The Village

CBC

In the early 1990s, as AIDS tightens its grip on major cities around the world, the relative safety of Montreal’s nightlife becomes a magnet for gay men. But when they start turning up dead in hotel rooms, beaten lifeless in city parks, and violently murdered in their own homes, the queer community has more to fear than the disease. While the city’s police force dithers over the presence of a serial killer, a group of queer activists starts making connections, and rises up to start a movement that would end up changing thousands of lives. Hosted by Francis Plourde. For the best in true crime from CBC, ad-free, visit apple.co/cbctruecrime.

  • 40 minutes 29 seconds
    The Village Introduces: The Devil You Know with Sarah Marshall

    In the 1980s and 90s, Satan and his followers were accused of brainwashing children, sacrificing babies, and infiltrating North American society on a massive scale — yet these thousands of alleged Satanists were nowhere to be found. Even so, the narrative became embedded in our cultural memory, warping everything it touched — including the lives of innocent people… And it never quite died out.


    In a new 8-part series, Sarah Marshall (You’re Wrong About) explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic, in a journey that will take you everywhere from Victoria, B.C. to rural Kentucky to San Antonio, Texas. This is a show about the people who experienced the Satanic Panic in real-time — the believers, the skeptics, the bystanders, and the wrongfully-convicted. What was it like to be a psychologist told to look for Satanists in every case; a mother slowly recovering memories of supposed Satanic abuse; a teenager accused of conspiracy to murder? The stories of these eyewitnesses point us toward the real underlying problems — individual and societal — that the Panic was a response to. The fault, as ever, was not with Satanists, but in ourselves.


    You can find more episodes of The Devil You Know wherever you get your podcasts, and here: https://link.mgln.ai/TDYKxVillage 

    28 October 2025, 4:10 am
  • 28 minutes 14 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E5: Ripples

    Fingers are pointed at who could have betrayed Darren. Did it come from the inside?

    23 June 2025, 4:12 am
  • 28 minutes 16 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E4: The Enemy Within

    A Friday night in The Parliament bar ends in tragedy. Lives will never be the same again.

    23 June 2025, 4:10 am
  • 28 minutes 34 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E6: Take Back the City

    While peace transforms the country, the twists continue in the story.

    23 June 2025, 4:10 am
  • 28 minutes 17 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E3: Glitter in the Chips

    Welcome to The Parliament bar - the beating heart of gay life in nineties Belfast.

    18 June 2025, 4:15 am
  • 28 minutes 14 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E2: Collateral Damage

    Claims about Darren's sexuality bring him trouble with the RUC.

    18 June 2025, 4:13 am
  • 28 minutes 44 seconds
    Blood on the Dance Floor, E1: Why Haven't You Heard About This?

    The untold story of the murder of a gay police officer in Northern Ireland in 1997.

    18 June 2025, 4:10 am
  • 3 minutes 45 seconds
    Introducing: Blood on the Dancefloor

    The untold story of the murder of a gay police officer in Northern Ireland in 1997.


    Belfast 1997. But not just any part of Belfast, gay Belfast. A place you've probably never heard of before. Cigarette smoke, aftershave and expectation fill the air in the only gay bar in the country. Sat having a drink on a night out is Darren Bradshaw. He was just 24 years old when he was shot dead in front of hundreds of people. His brutal murder by terrorists sparked fears of a return to all out violence as the new Labour government under Tony Blair sought to bring peace to Northern Ireland - on the road to the Good Friday Agreement.


    This is the untold story of his life and murder. A story of both love and eventually betrayal.

    Presenter Jordan Dunbar grew up in the city, he was a comedian and drag performer on the Belfast scene and yet this murder and Darren's life was never talked about.


    Following Darren's story brings to life the struggle of being gay in The Troubles, how Belfast got its first Pride parade only in 1991 and its very first openly gay club in 1994 -The Parliament bar where Darren was tragically shot dead.


    It's a community surviving as well as thriving against a backdrop of violence and discrimination. He meets the original drag queens, DJs and club pioneers determined to claim back the city centre from the terrorists and create a safe place of their own.


    Determined to piece together for the first time how Darren was killed that night and why, Jordan uncovers stories of bigotry, bravery and betrayal.

    17 June 2025, 4:10 am
  • 33 minutes 6 seconds
    S3 E7: Atonement

    Years of sustained pressure finally pay off as the policing culture shifts to include activists’ input into their investigations. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/the-village-the-montreal-murders-transcripts-listen-1.6479960

    19 July 2022, 8:10 am
  • 35 minutes 24 seconds
    S3 E6: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

    When one of its priests is found murdered in Montreal, the Anglican Church has to publicly reckon with its sins. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/the-village-the-montreal-murders-transcripts-listen-1.6479960

    12 July 2022, 8:10 am
  • 42 minutes 52 seconds
    S3 E5: Out With Them All

    Faced with a deadly disease, surrounded by death, AIDS activist Roger Leclerc resorts to controversial tactics to confront discrimination and violence against gays and lesbians. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/the-village-the-montreal-murders-transcripts-listen-1.6479960

    5 July 2022, 8:10 am
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