TORONTO -- A Toronto pastor says it's time to "begin the journey of healing" in the wake of the sentencing of a serial killer who terrorized the city's gay community.
Rev. Jeff Rock told attendees at a vigil for eight men murdered by Bruce McArthur that "We will not let hate win."
McArthur was sentenced on Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years, meaning he will be 91 before he can apply for any form of release.
McArthur, a self-employed landscaper, pleaded guilty last month to eight counts of first-degree murder for men he killed between 2010 and 2017.
His victims were all men from the city's gay village: Andrew Kinsman, Selim Esen, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Soroush Mahmudi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi and Kirushna Kanagaratnam.
At the vigil Sunday evening, Rock said McArthur's crimes -- along with those of Alexandre Bissonnette, who was sentenced on Friday for the Quebec City mosque shooting -- were done "out of hate."
