Cedar Hopperton released from jail a month after fiery comments at Hamilton city hall

A Hamilton anarchist whose recent incarceration was a flashpoint of anger for some in the LGBTQ community has been released.

Cedar Hopperton, 33, had been in jail since June 22 following a fiery speech at Hamilton city hall about police response to violence at a Pride festival three days earlier.

The Ontario Parole Board said Hopperton, who uses the pronoun "they", violated their parole conditions related to a 2018 conviction for anti-gentrification vandalism on Locke Street last year.

Hopperton incited violence, the board ruled, at a community forum in city council chambers June 18. Hopperton urged the queer and transgender communities to learn to use "measured force" themselves in response to oppression, since police couldn't be trusted. Hopperton also told a Hamilton Police Service deputy chief in the room to "get the f--k out."

The Tower, an anarchist social space with which Hopperton is associated, posted on Facebook Tuesday that Hopperton was out, along with a photo of Hopperton holding a "Free Cedar" poster.

"The rumours are true, and this time it's a good thing — Cedar is free!," The Tower said. "A statement with more details is forthcoming."

Asaf Rashid, Hopperton's lawyer in the parole board challenge, confirmed that Hopperton was released in relation to some credited time around their incarceration, but didn't have details. Hopperton was initially due to be released at the end of July.

Hamilton police initially said in a media release that Hopperton was at a Pride festival at Gage Park, when protesters with a loudspeaker and homophobic signs crashed the festival, and a Tower-associated group of counter-protesters in pink masks blocked them with a large black barrier. Violence followed and several people were injured.

The parole board dismissed the notion that Hopperton was at Pride.