Richard Burnett

Richard Burnett, also known as Bugs Burnett, is a Canadian writer, editor, journalist, and columnist. He is known as an often controversial fixture of the Montreal media, with his writing sometimes attracting attention internationally.

In 2017, CBC Arts wrote that "If you live in Montreal and you go out at night, you know Richard "Bugs" Burnett. Perhaps that's an understatement. If you live in Montreal and go outside, you know Burnett. Existentially speaking, if Richard Burnett does not attend your event, it might be said that your event never happened." Over the last decade, his column has been dropped by a Winnipeg weekly after complaints about its graphic content, and underwent an investigation by the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary for being 'pornographic'. Current Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair is no fan of the man, after Burnett outed him [in 1997] - not out of malice but because Burnett felt that Boisclair, a PQ cabinet minister at the time, was being hypocritical and hurtful.

Burnett was also editor-at-large of Montreal's alternative newsweekly Hour for 15 years until the newspaper published its last issue on April 7, 2011. Burnett wrote his POP TART blog for the Montreal Gazette from 2011 to 2016,

Burnett also got the last-ever sit-down interview with James Brown before Brown died on December 25, 2006.

Burnett has been writing for the Montreal-based LGBT magazine Fugues (magazine), since 1995.

As his career has progressed, he has devoted a significant amount of his writing into covering opera. and made international headlines—including in Jamaica's national newspaper The Jamaica Gleaner —after Sizzla told Burnett, "[Homosexuality] is wrong! Once we stoop to sodomites and homosexuals, it is wrong! ... Burn all things that are wrong. Burn it... We must get rid of Sodom and Gomorrah right now."

In 2005, Burnett was quoted about rising new HIV infections in a POZ cover story called "Bite the Bullet" as saying that "If you want to play God, [deliberately] spread HIV and ruin other lives in the process—then do us all a g------ favor and put a f------ bullet through your head instead."

Burnett made more headlines when he criticized the Federation of Gay Games decision to revoke Montreal's 2006 Gay Games after the FGG's acrimonious split with Montreal organizers. "If the Gay Games are the Uganda of the sports world, then the FGG is Idi Amin," Burnett wrote.

Burnett also riled many Canadians when he critiqued the medals of Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympics. "The gold and bronze medals look like melted chocolate someone pulled out of their back pocket," Burnett told the Associated Press. "The silver medal looks like it still has foil wrap on it."

Cultural impact Burnett was named one of Alberta-based Outlooks magazine's Canadian Heroes of the Year in their June 2009 issue, and was listed by Quebec's French-language gay publication Fugues as one of that province's 100 most influential gay Quebecers. "As Michael Musto is to New York City, Richard Burnett is to Montreal," The Montreal Buzz stated in April 2010.

Throughout his career, Burnett has been known as a prominent figure in Montreal's nightlife scene. In 2017, CBC Arts wrote that "If you live in Montreal and you go out at night, you know Richard "Bugs" Burnett. Perhaps that's an understatement. If you live in Montreal and go outside, you know Burnett. Existentially speaking, if Richard Burnett does not attend your event, it might be said that your event never happened."