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.
Vanderweide was released on a $1000 bond and ordered to live with his surety (and fellow Northern Guard hate-group member) Joshua Peyton, not to attend public gatherings unless accompanied by said surety, not to be in Hamilton except for scheduled court appearances, and not to possess weapons. Venderweide also cannot contact his victim during the trial process.
It’s notable that his bail conditions do not include a ban on associating with hate groups, nor a ban on approaching Pride events. In fact, these bail conditions are so lenient that one disgusted LGBTQ community member rhetorically asked “His conditions are that he has to have backup?”
The narrative the alt-right attackers have adopted around Hamilton Pride is that Vanderweide is a Christian who was “defending a preacher.” Never mind that hate preacher Phillip Ness-Thomas was himself caught on video shouting encouragement during the assaults against counter-protesters (although he changes his tune PDQ when his boys start losing the fight, but he has not been charged for his role in inciting violence), the Yellow-Vests and their allied fascist groups are busily selling the lie that they’re the victims in the Pride situation.
I would like to remind everyone, again, that the groups and individuals who attacked people at Hamilton Pride weren’t the victims. They came armed and armoured for a confrontation and they assaulted the Pink Bloc protesters who were trying to protect Pride-goers in the absence of a police response. The Pink Bloc tactic, which I applaud, was to non-violently raise a black fabric barrier between the families at Pride and the hate groups spewing homophobia. For that, they were physically attacked by fascists and have since been persecuted by the Hamilton Police Service, who I assume are motivated largely by embarrassment. Certainly the police aren’t doing a damn thing to investigate the Yellow Vests in Hamilton, despite the fact that the Yellow-Vests are an openly racist and homophobic group whose leadership encourages violence against counter-protesters, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ people.
And quick note: Those same “preachers” and their fascist allies are apparently planning on “disrupting” (read: attacking) the Pride celebrations in London Ontario this weekend. No word on whether Helmet Guy is going to armour up and join them.
At the same time that Vanderweide and his supporters were gathered at the Hamilton courthouse, the Hamilton Police Services Board meeting was underway at City Hall. Despite Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s penchant for closed-door meetings that exclude the very communities they’re supposed to be addressing, yesterday’s Police Services Board meeting was open to the public. Briefly. About twenty minutes in the gallery full of angry and frustrated queers responded to Detective Paul Corrigans’ frankly tone-deaf presentation on hate crime with derision, and Eisenberger ordered the room cleared. It was obvious he had been waiting for the excuse. The meeting continued later as a closed-door one, but at least community deputations were allowed to make their presentations to the board; Pride Hamilton’s deputation has been praised as particularly articulate and helpful… and will almost certainly be ignored by a police service and city council which seems determined not to acknowledge any criticism.
It’s also worth noting that later in the afternoon Eisenburger re-opened the meeting to the public once with the statement that he “didn’t see anyone outside who might disrupt proceedings”… by which we can assume he meant anarchists and known LGBTQ+ activists. Or, as he has described them in the past “agitators who pretend to represent queer and trans groups.” This is Eisenberger’s gatekeeping at its most blatant. He has clearly decided that the only “real” LGBTQ+ people are ones who look and act a certain way… and who agree with him politically. All the rest of us are fake queers who can be safely dismissed.
Well, I’ve got bad news for Mayor Frank Eisenberger of Hamilton, Ontario: He doesn’t get to decide who’s in a community and who isn’t… especially when he’s not part of that community. He doesn’t get to decide based on political convenience, and he certainly doesn’t get to try and divide the very community whose concerns he’s busily ignoring.
Last weekend I attended an LGBTQ+ community rally at City Hall. Hundreds of people — more than a thousand at the event’s peak — came out to protest the city’s inactivity regarding pride, to counter-protest the Yellow Vests, and mostly to make the statement “We’re here, we’re queer, and we will not live in fear.” The event brought together a wide array of LGBTQ+ people and their allies and featured at its heart an LGBTQ+ encampment by many of the very same “fake queers” that Eisenberger has been decrying. Despite the presence of a handful of Yellow Vesters (they were forced out of the park and onto the far side of the street) the day was entirely peaceful and enormously empowering for a community which has been under attack, not only at Pride but almost continuously since.
The hate preachers attack us. Fascist groups like the Yellow Vests and the Canadian Nationalist attack us. Apparently the Hamilton Police Service gets to victim-blame us and make their protection of us conditional and arrest us if we get too uppity. And the elected mayor of Hamilton gets to call us fake and pretenders and use that as an excuse to ignore our genuine fears for our safety.
Since the Pride attack, six people have been arrested. One was Cedar Hopperton, accused by HPS of a parole violation that turned out to be completely bogus. Three more were anarchists and activists likewise accused of parole violations. A fifth was arrested for a non-violent protest on the mayor’s lawn. Only one of the six arrests was an attacker — Chris Vanderweide — and he’s out on bail despite the fact that he went on to attack more people at Toronto Pride the next week and has threatened to attack more people still. There have been no further arrests of the Pride attackers, and as time goes on it’s becoming increasingly clear that there won’t be. Not because arrests and charges aren’t possible but because the Hamilton Police Service doesn’t seem to want to bother and are using the flimsiest of excuses to justify their inaction.
This asymmetrical approach to the enforcement of community safety is unacceptable, but unsurprising. As any minority or person on colour can tell you, police protection is entirely conditional on police being willing to enforce it and cops aren’t typically interested in protecting people they view as inconvenient. Anarchists are inconvenient. People of colour are inconvenient. Queers are inconvenient.
White supremacists? Homophobes? Violent hate groups? Apparently they get a pass. We can all speculate on the reasons why.
If there’s a silver lining to this situation, it’s that LGBTQ+ people in Hamilton/Niagara and across Ontario are carefully watching the situation and seem to be pulling together, not apart. Thousands of people and dozens of organizations have voiced their support of the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton and their disappointment with the way the situation has been handled. Cedar Hopperton’s imprisonment became a cause célèbre which garnered international attention. Eisenberger, City Council and the Hamilton Police Service are being scrutinized for their terrible handling of the situation.
Cedar Hopperton is out of jail, yes, but we still have queer comrades facing unjust charges for defending Pride and criticizing — rightfully! — the police response or lack thereof. Chris Vanderweide, a violent thug, is walking the streets and his confederates can be confident that they’re able to inflict homophobic violence without police intervention or charges.
This is not going to be an easy struggle. The LGBTQ+ community is under attack in ways that it hasn’t been for years, and it’s clear that the police can’t be relied upon to protect us. Only we can protect us. What’s needed is to continue to stand together in solidarity. Suburban middle-class gays need to back up the queer anarchists and trans-activists and uppity troublemakers — all the “fake queers” that Eisenberger and his ilk would love to silence — because they’re the people on the front line. They’re resisting in ways that many LGBTQ+ people can’t, for whatever reason: safety, abled-ness, outed-ness, whatever. Everybody’s got their own situation and I don’t judge… but the time is coming when we all need to stand together as an LGBTQ community.
And we also need to stand in solidarity with others who are oppressed and under threat: People of colour, indigenous people, anarchists, socialists, anti-fascists, sex workers, people with disabilities, aneurotypical people, people with mental illnesses, survivors of violence and abuse, victims of the police state, the uninsured, striking workers, trans- and gender-diverse folx, homeless people, refugees and “illegal” immigrants and prisoners.
As my partner, who’s of Jewish heritage, once stated to me — “If the Nazis would have sent them to a camp, then I’m with them.” We are rapidly approaching a world where that isn’t just hyperbole, but a plain statement of fact.
Pick your side.
