Complaint alleges a Hamilton police officer at Pride said violence is 'not my problem'

Ontario's police watchdog is investigating allegations that a Hamilton police officer refused to address a woman's report about the violent altercation at Pride, saying it was "not my problem" because police "weren't invited to Pride."

The officer referenced Hamilton police not getting a recruitment booth at the Pride event, said Caitlin Edwards, who filed the complaint with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD). The office is now looking into it.

Edwards said she was walking through Gage Park with her 11-year-old son when she saw protesters with homophobic signs clashing with Pride supporters.

Edwards quickly moved away from the altercation, she said, and approached two uniformed police officers.

Edwards said she told a female officer that a fight was happening behind a large black cloth barrier, which counter-protesters had set up around the protest group.

"Before I could get out all the words, she interrupted me and she spat out in a very irritated tone, 'Don't you remember that we weren't invited to Pride?'" said Edwards in an interview with CBC News.

Edwards said she was shocked, and responded saying she didn't know what the officer was talking about. She said she was just walking through the park, saw a fight and told an officer.

Violence at Hamilton Pride

5 years ago

Duration 0:18

Police have charged four people so far following physical confrontations at Hamilton Pride on June 15. (Video Courtesy: YouTube/Facts VS. Feelings)

The officer "snapped" at her again, said Edwards, and repeated her earlier statements, saying "we're just going to stand here."

Edwards said she got angry and started yelling at the officer that she wasn't doing her job. The officer yelled back, Edwards said. 

"She kept saying, 'It's not our problem. We weren't given a recruit tent, we weren't invited, we're not moving," said Edwards.

Hamilton Police Service wouldn't confirm these details, saying only that a conduct-related complaint has been filed with the OIPRD. The service said it won't comment to "respect that investigative process." Chief Eric Girt is also reviewing two service complaints, which deal with how "effectively and efficiently" a police service performs its duties.

The OIPRD also could not comment on Edwards's complaint, but said it has received "multiple complaints" in relation to the Hamilton Pride event. 

Edwards said during her altercation with the officer, another officer was on his phone a few feet away. She walked over to him, she said, but she didn't hear his response during the chaotic moment. She only references the female officer in her complaint.

The police walked toward the fight several minutes later, Edwards said, after she had walked some distance away and a Pride board member had spoken with the officers.

Edwards said Hamilton police reached out to her after she tweeted about the interaction.

Pride Hamilton has also criticized the police response to the violence, saying officers were not present in sufficient numbers and were too slow to break up the conflict.

Pride expected police to 'do their job'

Pride organizers had turned down Hamilton Police's request to have a recruiting booth at the Pride event, same as the year before.

The organization did not want armed uniformed officers inside the event area itself, but Pride still expected police to be nearby and "do their job," said board member Cameron Kroetsch — just as police had done the previous year.

Police knew about potential protests and officers were expected to be outside the event area to intercept potential violence, said Pride Hamilton.

Edwards said she couldn't understand why a uniformed police officer refused to address her report.

She was just a mom walking through a park who "saw a fight, told an officer," she said. "It just got so weird and so crazy with her telling me no."

'I don't trust the cops after what I saw'

Edwards said she was shocked and disappointed.

"I feel like the police in Hamilton are not protecting their community over hurt feelings," she said.
"I don't trust the cops after what I saw."

While Edwards was interacting with the officers, Kroetsch said he was also approaching them.

After Edwards had walked away, Kroetsch said, an officer told him they were not equipped to deal with the altercation and were calling in backup. He said he only heard the end of Edwards's interaction with police.

Police Chief Eric Girt has publicly referenced not being invited to the Pride event. He defended his department's response to the altercation during an interview in June.

Girt said police respected Pride's requests and officers would have been deployed differently had they been welcomed.

"We were asked not to be at the event and we remained on the perimeter," he said during a weekly Chief's Town Hall segment on CHML. There were officers in plain clothes on the festival grounds, he said, and several officers at city hall, where police believed a major altercation would take place.

The service did request to have a recruitment booth at Pride, Girt said. But he took "no offence" to police not getting a  booth, he said during a police services board meeting last week.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger responded to Edwards on Twitter, calling the idea that police declined to assist a "false narrative."

Edwards said that the mayor "would have been able to see first hand what happened" had he attended the Pride event.

Kroetsch hopes Edwards's complaint is taken very seriously, "because it's pretty disturbing."

The onus keeps falling on Pride Hamilton, Kroetsch said, but nothing had changed from the year before. Police showed up last year when protesters were in the exact same place.

Pride Hamilton has said that officers made "chilling comments" to board members after the violence, suggesting that had they granted police a recruitment booth, hired paid duty officers and allowed uniformed officers to patrol the event space, "things would have turned out differently."

Edwards said she hopes other police officers get a strong message.

"They cannot decline to help any community based on any sort of personal bias," she said.

"That's not the job that they chose."