Barrie Pride Orlando Vigil
Our producer was honoured to be asked to record this vigil as its record would be important to many
On June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old security guard, entering the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida and opening fire with automatic weapons. He was eventually shot and killed by Orlando Police Department officers after a three-hour standoff, but not before he had murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others in a hate crime motivated terrorist attack against the LGBTQ community. This single largest mass murder of LGBTQ people sent massive ripples through the United States and Canada, culminating in vigils such as this one held in Barrie.