienced something that no kid should have to go through. His father had an argument with one of his employees over financial issues. The employee shot him dead

and later died by suicide. Losing his father in this way would colour Jatin's views on the world. His first brush with breaking the law was in grade 12, when he was arrested for forging signatures on checks that belonged to his mother and also those that he stole from guests staying in one of the family-owned motels.

He was given five years probation for two counts of burglary. When he was 19, he was charged with second-degree forgery and two counts of theft. He was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison and an additional five years on probation. Halfway through his sentence, Jatin tried to escape from jail and was sentenced to another five years.

A year into that new sentence, he was released on parole, but it didn't take long before he was picked up again on a charge of theft. Two and a half years after that, he was deported to Canada, back to his birthplace. But soon after, he decided to try and get back into the US to be united with his family.

When immigration officers asked him if he'd had any previous issues with immigration, he lied and they let him back into the country again. When it was discovered that Jatin was back in the US, he was again arrested and charged, this time for making a false statement to a federal officer. He ended up with a sentence of an additional five years in the US prison system.

In 2002, the year before Tracy Tom's murder, Jatin reported that he'd been sexually assaulted by an inmate in the Penitentiary in California where he was serving his sentence. When he completed that sentence, he was deported back to Canada for the second time on May the 27th, 2003. Jatin was now 29 years old

and had spent the majority of the last 11 years of his life in jail. When he landed at Vancouver Airport, he was officially released and left to his own devices. Back to the jail cell where Jatin was having the conversation with the undercover officer. He told his undercover cellmate that he was in serious trouble and that he was being held for murder,

but added that the police had no evidence against him. This tactic didn't yield any new information, so he was again interrogated by RCMP officers and asked again about his movements after he landed in Vancouver. The RCMP tried a number of interview tactics, and just over an hour into this interview, Jatin finally began to talk. He told them that after he left the airport,

he booked room 214 in the North Vancouver Travelodge Motel for a week. When he was asked again what had happened to Tracy Tom, he replied simply, accident. He told them that after he checked into his motel, he ordered a taxi to take him to a nightclub in downtown Vancouver. There, he met Tracy, a sex worker,

and they agreed that he would pay her $400 to leave with him and provide sexual services. Jatin and Tracy returned to the motel where he said they had sex. According to Jatin, as he was going down on Tracy, he saw scarring in her genital area that led him to believe that she was transgender. He told the RCMP that he yelled out,

I don't believe it. When she didn't respond, he said he felt he'd been deceived, leading him to become very angry. He said he flipped. He hit Tracy in the chest and then choked her with his hands, describing it as breaking her esophagus. Jatin told the RCMP that his memory was hazy, but he did remember checking Tracy's pulse

and realizing that she was dead. He killed her. He said there was no blood. He then carried her naked body to the closet and covered her with a bedspread and extra clothes while he figured out what to do with her. In the early hours of the following morning of May 28, 2003, Jatin left his hotel room and went to the motel lobby.

There, he met another sex worker, Kara, and gave her $100 to buy drugs for them both. She went off and bought cocaine and when she came back, they used in the hotel room before having sex. Afterwards, Kara inadvertently discovered Tracy's body in the closet. She was obviously taken aback and bravely asked Jatin for an explanation.

He replied, quote, She was a man. It was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. I got angry because she misled me. He went on to tell Kara about how he broke Tracy's esophagus. Kara responded that she didn't think the body she saw, Tracy's body, looked like that of a man. Jatin pushed back, insisting that he was familiar with the operation,

the scars that might be left by gender-affirming surgery and was absolutely sure that Tracy was, quote, a man. Jatin told Kara that he was nervous about what to do with Tracy's body, adding that he'd been thinking of throwing it into the ocean, cutting it into pieces, or even burning it to dispose of it entirely. Kara discouraged Jatin from these activities, saying that it would make it worse for Tracy's family

if he desecrated her body. So, later that day, Kara and Jatin went to a nearby grocery store, where he purchased rubber gloves and large garbage bags. She got a shopping cart for him. Later that night, Kara signalled her intent to leave the motel, and Jatin gave her some of Tracy's personal items, her cell phone, shoes, dress, bra, underwear, and her purse, which contained her ID.

It's unclear what he wanted her to do with them or why she decided to help him after she found Tracy's body, given that she had nothing to do with what happened. Jatin couldn't decide what to do with Tracy, so he kept her body in the motel closet for two more days. Eventually, he wrapped her body in two of the garbage bags, one over her head and upper body, and one over her legs and lower body.

He removed the mattress pad from one of the two beds in his motel room, put Tracy's body on it, and then tied and knotted the four corners together. At three in the morning, he dumped her body in the shopping cart, and then pushed it to a dark alleyway and parking area behind the dry cleaner, which was about two kilometres north of the motel. He said he took the remainder of Tracy's personal belongings to downtown Vancouver, where he disposed of them in a dumpster. Just hours later, Tracy's body was found by the owner of the dry cleaning store.

Because Jatin kept the body for several days before disposing of it, it was about five days after Tracy had died before Dr Laurel Gray was able to perform an autopsy. Due to the level of decomposition by this time, a definitive anatomic or toxological cause of death was difficult to determine. Because there were no signs of pre-existing disease, violence, natural causes, or poisoning, the most likely cause of death was deemed to be airway obstruction, which could include strangling.

Dr Gray would later testify that in her experience, she'd never seen a broken or torn esophagus except in a severe motor vehicle accident. A lunge to the neck producing rapid death would likely be the result of fracturing the voice box, which would collapse and one's breathing would be rapidly impaired. In her examination, she saw no such injury to Tracy's voice box. And similar findings related to Jatin's story about how he discovered that Tracy was trans.

He said that as he was going down on her, he noticed scarring in her genital area that led him to believe that she was trans, although it's unclear whether he had any kind of experience that would lead him to believe that. But interestingly, in conducting Tracy's autopsy, Dr Gray couldn't identify any external scarring that would have indicated this kind of surgery had taken place. A second autopsy was conducted two days later. It included an internal examination that confirmed that Tracy had undergone gender-affirming surgery.

But again, Dr Gray observed no external scars of any kind on Tracy's external genital area. Dr Gray said that Tracy appeared to have normal female genitalia. So how did Jatin know? The preliminary hearing ran in December of 2003, with details being blocked by a publication ban. Judge Neo Nimsik ruled that there was enough evidence to try Jatin Patel for the second-degree murder of Shelby Tracy Tom. My name's John Weir. You don't know me, but you're gonna.

Because I know the people that have been watching you, learning about you. They know you've done well for yourself, that people like you and trust you. Trust you. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all that information that you freely shared with the whole world. Now imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level? Squarespace makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web presence,

grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time. When I launched this passion project six years ago, I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting. I chose Squarespace because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals. It's important to have a website that looks good. And I was inspired by Squarespace's wide selection of clean and modern templates. They can be easily customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs. And you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done.

I use the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode. And there are so many intuitive options from embedding an audio player so listeners can stream episodes to scheduling posts to be published on a certain date, an easily moderated comment section and automatically displaying recent episodes on the homepage. Every Squarespace website and online store includes SEO tools to help you maximize your visibility in search engines. And I love the powerful insights I can get from the analytics tools, helping me better understand who's visiting the site, where they came from and how they're interacting with it. Do you have a passion project or business idea or something to sell?

Go to squarespace.com slash ctc for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use offer code CTC to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain. That's squarespace.com slash ctc with offer code CTC and get your passion project off the ground today. In the year that followed, Jetin Patel's defence asked for a plea bargain. He would plead guilty to manslaughter if his charge was downgraded from second-degree murder. It was approved. On March the 10th, 2005, friends and family members of Tracy Tom attended his sentencing hearing to hear him plead guilty and to give their victim impact statements.

Tracy's brother, David Tom, said that he was continuously heartbroken. Quote, Tracy's sister Angie had tears running down her cheeks as she remembered her sister. She said that she could almost forgive Jetin Patel if he'd just killed Tracy. Quote, Two forensic psychiatrists testified. One of them was Dr. Shabraham Larazbi, who interviewed Jetin Patel in prison. He testified that when Jetin recalled discovering that Tracy was trans,

he felt a feeling of immense anger towards the source of the deception. But Crown Prosecutor Craig Dykes questioned that sentiment. He noted that the pathologist's autopsy report had stated Tracy appeared outwardly no different from a woman who was born with female genitalia and that she had no visible scars on her body. Quote, Another psychologist, Dr. Roy O'Shaughnessy, agreed, testifying that he also thought it would have been useful to know how Jetin came to be familiar with gender affirmation surgery.

Quote, Jetin never offered an answer to this question. The Crown and the Defence each argued points for Justice Patrick Dom to consider when making the decision on how to sentence Jetin Patel. Crown Prosecutor Craig Dykes said the case underlined the vulnerability of sex trade workers and urged him to give Jetin a sentence of 7 to 10 years. He applied for the crime to be designated a hate crime, saying the murder was motivated purely by Jetin's sexual insecurity.

Quote, Hateful motivations to crimes can influence the judge when deciding on the sentence, which is why the Crown was trying to have the hate crime designation applied. Jetin Patel's defence lawyer Brian Coleman said that he had an existing trauma dating back from when his father's employee shot him dead and that this may have contributed to his heated response to Tracy. He added that if Jetin had known in advance that Tracy was trans, he would likely have said,

Quote, The lawyer also offered the excuse that Jetin was especially sensitive to finding out that Tracy was trans because he'd been sexually assaulted by inmates while in jail in the US. Brian Coleman went on to say, Quote, What this argument amounted to is called the gay panic defence. A historic provision in the Canadian Criminal Code states that when it comes to murder, Quote,

This argument goes back to 16th century England, where the punishment for homicide was usually death. But if a person was deemed to be not in his right mind at the time of the killing, they would instead be sentenced to a prison term for the lesser charge of manslaughter. By the mid-1800s, the defence had evolved to be referred to as the concept of provocation. Juries had to consider what a, Quote, reasonable person would do under the same set of circumstances that led to the crime they were deliberating. So, in this case, in the situation when one man comes on to another man, the provocation defence considers that it's enough to provoke a panicked, violent reaction.

The implied argument here is that simply being gay and making a verbal advance is enough for the other person to be fearful that the interaction is an attempt to commit an actual sexual assault. This then means that the murder of that person is justified, provocation. Pink blood, queer bashing in Canada by Douglas Victor Janoff, notes that in 41 solved cases that attempted to use the gay panic defence, more than half of the cases resulted in downgrades to manslaughter charges or less, compared to about a quarter resulting in second degree murder and only two first degree murder convictions.

And almost a third of the known sentences allowed the convicted to apply for day parole within two years, only two years in prison for killing another human being. In deciding whether to take into consideration the gay panic defence when sentencing, Justice Patrick Dom went through his judgement. He said that Jatin acted on impulse and became obviously angry to the point where he wasn't able to control himself. He struck out at Tracy who couldn't defend herself. The judge described Jatin's actions as, quote, so quick and so brutal that the deceased had little or no chance to avoid it.

He then went on to talk about how the case seemed to be hinging on the fact that Jatin didn't know that Tracy was trans when they first met, and he acted out his anger only after discovering it, quote, Certainly if the accused had known prior to the sexual engagement of the sexual status of the deceased, one might be able to conclude that he targeted this person for that reason. I think the evidence falls far short of that. Justice Dom had rejected the idea that Tracy Tom's murder was a hate crime, but went on to speak about how Tracy meant a great deal to her family, quote,

I think all the family is doing is telling the court that the loss of their sister is felt on a daily basis and will continue to do so in the future. Jatin Patel was sentenced to a prison term of nine years, with a credit of four and a half years for time he'd already served. This meant that Jatin was being sentenced to only four and a half years. The local sex worker and trans community were outraged that he got away with the gay panic defense. Advocate Jamie Lee Hamilton spoke out to the media, quote, These types of crimes are not going unnoticed. The perpetrators need to be charged with hate crime.

This wasn't the last time Jatin Patel would be in trouble with the police. After serving his sentence for the murder of Tracy Tom, he was released on parole. But not long after that, in September of 2009, he was cautioned by Vancouver police for failing to return to his halfway house before curfew. Two years later, he attempted to rob a Bank of Montreal branch, but fled the scene without any money. He was sentenced to jail for one year plus three years probation. With credit of time served in pretrial custody, he was out in just six months.

In 2012, he was charged with breach of probation three separate times. He was also charged with possession of a dangerous weapon. Each of these resulted in short jail stays, one day here, five days there, and then 127 days for the weapons charge. The following year, 2013, Jatin was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a type of leukemia with a high rate of success with chemotherapy. In 2014, his cancer was declared to be in remission. In January of 2015, Jatin Patel, then 41 years old,

met up with two 13-year-old girls he'd groomed on Facebook. He lured them to a hotel in Surrey, British Columbia, where he gave them crystal meth and attempted to sexually assault one of them. Desperate for him to stop, she offered to masturbate Jatin instead. He later boasted in a text message to another man that he'd had a threesome and that it was, quote, the time of my life. A week later, he messaged the young girl apologizing for what he described as being way out of line, but he continued to initiate sexual messaging with her.

In February of 2015, Jatin assaulted another 13-year-old girl in a grocery store. She and her mother recalled the creepy-looking man who stared at her. And then, as he walked past, the girl recalled, he just touched my butt. She immediately told her mother who told store security. The police were called, Jatin was arrested and remanded in custody for a few weeks, and was then released on bail on the condition that he moved to a recovery house to treat his drug dependency issues.

The conditions were that he was to abstain from drugs and alcohol and that he was not to leave the recovery house without written permission of his probation supervisor, and it had to be in the physical presence of an authorized representative. Despite this court order, he messaged the original two girls on Facebook asking if they wanted to meet up again. He asked them to send naked pictures. They ended up sneaking them into the recovery house,

instructing them to wear hoodies, and if anyone asked to tell them that they were 19 years old. By chance, the police came while the girls were there. They escaped out the window and hid in the bushes. Once the police left, they went back into the room. A similar situation happened to last time. They smoked crystal meth and Jatin tried to sexually assault them. This day, they snuck out of the recovery center.

One of the girls came across an RCMP officer who saw that she was crying and wanted to check up on her. He knew of her as a known runaway with issues at home. She would end up giving a formal statement, which led to Jatin Patel being arrested again. He ended up being charged and sentenced and was required to be identified as a registered sex offender for 10 years. He attempted to appeal several times and was denied.

In 2018, he was designated a dangerous offender and sentenced to an indeterminate prison term. The judge told him that he would be eligible for periodic reviews of his parole, but it would be dependent on him making use of available resources, conquering his addictions and his efforts to turn his life around. Jatin Patel is still in prison. In 2014, Toronto journalist Justin Ling wrote an article called Why do Canadian courts still allow the gay panic defence?

He wrote that many countries including New Zealand, the UK and some states in Australia have either abolished the defence or rewritten similar provisions in their criminal codes, but Canada hasn't. In 1977, a working group in Canada was formed with the intent to fix the provocation defence, which had now been in effect since 1892. They examined cases that used the evidence and recommended that there are only two options moving forward, either reform the defence or abolish it entirely. Reforming it presented the opportunity to remove the elements that were problematic,

like in cases where there's no violence and it's just an unrequited romantic advance. Other organisations responded to the recommendations with many saying that the provocation defence did serve a purpose. For example, in the recent episodes on Jane Hirshman, where she retaliated against her violently abusive husband. This law could be reshaped to mean that women like Jane wouldn't serve life in prison. The Canadian Bar Association agreed, adding that their stance was that they were quote, generally supportive of the policy goal of ensuring that behaviour motivated by stereotypes of sex, race, sexual orientation, age or disability not be considered reasonable for the purposes of the defence. In 2015, Canada finally reformed the applicable section of the criminal code.

Now a person can only claim provocation as a defence for their actions if what the other person was doing was something illegal and not just illegal but something punishable by more than five years in prison. It's not illegal to be gay and the simple act of verbally coming onto someone with romantic intentions is also not illegal. So for any crimes committed after 2015, the gay panic defence is no longer available. People who are transgender or gender non-conforming cross all boundaries and come from all walks of life. They are our children, our siblings, our parents, friends, our co-workers and our romantic partners. But they're also one of the most disadvantaged and vulnerable groups in society. They routinely experience discrimination, harassment and violence with people who are in the process of transitioning

or coming out being particularly vulnerable. In 2010, a detailed survey of trans people in Ontario was conducted by the Trans Pulse Project, a community-based research project that investigated the impact of social exclusion and discrimination on the health of trans people. The 433 trans people who responded reported that they experienced barriers and discrimination in many facets of life, most notably when seeking employment and medical care. And while the majority of them had achieved post-secondary qualifications at university or college, their income levels did not reflect that. Many were living below the poverty line. Two-thirds of respondents reported that they avoided public spaces that everyone takes for granted,

like malls, schools and restaurants, with washrooms being the most commonly avoided space. 77% reported that that had suicidal thoughts and 43% had already attempted it. The Trans Pulse Project in Ontario has now expanded to be a national community-based study, Trans Pulse Canada, which has started collection of national survey data beginning this month. They'll be doing this through a voluntary survey of trans and non-binary people with specific data collection for nine priority groups, including Indigenous, gender-diverse people, those living with disabilities, immigrants and refugees, as well as those who are racialized, non-binary, youth, older, or living in rural or remote areas, and of course, sex workers. A Statistics Canada report compiled by Amelia Armstrong, called Police Reported Hate Crime in Canada 2017,

reports that from 2010 to 2017, there were 31 hate crimes targeting transgender or asexual people that were reported to police. Nearly half of these 15 incidents occurred in 2017 alone. The report goes on to state that even though the number is fairly small relative to other hate crimes, like those based on race or religion, those targeting the trans community are often more violent. According to Statistics Canada, 74% of these incidents targeting the trans community involved physical violence. We don't have statistics for years before 2010, but what we do know is that trans hate crimes are not new. We also know that marginalized people, especially people with a negative history with police, are significantly less likely to report crimes committed against them.

Each year on November 20th, the Transgender Day of Remembrance is observed to memorialize those who have been murdered in acts of anti-trans violence and also to draw attention to the continued violence perpetrated towards trans people. As allies, this day gives us the opportunity to stand with the trans community and show them we support them as they simply try to live their lives as Tracy Tom was trying to do. The Transgender Day of Remembrance is often recognized locally with vigils organized by local community groups. The murder of Shelby Tracy Tom caused great upset for the local LGBTQ plus community and the sex worker community. In June of 2013, around the 10 year anniversary of her death,

another candlelight vigil was held to remember the bright light that was Tracy Tom and the positive effect she had on everyone who was privileged to know her. Thanks for listening and a huge thank you to Alliot Waddingham for suggesting this case to me, for researching it and for all their kind help and education along the way. Alliot is a non-binary transgender activist and freelance educator from Ottawa and facilitates workshops for organizations who want to invest in diversity and create safe spaces for volunteers, employees and visitors. I'm so honoured to have gotten to know them through this podcast.

To learn more about Alliot, you can check out their website, genderbandit.com. Thanks also to Jamie Lee Hamilton, advocate for trans sex workers in Vancouver, who campaigned tirelessly for justice for her longtime friend Tracy Tom. This week's podcast recommendation is the latest series of Uncover and it's quite the mystery. In 1998, 77 year old Joan Lawrence vanished without a trace. All police could find were her 30 cats shot dead. The case remains unsolved but new witnesses, unsealed documents and fresh promises from law enforcement are now shedding light on one of Cottage Country's darkest crimes.

Uncover, the Cat Lady case from CBC Podcasts is available now. Listen at cbc.ca slash uncover or wherever you get your podcasts. To find me on social media, I'm on Twitter, Instagram and I also have a Facebook page and a discussion group. Just ask to join and one of my lovely moderators will let you in. Thanks to Karen, Karen and Kim. To find me, just search for Canadian True Crime. My patrons heard this episode five days early and without a single ad. You can too for just $2 a month.

It's easy to sign up at patreon.com. Just search for Canadian True Crime. You can find all the ways to support me at CanadianTrueCrime.ca slash support. You'll also find a form on my website to submit a case that you'd like to see covered. This episode I'm saying thanks to these patrons. Carrie B, Magna A, Charles T, Amber L, Amy E, Amanda L, Chantelle F, Katelyn F, KCP, Kelly G, Renee W, Eden E, Linda M, Marguerite C, Lyman G, David D, Lindsay G, Megan M, Sean G, Maxine L, Kevin M, Amanda F, Brent M and Shu X. This episode of Canadian True Crime was researched by Elliot Waddingham and written by me.

Audio editing was by We Talk of Dreams who also wrote the Canadian True Crime theme song. The host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast voiced the disclaimer. I'll be back on September the 15th with another Canadian True Crime story. See you then. I'll be back on September the 15th with another Canadian True Crime podcast. I'll imagine what they're gonna do with all the information you have at it. Yeah, I'll be in touch.