Report shows steady 'procedural' progress between Hamilton police and LGBTQ residents

Hamilton police have acted on 34 of 38 recommendations that stemmed from a damning report about improving its relationship with the city's queer and trans communities.

The Hamilton Police Services board will discuss a report today that shows the service has completed six of the 38 recommendations and is working on 28 of them. It hasn't started four of them yet.

"Building a relationship of mutual trust will take years," said the report from Chief Eric Girt. "However, HPS is committed to the complex work that lies ahead."

Items marked completed include an apology to the board and the LGBTQ community, which Girt did during a meeting on June 11. That apology covered not only police response to a violent 2019 Pride festival in Gage Park, but comments he made on the radio afterward that included references to sodomy. He also said more needs to be done to protect LGBTQ residents.

Several items listed as "in progress" involve planning and police presence at the next Pride in the Park event. The event was virtual this year because of COVID-19.

The "not started" items include a draft statement with Pride organizers and police around the role of police at the next event, and hiring a facilitator to work with police and the community.

Graham Crawford, a local LGBTQ resident who criticized police response at the 2019 festival, says it's good that there's movement. It remains to be seen if HPS has made the cultural and attitudinal changes an independent investigator said needed to happen. Nothing on the list indicates that, he said.

"Going through each of the items and looking at the updates and actions, it seems very procedural," he said. "It doesn't appear they're addressing the fundamental root causes."

Dates back to a 2019 Pride festival

Hamilton police were criticized last year after violence broke out at the 2019 Pride festival.

A religious group bearing Biblical signs crashed the festival, and through a loud speaker, said Pride attendees were sinful. The group was accompanied by people with ties to yellow vest and Proud Boys groups who'd been demonstrating at city hall every Saturday.

A group of people in pink masks, many of them associated with a local anarchist group, used a large black curtain to block the protesters from view. Violence broke out and several people were injured. 

One protester was arrested, three counter-protesters were charged and one person was arrested who was later found to not be at the festival. Only one of the people arrested came from the protesting side.

People criticized HPS for what they perceived to be a slow response that favoured the protesters. Girt said on the radio that police would have deployed differently if they'd been invited to the event. 

'We're at spare time'

Earlier this year, lawyer Scott Bergman released an independent report saying the police response was "inadequate," and the relationship between HPS and LGBTQ residents needed mending.

"Public comments from the chief of police and from the HPS after Pride 2019 demonstrated a lack of concern for the LGBTQIA+ communities," Bergman wrote. "The responses failed to demonstrate an understanding of what community members had experienced at Pride 2019."

Since then, HPS has appointed Det. Const. Rebecca Moran as an LGBTQ liaison officer. However, Moran does that outside of her full-time detective work. "We're not even at part time yet," Crawford said. "We're at spare time."

One of the items marked as "in progress" is the function and goal of Moran's role, and a terms of service. 

The board meeting starts at 1 p.m., and will be live streamed.