A t-shirt depicting Canada’s most notorious serial killer sparks outrage.
For years, Robert Pickton killed women on his Port Coquitlam pig farm before being arrested.
Seventeen years after his conviction, a T-shirt surfaced showing Pickton smiling and holding a slice of bacon with the words: “Pickton Farms, 50+ Flavors of Hook Smoked Bacon.”
“It’s so disgusting,” Palexelsiya Lorelei Williams said. “Them talking about my cousin like a flavor… that’s why I felt like throwing up because they didn’t care.”
Her cousin, Tanya Holyk, was only 21 when she disappeared.
Evidence against Pickton included body parts, several bones found in pigsties, and several DNA samples found throughout the property.
Pickton was initially charged with 26 murders, but 20 of them were stayed, including Holyk’s.
In December 2007, he was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years.
Williams calls the T-shirt vile and misogynistic.
“It’s worrying. And I can’t believe they think it’s funny,” she said. “Not only are they making fun of my cousin and other women, but they’re also putting us in danger. They’re showing the world that we can be targeted and ridiculed.
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The merchandise is sold on the Danger Cats website and is marked as sold out.
Global News sent the Canadian comedy troupe several requests for comment, but received no response.
In the group’s latest video posted on YouTube, the outrage over the T-shirt is addressed. “That’s the point of comedy. If no one talks about it, we forget it. And it might be a tasteless joke for some, but for me, it’s my way of being on the side of the very people who are coming after us,” one of the members said.
But Williams doesn’t believe it and thinks they are trying to make money from tragedies.
BC Solicitor General Mike Farnworth, a longtime MP for Port Coquitlam, was also outraged by the T-shirt. “There’s nothing funny about it,” Farnworth told Global News. “I am beyond dismayed. I just think it’s absolutely one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever heard. And those behind this should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. »
Danger Cats exhibition canceled
The comedy troupe is touring across the country and two of its shows have been canceled. The Winnipeg and Thunder Bay locations decided not to host the Danger Cats due to backlash from the group’s jokes about residential schools and unmarked graves.
Thunder Bay resident Esther Maud felt compelled to write to local organizations when she learned the group was coming to her hometown.
“It just makes you cringe, you know, to know that it came out of this man’s mouth and in front of people and he heard people laughing in the background thinking it was funny, that is not funny at all,” Maud said.
Maud says the jokes were racist and expects a sincere apology from Danger Cats. In the meantime, she would like to see other venues cancel their shows. The group is scheduled to perform next month at the House of Comedy in New Westminster.
Williams said she would like to see the venue cancel the show.
“I’m emotionally drained and emotionally drained. But at the same time, I will continue to fight for her, I will continue to fight for us,” she said.
The Maison de la Comédie did not respond to a request for comment.
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