Reports: Trio of Vicious Thugs Attack Clothing Designer, Partner in Quebec

A trio of thugs beat fashion designer Markantoine Lynch-Boisvert and his life partner, Alex James Taboureau, outside a gay bar in La Malbaie, Quebec, on the evening of Aug. 23, Canadian newspaper the Montreal Gazette reported.

The three assailants started out by hurling anti-LGBTQ slurs at the two as they celebrated a new contract for Lynch-Boisvert at an establishment called Bar Le Jazz, reported Canada news source the CBC. The designer and his partner, wishing to avoid trouble, left the bar, but the man who had been hurling abuse followed them out onto the street along with two other men, accounts said. The three then beat the couple savagely, kicking them both in the head until even one of the assailants grew concerned.

Recalled Lynch-Boisvert in a Facebook post, "I can still hear the guy saying, 'Stop, you're going to kill him' to the one who was kicking me freely in the face, (and) Alex who was struggling to try to help me, fear in his eyes."

The designer suffered several skull fractures and needed surgery, reports said.

Lynch-Boisvert called the attack "sad for our community and also our society as a whole," but encouraged his Facebook followers not to boycott the Charlevoix region, where La Malbaie is located, in the wake of the hate crime.

"This was an isolated case," Lynch-Bousvert wrote, "and it is too beautiful a part of the country to be ignored."