Source: Canada.com, Ottawa Sun
OTTAWA -- An Ottawa man serving a life sentence for his role in a killing that prompted gay-rights activists to call for anti-hate crime legislation has been found dead in his Quebec prison cell.

Quebec provincial police are investigating the death of Jeffrey Lalonde, 36, who was serving a life sentence in a Quebec prison for his role in a murder that set off a firestorm of gay rights activism, and spurred the creation of the Ottawa Police Service's hate crime unit.

Lalonde, convicted of the 1989 murder of Chateau Laurier waiter Alain Brosseau, was found dead in his cell at the medium-security Leclerc Institution on Monday after an apparent suicide.

Lalonde pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for throwing Brosseau, 33, off the Alexandra Bridge after robbing and assaulting the man as he walked home from a late-night shift at the hotel.

Quebec Superior Court Judge Orville Frenette called the attack a "brutal, inhumane act" and handed the then 18-year-old Lalonde a life sentence.

Five others, including two youths, were also arrested in connection with a crime spree that began with Brosseau's murder on Aug. 21, 1989.

During a sentencing hearing, the court heard the group targeted Brosseau, who was not gay, because he was small in stature and walking alone.

He was walking across the bridge to his Quebec home when Lalonde and three others attacked him. They stole a ring and $80 before throwing him to his death.

Witnesses told court Lalonde told Brosseau "I like your shoes" just before letting go of his ankles.

The case was cited by several gay rights activist groups that lobbied the federal government to pass anti-hate crime legislation. Ottawa's hate crime unit, Canada's first, was created on Jan. 15, 1993.

Just hours after Brosseau's death, Lalonde and the other members of the group who attacked Brosseau took a cab to the Orleans area of Ottawa where they stabbed two men with knives and screwdrivers.

In a jailhouse interview with the Ottawa Citizen following his conviction, Lalonde said he had grown to hate homosexuals after becoming a prostitute by the age of 15 to afford food. The memory of those years, plus the painful childhood memories of being molested as a child by relatives, led him to despise homosexuals, he said.

Full article: Notorious 'gay bashing' killer dead in Que. prison | Ottawa Sun
Notorious 'gay bashing' killer dead in Que. prison | Canada.com