ACAB

No Justice, No Peace

Last Wednesday, 23 October, the Hamilton Police Service began arresting left-wing activists for so-called “criminal offences” committed at the protest at Mohawk College. Charges against these activists include “intimidation”, “cause disturbance”, “obstruct police” and “theft under $5000”. That “theft” charge, by the way, was levelled against a female anti-fascist protester who was attacked by neo-Nazi Andre Chiasson; her “theft” involved grabbing the Canadian flag he had fastened to a hockey stick which he had converted into a sort of spear, complete with sharpened point and custom grip… and which he was actively attacking the woman with.

She was charged with theft for defending herself while being attacked by an armed neo-Nazi in the presence of police.

This is typical of the police response to right-wing violence in Hamilton. Frankly, all the charges were trumped-up and all the people charged were victims of violence from far-right groups… groups which, it is now clear by their own boasting, deliberately attended the event to commit violent acts against protesters and on behalf of the People’s Party of Canada. Under the guise of “working security”, they committed multiple felony assaults against left-wing protesters… with the apparent cooperation and approval of the Hamilton Police Service.

Police and Trust

It’s been a disheartening couple of days in progressive Hamilton politics. First, Hamilton Police Chief Eric Girt went on CHML’s Bill Kelly Show and gave an absolutely appalling interview which featured the chief, when asked about the HPS’ relationship with the LGBTQ+ community, promoting and supporting the worst sort of homophobic stereotypes of queer people. It’s just… wow. If you care to listen — and I admit that I couldn’t get through the whole segment — the relevant portion of the interview starts about 22:45 if you click the link above, but his comments referenced public sex, pedophilia and the rather asinine complaint that police are actually quite tolerant because they even protect demonstrators that have signs “that say Eff The Police.”

The response from the LGBTQ+ community was immediate, loud, and justifiably upset. Chief Girt has since issued a patently insincere “apology” which notably failed to include any substantive commitment to doing better, just the usual — and it has become routine by now — increasingly hollow claim that the HPS is committed to repairing the relationship with the LGBTQ+ community.

I’m going to repeat myself here but I think it bears repeating: Any attempt to repair that relationship is going to require a genuine action. To start: dropping all charges against the Pride defenders. Arrests of the actual violent hate group members which attacked Hamilton’s Pride. A genuine and sincere apology to the LGBTQ+ community for deliberately withholding police protection from Pride. And, it’s become clear, the resignation of Police Chief Eric Girt who has not only failed in his professional duty to an absurd degree but who clearly holds homophobic and transphobic prejudices that have no place in a modern police force.

We cannot move forward when it’s obvious that the police chief lacks the slightest amount of respect for or understanding of the LGBTQ+ community.

It’s been a very busy Labour Day weekend in Ontario, especially on the anti-hate activism front. The ARC collective has put together an excellent summary, so I’ll just link to it here rather than re-cap it, but there is one thing that isn’t listed in that summary because the news just came out this morning: Hamilton is permitting infamous white nationalist and Holocaust-denier Paul Fromm to address city council on the issue of “free speech.”

Fromm, you may remember, has been repeatedly banned from Parliament Hill in order to — and this is a direct quote — “to preserve the dignity and integrity of the House.” And yet, Hamilton City Council sees fit to grant this literal Nazi the privilege of addressing council complaining that racists and homophobes might be denied their free speech.

That’s Fromm on the right, in the White Pride World Wide t-shirt. Charming.

That’s right. A neo-Nazi gets to address council to complain that a plan to prevent violent hate groups from using city space is a “Free Speech issue.” Hell, it’s not even a plan yet, city council has been dragging it’s damn feet on the whole issue all summer while the Yellow Vests and the Whichever-Nouns-of-Odin have been demonstrating, threatening and occasionally assaulting counter-protesters… often with the apparent support and assistance of the Hamilton Police Service.

No Hate In the Hammer Reportback, Part II

In Part I of this post, I gave a detailed reportback (as the activists parlance puts it) on the No Hate In the Hammer rally at Hamilton City Hall last Saturday, August 10th 2019. In this part I’m going to do some analysis of both the rally and its position within the larger crisis in Hamilton.

To start with, a quick update: Six days after the rally and its violent, chaotic climax (or nadir, if you prefer) there’s been a lot of ongoing discussion in the community following last Saturday’s rally. Unfortunately, very little of that discussion has been optimistic. There was a suggestion, early in the week, that since so many people supporting the “No Hate” crowd have kids, that perhaps a kid’s area should be created at the counter-protest; one person even volunteered to host a “Drag Queen Story Hour”, which I consider an absolutely charming idea.

Sadly, though, the discussion quickly morphed from creating a child-friendly space to whether it would be a child-safe space… which then shifted to whether City Hall can be considered a safe place to bring children at all. And in light of previous threats and attacks against counter-protesters’ children, the fact that a disturbed white supremacist drove a bus up onto the curb to intimidate protesters, and the utter failure (or perhaps refusal) of the Hamilton Police Service to cordon off or contain the Yellow Vesters, I’m sorry to say that the general consensus is that no, the forecourt of City Hall is not currently a safe environment for children.

Pride 2019 Part 2 – Under Attack

Last week I wrote a blog post about titled Pride 2019 about the pressures on LGBTQ Pride celebrations this year and the context in which they occur. Near the end of that post I stated “So here we are, partway though Pride 2019. We’re here, we’re queer, we’re commodified and divided and we’re under attack by religious bigots, the alt-right and literal fucking Nazis… and we’re supposed to rely on the same police who have repeatedly broken the trust of our community to protect us.”

Yeah, I really hate being right. Four days after I wrote that, Hamilton Ontario’s Pride celebration was attacked. On the morning of Saturday June 15th 2019 a group of extreme-right wing religious protesters met up with a group of the neo-fascist Yellow Vests and the neo-Nazi Canadian Nationalist Party members who have been congregating at Hamilton Ontario’s City Hall every Saturday and then marched on the Pride celebration at Gage Park with the clear intent of violently disrupting the proceedings.