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Hate crime case still in court

By Emma Prestwich
News Editor

The trial is still ongoing in the hate crime case that involved a Ryerson student and alumnus.

The trial of Eoin McManus, a third-year Ryerson student in radio and television arts, and Benjamin McCall, has been pushed to April 6 while the court waits for more information.

Neither men appeared in court on March 16, their second court appearance after the first on Feb. 16.

McManus’ lawyer, Gavin MacKenzie, said it’s common for the accused to hand in designation of counsel, which means they don’t have to appear in court.

Both McManus and McCall are facing two charges of assault and one charge of mischief under $50 after they allegedly assaulted 30-year old Ryan Lester, a former Ryerson student and fundraising director at Pride Toronto, and his brother Ben Lester in the early hours of Jan. 22.

Toronto Police have classified the incident as a hate crime. The alleged incident occurred at Mehran Tandoori Restaurant on Church Street, just north of Gerrard. Police arrested the two men outside the restaurant. McManus refused to comment, and said that he didn’t want any of his words to be misconstrued. “I really can’t talk about it, I’m sorry,” he said. He said, however, that he was still in school during the court proceedings.

4 Comments

  1. student

    “Toronto, and his brother Ben Lester in the early hours of Jan. 22.”

    really bad journalism.

  2. Ex-emp

    bad journalism? umm it’s just the space that needs to be deleted to bring the sentence back together. It has nothing to do with the quality of the reporting nor is it an actual grammar error. relax.

  3. Benjamin McCall

    I am one of the accused (Benjamin McCall) in your article and many more articles spread across the internet. It has been almost 5 years since the incident and at no point was this article taken down or was there posted a follow up article or any sort of apology based on the conclusions of the case.

    We were found innocent and acquitted of all charges due to video footage of the whole scene (which even showed that we hadn’t started the fight), as well as evidence tampering, coercion and assault on behalf of the arresting officers.

    We were not the monsters this article and hundreds of articles across news papers, news reports and articles on the internet had displayed us to be. I for example went to an art school (Rosedale Heights School of the Arts) and studied dance for several years. I had and have many homosexual friends and I have never or will never attack anyone for the life they lead.

    My life was affected heavily by articles such as these. I was threatened constantly on social media. I had hundreds of people sending me death threats daily and I eventually had to close down my accounts. I hid away for periods of time due to depression and was judged constantly. My life was changed drastically. I had trouble getting jobs, I lost relationships and contemplated suicide regularly.

    Almost 5 years later I look back on that time as a life experience and a view into our judicial system, police corruption as well as the media’s portrayal of the truth, but I still feel as though I deserve something. If you could take this article down, it would be appreciated.

    Respectfully,
    Benjamin McCall

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