Those who knew Byron Carr never forgot him, former students say

John Jamieson remembers running into Byron Carr outside the Tim Hortons on Kent Street in Charlottetown either the day before Carr was murdered on Nov. 11, 1988, or on the very day he died.

Carr had taught Jamieson English at Montague Regional High School a few years before, and was happy to catch up with his former student.

They talked about the weather and "the stuff you chitchat about," Jamieson said, but he also asked about Jamieson's work and how he was doing.

"Even after you were no longer his student, he was still interested in what you were up to," he said in an interview on Monday

That's a common sentiment shared among Carr's friends and students, who were horrified by his strangling death back in 1988. Many of them were watching closely last Friday when Charlottetown police held a news conference to announce 56-year-old Todd Joseph Gallant had been charged with first-degree murderin the case, 35 years later.

Closure and relief as arrest made in P.E.I. cold case

8 months ago

Duration 1:32

John Jamieson was a student of Byron Carr's. He talks about how the community has reacted to the news that an arrest has finally been made 35 years after the teacher was murdered.

Jeffrey Haight was listening at the business he co-owns in Earnscliffe, The Boys Comfort Cuisine.

"We just whooped and hollered and slammed our fists on the counter and it was like, 'Yes!'It was almost like we won a sports event or something. And then I just started to cry because it was that closure that the gay community needed. So we were so excited, so elated."

Haight was a student of Carr's at Montague High. Like Carr, Haight was a gay person who kept his sexuality secret because that's what many felt they had to do in the 1980s. He said Carr, who was only 36 when he was killed, had a "heart of gold" and could speak with students on their level.

People are going to listen to what it was like back then and they're going to listen to why Byron was killed. Jeffrey Haight

"He knew I was gay. I kind of knew he was, but... it was just more of a professional thing.For him, it really would be bad if he hung around [a]gay student, and that was just unspoken."

They became friends after Haight graduated in 1986. Carr's death two years later promptedHaightto moveto Montreal, where he felt safer living as a gay man.

Haight lived in Montreal for 17 years before moving back to the Island a few years ago.

He said that for him, the long-awaited arrest in the case isa public acknowledgement of the hate the community faced, and something he hopes society can learn from.

Byron Carr remembered as 'amazing teacher'

8 months ago

Duration 1:57

Former student and friend Jeffrey Haight recalls the shock when he heard Byron Carr had been killed in 1988. Haight talks about the fear felt in P.E.I's LGBT community, and the legacy he hopes Carr's death will leave behind.

"This door is going to open up from this case," he predicted. "People are going to listen to what it was like back then and they're going to listen to why Byron was killed.

"Like, why was this situation created? Well, it was because society didn't let us be us and we had to live in the shadows. And when you live in the shadows, you meet certain people you should not be around."

Jamieson, who is now the chief administrative officerfor the Town of Three Rivers where Montague is located, said he wasn't aware of Carr's sexual orientation until after his death.

Not that it made any difference to him, he said. "Just, it's shocking to hear someone that you know and someone that had, you know, touched your lifeas teachers do to hear that they [came] to an untimely death."

Like many others, hesaw Carr as a "fantastic teacher" and a person Islanders always hoped would someday get the justice he deserved.

"He's not someone that anyone has forgotten about, by any stretch of the imagination."