Bubba Pollock took a photo with an LGBTQ+ ally and activists dad in a palliative care ward. (Credit: Facebook)
A man has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment charges after taking a selfie at the hospital bedside of an LGBTQ+ activist’s dying father.
Bubba Pollock, 34, was charged with criminal harassment in June 2023 after travelling almost two hours to take the intimidating image next to Britt Leroux’s father in a palliative care ward.
A Windsor, Ontario courtroom heard on Tuesday (23 January) that Pollock made the trip to the palliative care ward after getting into an online argument with Leroux over several anti-LGBTQ+ posts Pollock had made.
Once there, he took a picture of himself in the ward, with Leroux’s father visible in a hospital bed behind him.
Pollock later sent the image to Leroux on Facebook, saying he was “very excited to meet you soon.”
Leroux said her father, who was in intensive care over an advanced stage of pancreatic cancer, was unaware of Pollock’s presence in the ward at the time the picture was taken. He died weeks later.
The court reportedly heard that healthcare professionals are unaware of how Pollock managed to find the ward in the Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare centre in Windsor.
In a statement following the hearing, Leroux said that the incident still weighed heavily on her mind seven months on and had left her with “depression and anxiety and PTSD”.
“[This has] broken me down as a human”, she said. “I haven’t been able to grieve the loss of my father because I’m constantly having to rehash what happened three or four weeks before Dad passed.”
Leroux said that an obituary dedicated to her father has yet to be posted on Facebook over safety fears.
Speaking to PinkNews in June after Pollock’s arrest, co-chair of local non-profit Diversity Ed Crystal Fach, said that Pollock was “well known” in the local LGBTQ+ community and has said “some pretty defamatory things about some of the drag artists” within the community.
“In southwestern Ontario, we have seen an increase of [Pollock’s] presence in a lot of these anti-choice anti-LGBTQ+ groups, and so there are quite a few people that have had online interactions with Bubba.”
In her statement on Tuesday, Leroux said she wanted to make sure other advocates saw the outcome of the trial.
“I don’t want any youth to ever get afraid or people in the community to be afraid or worried,” she said.
“Yes I’m emotional, yes it’s done things to me, but I will be okay at the end of the day because he said he’s guilty today.”
Bubba Pollock is reportedly set to return to court for pre-sentencing on 29 February, where a final trial date will be set.
How did this story make you feel?
Sending reaction…
Thanks for your feedback!