Trans Activist Julie Berman Murdered in Toronto

Julie Berman, a woman long active in Toronto trans community, was found murdered on Sunday, The Globe and Mail reports.

Berman, suffering from head injuries, was discovered by Toronto police and brought to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. A 29-year-old man named Colin Harnack has been charged with second-degree murder.

Employed as a hairdresser, Berman has been active in the trans rights group The 519 for over three decades, according to the newspaper. Berman memorably delivered a speech at an event held for 2017's Trans Day of Remembrance, where she spoke of the injustice of transphobia and the murder of one of her friends, who was trans.

"It's really heartbreaking ... the same thing that she was trying to be vocal about happened to her," Davina Hader, a friend of the victim and a member of The 519, told The Globe and Mail.

Three trans people in Toronto have died from violence in the past couple years, according to the paper. There is an epidemic of anti-trans violence in the U.S., with at least 20 Black trans women murdered just this year.