Larry Botrie
Toronto ON / Oct. 26, 1968
On Friday, October 26 1968 a 23-year-old man and two boys aged 14 and 15 decided to go to Midland, ON to visit a friend. Their plan was to rob a taxi driver, "tie him to a tree somewhere" and take his car for the trip. To carry out their plan they took along a butcher's knife and a .30-30 rifle wrapped in cloth.
Larry Botrie, a 26-year-old immigrant from Lebanon, was the taxi driver who picked them up. Botrie lived with one of his two brothers, both of whom were also Toronto taxi drivers. He planned to return to Lebanon the following month to marry and bring his bride back to Canada.
Botrie was nicknamed "The Arab" by other Metro Cab drivers. "In my books he was a damn good guy," said one of them. "He was always kibitzing around. Just before he picked up a fare he stuck a $2 bill in my windshield and said: 'There's a ticket for you.' I turned on the wipers and he grabbed it back in a hurry."
Botrie quickly became suspicious of his passengers and asked them for the fare in advance. When one of the juveniles told him they had no money he pulled into onto a gas station lot and threatened to call the police. A struggle ensued and as the taxi rolled to a stop just short of the pumps the attendant saw Botrie pulling on the barrel of the rifle held by the 23-year-old man.
Botrie lost his grip on the barrel when he opened the taxi door. As he ran from the car shouting for the attendant to call the police the killer shot him twice in the back. Botrie had apparently seized the butcher knife which was found underneath his body.
The killer then got into the driver's seat and drove across four lanes of traffic, a median strip and a ditch before trying to drive up the off-ramp from Highway 401. Here the car stalled and rolled back into the ditch and the three passengers sat in it for almost five minutes. Meanwhile a passing ambulance picked up Botrie and rushed him to hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The trio eventually left the cab, walked eastward along Highway 401 and then cut through back yards as witnesses called police with a steady stream of tips. A patrol sergeant confronted the killer behind a Sheppard Avenue home and shot him dead when he raised his rifle. The juveniles were found hiding in a tool shed.
Botrie's death coincided with a campaign by Osgoode Hall law professor Allen Linden to broaden Ontario's Law Enforcement Compensation Act. Linden surveyed 167 victims of robbery and violent crimes committed in 1966 and found that only three of them had been able to collect any kind of damages.
In 1968 the Act covered only people who suffered loss while assisting the police and the Botrie family's initial claim was rejected on the grounds that Botrie was already dead when police arrived on the scene.
In June, 1969 the Act was amended to allow awards of up to $10,000 for all innocent persons injured by criminals. In September the Ontario Law Enforcement Compensation Board ruled that Botrie's mother and brother were entitled to compensation, the amount to be decided later.
Botrie's body was returned for burial to Lebanon where his mother still lived.
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