hamilton – The Hungover Pundit

Police and Trust Two Years Later

Given the recent tide of outrage against anti-vaxxers demonstrating at hospitals, there’s been an increasing amount of discussion on the role of the police in this country; specifically, why the police can’t seem to do anything about anti-vaxx protests, and yet can somehow behave very aggressively towards indigenous activists and homeless encampments.

Ordinary Canadians are increasingly shocked that this one-sided approach to policing is occurring… while LGBTQ+ people, people of colour and above all indigenous communities have been stifling the urge to jump up and down and scream “we told you so.”

I for one welcome the fact that straight white people can see a massive injustice when it parks itself in front of an ambulance bay and blocks traffic and I’m pleased that they’re finally asking why the police are allowed to let one group slide while cracking down hard on others.

This is a critically important discussion. Police in Canada and especially in Ontario have no meaningful oversight of their actions and have a great deal of discretion in how they decide to go about “maintaining law and order.” It’s a situation rife for abuse and injustice, and desperately needs reform. I’ve been writing about that need for a long time now… and sadly I suspect I’ll have to continue to write about it for a long time to come.

Pride 2019 Part 8 – Conclusions

This afternoon lawyer Scott Bergman is presenting his independent review into the events surrounding Hamilton Pride 2019 to Hamilton’s city council.

As I posted earlier this week, I’ve been working through Mr. Bergman’s report, and I’ve been generally quite impressed by it. When I wrote my earlier post, I was still slogging through Part 7 – The HPS Culture, Training and Initiatives, and it was difficult going, especially as it clearly demonstrated an inherent bias against “anarchists from The Tower.”

The Tower’s organizing collective issued a response to the independent report yesterday, and it’s pretty blunt about both the shortcomings of the report – particularly the recommended responses – and pessimistic about the report’s impact on policing in Hamilton.

(Full disclosure: I am not a part of the seven-member organizing collective, although I am very much in support of and stand in solidarity with both this specific statement and with the actions and efforts of both The Tower and Hamilton’s anarchist community generally.)

And, having been so glowing in my praise for Mr. Bergman’s efforts in the early part of the report, I also have to say that I was also rather disappointed upon reading Part 8 – Recommendations.

Pride 2019 Part 7 – The Reports

For the first time in quite a while I’m getting back to the blog. I’m going to do my usual caveats: between health problems, the COVID-19 lockdown (we’re currently on day 101 of a very strict self-isolation) other projects, major dental surgery and a family crisis, I’ve let my writing fall by the wayside. I need to stop doing that, I know. Inertia is difficult to overcome when you’re in pain, and that’s an explanation, not an excuse.

Ironically, the other problem I’ve faced is that there’s so much going on in the world that it’s difficult to get started. With the coronavirus pandemic, the anti-lockdown/paranoid racist protests, the murder of George Floyd and the ensuing massive reaction across the US and the world, the ongoing police violence towards protesters… it’s overwhelming. As a writer, having too much to address is often as bad as too little.

Like, where do you start?

Well in my case, I’m going to start with yesterday’s release of Scott Bergman’s Independent Review Into The Events Surrounding Hamilton Pride 2019. (The full 125-page report can be downloaded in PDF format from the criminal-lawyers.ca website, and the executive summary has been published at in its entirety at Raise The Hammer.) Mr. Bergman’s report was commissioned by the City of Hamilton to understand what happened before, during and after last year’s attack by hate groups against Hamilton Pride, particularly regarding the behaviour and reactions of the Hamilton Police Service.

Pride 2019 Part 6 — Not The Way Forward

Last Friday CBC’s Samantha Craggs published a story about the Hamilton Police Service’s post-Pride analysis; apparently she’d gotten a copy of a document called “The Way Forward“, outlining the response to “concerns raised by members of the LGBTQ at a meeting in August.” Along with a great deal of pious insincerity about how “[The HPS] is committed to self-reflection — words matter” and how they “must consider the impact of its words, active listening and working towards restoring trust” the document proposes an “action plan” for the HPS to improve their relationship to the LGBTQ+ community in Hamilton, including several specific recommendations:

– The creation of an “online portal” to educate the general public about hate crimes.
– Implementing “more officer training.”
– Resurrecting the long-defunct LGBTQ+ advisory committee.
– Appointing a uniformed officer to be an “official liaison” with the LGBTQ+ community

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.