Another Niagara
morning, sitting on my back deck with a cup of coffee… and I’m not
sure what to write about. I wanted to write about activism, socialist
theory and how direct
action works, but once again I’m being overwhelmed by current
events in Hamilton.
It’s been a rough
week, truth be told — I woke up yesterday to find my Twitter feed
showing two different accounts of homo- and transphobic harassment
(later in the day a third incident was added to that total), an
extended
thread on neo-nazi postering and stickering across the lower
city, another friend talking about the best self-defence knife to
carry for when (not if, but when)
they get jumped by neo-Nazis, and another friend sending
me direct messages looking for emotional support because the thought
of leaving their house and walking down a Hamilton street triggered a
severe anxiety attack.
As
I tweeted yesterday… this is what a crisis looks like.
I had planned a
quiet long weekend at the trailer with family, preferably without
looking at my phone. Campfires, barbecue, mosquito bites, no wifi…
the basic Civic Holiday weekend in Canada. Instead, and like the
majority of people in North America, I was mesmerized by the
appalling spectacle of two mass shootings in the US in under 24
hours. The first, of course, being the white
supremacy-motivated domestic terror attack at an El Paso Walmart,
the second a
more ambiguously-motivated attack outside a Dayton Ohio bar,
whose shooter had an online presence dominated by left-oriented posts
but whose terrorist act seems to have misogynist
and/or “incel” roots. Together, both shootings killed
more than thirty people.
It’s revelatory, however, to note how the right and the left reacted to each shooter. The El Paso shooter’s racist manifesto was immediately declared a false-flag operation by conspiracy theorists who then blamed the left. When it was reported that the Dayton shooter was a leftist, the left withheld judgment until it was proven, then turned that knowledge into self-examination.
This past Saturday,
July 27th, was Chris “Helmet Guy” Vanderweide’s so-called
“Rally Against Bullying” in Kitchener Ontario. It did not
go as well as he’d hoped, and has been described in local media
as a “fizzle.” This is because, despite the usual
grandiose alt-right claims only about a dozen hate-group members
attended the “rally.” Their numbers might possibly have
been depressed because Helmet Guy had spent the previous week in
an internet bitch-slap fight with the Nouns of Odin. In any case
Vanderweide
himself skipped his own rally for fear of breaking his bail
conditions — which suggests to me that someone finally explained to
him how bail conditions work.
Earlier this week, I
posted that Cedar Hopperton, the Hamilton-area activist who’d had
their parole revoked as revenge for a blistering critique of the
Hamilton Police Service’s shameful display of spite and incompetence
at Hamilton Pride, was released from jail. While the details are
still not public knowledge, a CBC story seemed to imply that their
release was on a
“credited time” technicality and not, as one would
hope, because anyone in the judicial system has a commitment to
actual justice.
I’m sorry, was that cynical?
I’m feeling cynical this morning, and it’s not just the hangover from one too many Dark and Stormies to beat the heat last night. (This blog’s name isn’t just being cute: I drink and I tend to write best in the early mornings while the house is still asleep; you do the math.) The reason I’m feeling cynical is that yesterday “Helmet Guy” Chris Vanderweide made bail on two charges of assault for his role in the attack on Hamilton Pride.
Just a quick unscheduled post to keep everyone updated – yesterday afternoon it was announced that Cedar Hopperton, the Hamilton anarchist and trans activist who was unjustly arrest and incarceration for the “parole violation” of exercising their free speech, was released from jail
There have been no further updates on the details and reasons about why this happy event came to be (the Tower, a Hamilton anarchist organizing space, has promised an update on its Facebook page, but as of this morning none has yet been posted.) The CBC article on this implies there was a “credited time” issue with Hopperton’s incarceration.
While is is obviously very welcome news for the LGBTQ+, trans, anarchist and anti-fascist communities in Hamilton (and also for Cedar themself), let there be no mistake: This isn’t over. At the very least the city and the police have a lot of questions to answer about why violent fascist hate groups are being allowed to use public space, why the HPS feels it can withdraw public protection on a whim, and the generally disastrous handling of the entire situation from day one.
Cedar Hopperton is free. However that came about, one less ongoing injustice can only be a good thing. But there’s a lot more work to be done, however much the mayor and the police might want this all to go away.
There are the Pride Defenders facing charges — those must be dropped. There must be an independent review of police conduct around Pride. There must be a review of the city’s conduct. Mayor Eisenberger must name and denounce the fascist hate groups who helped attack the Pride event. There must be transparency in LGBTQ+/city relations, not just closed-door meetings with handpicked “advisors.” And police must finally take action and arrest the violent homophobes and so-called “religious preachers” who attacked people in Hamilton and Toronto… and who are reportedly planning on doing it again at London Ontario’s Pride celebrations this week.
