hamilton – Page 2 – The Hungover Pundit

The Mohawk College Protest

I’m only publishing one blog post this week. I was hoping to do a detailed reportback of the events of the weekend — all the protests and counter protests and the 2019 Toronto Anarchist Bookfair — but in truth, I’ve been having trouble writing it. After a frustrating couple of days of starting and stopping, I’ve come to realize why: It’s difficult to write a summary when the events feel like they’re still ongoing.

What We’re Doing Wrong

I’ve noticed some worrisome trends in the anti-hate movement in Hamilton and I feel that its time to address some of those concerns before they grow too big to handle. I’m going to start with a caveat: This isn’t directed any any specific individual. If you feel like I’m talking about you, well, suppress the urge to be outraged and ask why you feel singled out. It’s not my intention to upset folks, but there are issues developing within the movement that need to be addressed.

I’m also going to add a second caveat: This is not about me virtue-signalling, which is nine-times-out-of-ten a pejorative term used by the alt-right and other bad-faith actors in order to shut down legitimate criticism and necessary self-examination. I’m speaking, throughout, as a white cis-male activist who’s got twenty years of experience in progressive circles, and mea culpa, I still fuck up more often than I’d like.

This post is intended as constructive criticism, with a definite emphasis on constructive. But it still needs to be said and from the basis of someone with experience, I’m going to step forward and say it. And frankly, if it pisses you off then it pisses you off… but do us both the courtesy of honestly examining why.

First, let me address what we’re doing right: We’re keeping the pressure on the fascists. We’re refusing to allow fascists, racists, homophobes and other organized hate groups uncontested access to public spaces in Hamilton and elsewhere… and while it might seem like a sisyphean task, it’s an essential one. The hate groups are trying to outlast us; we simply cannot let that happen.

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.

Working In Solidarity

It was another chaotic weekend in Hamilton as hate groups once again took over the forecourt at Hamilton City Hall. This time it wasn’t the Yellow Vests, whose dwindling numbers have scattered around the city in increasingly ill-attended and ineffective demonstrations, but instead the Soldiers of Odin & their co-nouns the Wolves of Odin.

At around eleven on Saturday morning word came out over various social media platforms that a large group of Nouns of Odin had showed up in their branded leather BDSM bottoming-vests, and were acting aggressively toward the small number of No Hate in the Hammer counter-protesters, including women and children. Officers from Hamilton Police Service were present, of course, but multiple reports state they concentrated more on herding the No Hate crowd into a corner than actually policing aggressive and violent neo-Nazis, who were allowed to freely move among the anti-hate counter-protesters, to the detriment of order and safety.

The social media callout included an urgent request for more counter-protesters to make their way to City Hall and the community began to turn out almost immediately, including, and very much to her credit, Ward 1 councillor Maureen Wilson, who left a family event on Locke Street in order to attend at the forecourt. (My spouse and I considered driving into the city, but it’s an almost hour-long trip each way and we assumed, wrongly as it turned out, that we’d not have been able to make it in time to contribute.)

Christianity and Hate

Another week, another counter-protest in Hamilton, complete with Yellow Vest fascist fuckery on a variety of levels, including a yellow-vester attacking three anti-fascist protesters, police inaction, my being called “faggot” and “cocksucker” by one of the so-called “christian” contingent and — interestingly — Yellow Vest leader Justin Long making a speech denouncing racism and homophobia and singling out noted homophobic demonstrator Lily, in the same vein as his rambling wall of text announcement on Facebook last Friday.

Basically, being called a racist and homophobic fascist hurts his feelings and contributes to a media climate where the Yellow Vesters are viewed as fascists, so Long claims they won’t be racist anymore and everyone needs to stop being mean because that makes you the real fascists. And he can’t be a racist because he has a Jamaican girlfriend. And also American History X fits in there somewhere as well.

Insert derisive noise here.

I’m not going to bother to analyze Justin Long’s statements, because I genuinely doubt he’s sincere. And even if he is sincere, words are cheap; I’ll cling to my skepticism until I see some real action on the part of the Yellow Vests to reform their membership. And I won’t be holding my breath, even because the most cursory glance at the public pages of Yellow Vests Canada shows that nothing has changed: Their public pages are still full of racist, Islamophobic and homophobic comments, along with the usual torrent of abuse directed at the Prime Minister. God knows what the private pages are saying.