WINNIPEG - He stabbed and beheaded a man on a Greyhound bus last year, but Vince Li is a good person - really.
That suggestion has been made on a poster advertising a music event to be held at the Cavern, a Winnipeg bar.
Trumpeting a Sept. 12 show featuring at least four musical acts, the ad includes a photograph of Li above the caption, "Good people," in addition to references to the event's food and cover charge.
"You would have a difficult time finding people who would say that's in good taste," said Rachel Tenbruggeneate while looking at the small poster taped to a pole along a sidewalk on the Osborne Street Bridge, just north of the Toad In the Hole.
"It's potentially painful for some people who may walk by."
Other pedestrians on the bridge also suggested that the ad's use of the image of the man who partly cannibalized Tim McLean's body near Portage la Prairie on July 30, 2008, is enough to turn stomachs.
"That's in bad taste, for sure," said Barrott, adding "it's too close" to the recent one-year anniversary of the tragedy to make such a reference - in humour or otherwise.
"I don't know if it would ever be appropriate, frankly," she added. "It would be in the best interests to take it down."
When contacted about the advertisement, Toad owner Michael Monk said he would promptly do just that.
Monk said he doesn't know who created and distributed the ad, "but I'm going to get to the bottom of it."
He stressed the poster is in "total poor taste," and shouldn't have been made or used.
"I did not know anything about this," Monk said. "And I've talked to my sound guy who does all my booking, and he didn't have any idea about it. So we're taking care of that. And rest assured all those posters will be coming down."
Li is being held in psychiatric care after a trial at which he was found not criminally responsible for the slaying.
Not all passersby who saw the poster, however, were turned off by it.
"I don't have a problem with it," said Sean Mauws.
