LGBTQ advisory committee to meet with mayor, declines sit down with police

Representatives of Hamilton's LGBTQ advisory committee will meet with Mayor Fred Eisenberger Wednesday morning.

But, the committee voted unanimously not to attend a separate meeting with Police Chief Eric Girt and other members of the police service scheduled to take place the day after.

Instead, they decided to invite the chief and any other police to present a delegation to the committee during one of its meetings.

The committee's decision on both meetings was made during its gathering Tuesday and came down to its mandate, which states it exists to eliminate barriers faced by LGBTQ communities and to evaluate and make recommendations to the city based on its efforts to address issues and concerns.

Meeting with the mayor falls under the mandate — the committee determined — and meeting with police does not.

"I legitimately don't believe it's appropriate for this committee to be asked to or to be providing advice to bodies other than who we're mandated to," explained committee member James Diemert during the discussion about meeting with police.

Diemert added the chief and any other members of the service are "all welcome" to attend one of the committee's meetings.

While much of the discussion was focused on the committee's role, several members also raised concerns about the troubled relationship between the city's LGBTQ community and police, both historically and in recent months following violence and arrests at Pride.

Violetta Nikolskaya pointed out meeting with law enforcement could be "painful for those who have been criminalized and continually oppressed by Hamilton police."

Two committee members said they would be interested in attending as individuals, but Diemert said only being invited as representatives of a specific body could raise issues.

"I feel like being perceived to be cooperating with that sort of criticized tactic is something that might damage our reputation with the community as well as could be construed as overstepping."

After the meeting, chair Cameron Kroetsch explained the committee's decisions saying, "The best thing for the police to do if they want to have a conversation with our committee is ... put a delegation request in, make your presentation and then we'll have an interactive question and answer period."

Police trying to 'move towards a better place'

The meeting came just days before other members of the city's LGBTQ community are set to meet with police on Thursday.

A police spokesperson said 22 people are expected to attend the gathering at an offsite, neutral location on Thursday, Aug. 29 from 6 to 8 p.m.

Jackie Penman described the meeting as an "initial conversation" where police will "listen first-hand to community concerns" and work with the LGBTQ community to "move towards a better place." 

The meetup follows months of disagreement between police and the city's LGBTQ community after violence at the city's Pride Festival that erupted when religious protesters with homophobic signs showed up.

Pink-masked anarchists set up a black barrier to block the signs, and the two groups and attendees clashed. 

Pride Hamilton said the police took too long to respond to the violence. And others have decried some of the arrests, pointing out that police arrested three of the pink-masked counter-protestors, but only one religious protestor. 

Autum Getty brought up the arrests during Tuesday's meeting, saying they represent a barrier of sorts between the community and police.

"I feel at this point there are still people who have been charged with dubious crimes, in my opinion," she said. "I think those need to be addressed by police before we can look at seriously cooperating with police as a community."

Following the meeting, Kroetsch said despite not sitting down with police, there are things he hopes will happen during the meeting.

"What I do hope is ... that the meeting is representative of the community. That they've done a good job of reaching out to as many people as possible so we just don't have the same folks who are always around the table around the table, that we have trans folks, non-binary folks, people of colour, two-spirit people, and youth at the table."

In contrast, to the discussion around police, Diemert pointed out that sitting down with the mayor or councillors is "literally what we're for," but added there are concerns from some in the community that "closed-door, invite-only meetings ... are not an appropriate way forward."

Getty added there are some in the community who made the argument the committee should be invited to meet with the mayor.

"I think we should respect that they want us to be there," she said.

Still, even when it comes to sitting down with the mayor, Kroetsch said what they'll be able to discuss will be limited.

When they were invited to participate they were told the discussion would be broadly based on the topic of hate in Hamilton, he explained, but they weren't given a sense of what's on the agenda.

Committee stresses transparency

Either way, Kroetsch said the committee's representatives are only able to talk about subjects it has already covered in its own meeting. That means most of what they'll be able to discuss will be based on the committee's motion from May 15 that raised issues around the city raising the Pride flag and the selection process for the Hamilton Police Services Board.

"I'm not sure exactly what advice the mayor is asking for." he added after the meeting. "We'll get there. We'll find out. We might have to take it back to the committee."

Kroetsch said going forward being open and accountable are keys for the committee.

"It's important that this is transparent. If we ever want to build trust in our community and demonstrate that we're actually a representative body or have the capacity to be one … then we have to talk the talk, walk the walk."