Hamilton police complete over half of recommendations from report on 2019 Pride festival

The Hamilton Police Service (HPS) has completed more than half of the 38 recommendations it received after an independent investigator found the service responded inadequately and "failed to protect" LGBTQ attendees when violence broke out at a 2019 Pride festival.

Of the 16 recommendations the service is trying to complete, five focus on training and will continue over several years, Deputy Ryan Diodati said during a Thursday police services board meeting. Another five are specific to the next in-person Pride event.

Other recommendations hinge on feedback from a recently released survey of the LGBTQ community that showed people want "deep changes" and more LGBTQ representation in the police service.

Tina Fetner, a McMaster University sociologist who led the survey, says it is "imperative" the survey and recommendations lead to change.

"The Hamilton community needs to have a police department that is not biased against the two-spirit and LGBTQIA+ community," she said, noting police have made good progress on the 38 recommendations.

Hamilton police have been criticized after violence broke out at the 2019 Pride festival.

A religious group bearing Biblical signs crashed the festival, and through a loud speaker, said Pride attendees were sinful.

The group was accompanied by people with ties to yellow vest and Proud Boys groups who'd been demonstrating at city hall every Saturday.

A group of people in pink masks, many of them associated with a local anarchist group, used a large black curtain to block the protesters from view. Violence broke out and several people were injured. 

One protester was arrested, three counter-protesters were charged and one person was arrested who was later found to not be at the festival. Only one of the people arrested came from the protesting side.

'Deep changes' in policing

People criticized HPS for what they perceived to be a slow response that favoured the protesters. Chief Eric Girt then said on the radio that police would have deployed differently if they'd been invited to the event. 

The police board hired Toronto lawyer Scott Bergman to investigate the police response. Bergman released an independent report saying the police response was "inadequate," and that the relationship between HPS and LGBTQ residents needed mending. That report also included recommendations.

Since then, police had McMaster University conduct a survey within the LGBTQ community to share how they feel about HPS.

The survey also asked respondents to identify what qualities a person facilitating conversations between the service and the LGBTQ community should have, and asked for qualities of people who could join an advisory panel or task force.

Fetner says the results showed many respondents said there should be less interaction between police and the community, and that the police service's budget should be reduced.

"Many, many of the respondents felt that the police department's budget was too large," she said.

The findings also showed respondents want to see "deep changes" within the police service, want more accountability and want more LGBTQ representation in policing.

Chief Frank Bergen said during the meeting he heard those sentiments loud and clear.

"They talked about making sure we understood and really acknowledge the harm that it's created over the communities in the years and interactions," Bergen said.

Speaking to adding more representation to the police service, Bergen said HPS has a strong internal support network that is working on top of the recommendations.

Police looking for LGBTQ community facilitator

"We make sure as we make decisions moving forward we're doing them in a proper and respectful manner," he said.

The survey also concluded the facilitator needs to have strong ties to the community and should be independent from the police. That person should also be politically neutral, "highly skilled and experienced in mediation and facilitation," according to the survey's report.

It said members of the community advisory panel must be diverse in terms of identity and experience, and be politically neutral.

Sgt. Rebecca Moran, the service's LGBTQ liaison officer, said police are putting out a public survey Friday to review the report and to submit names for potential facilitators.

The survey will run for three weeks.