June 1, 2011

Queer Ontario’s Submission to the Independent Civilian Review into Matters Relating to
the G20 Summit

Good evening. My name is Casey Oraa and I’m the Chair of the Political Action Committee for
Queer Ontario -- a provincial network of gender and sexually diverse individuals who are
committed to questioning, challenging, and reforming the laws and institutional practices that
regulate queer people.

We have always been vehemently opposed to the unreasonable and unbridled tactics that were
used to police the G20 Summit in Toronto -- an opposition that stems not only from the way in
which the Government of Ontario secretly amended the Public Works Protection Act (an Act that
has been ordered to be repealed by former Ontario Chief Justice Roy McMurtry), but also from
the way in which the Toronto Police mistreated perfectly peaceful protesters and by-standers,
resorting to horrendously sexist and homophobic language while doing so.

Take the case of 18-year-old Dan Hamilton, for example.

In a video posted on Rabble.ca,1 Dan details how he became entangled in the mass arrests at the
Novotel Hotel as a bystander who stopped to watch the activity that was unfolding in the area. As
the officers closed in on the crowds, he realized he was being trapped and attempted to leave
before things escalated; however, he was intercepted by an officer who told him that he was
already given a chance to leave the area, which was not true. Upon informing the police officer
that he was never made aware of this chance to leave, he was unwarrantedly pushed and
threatened with a tear gas gun, and arrested, alongside the other bystanders who were also caught
within the police enclosure.

He was taken to the Eastern Avenue Detention Centre where he found himself being detained
under inhumane conditions. This included an inadequate provision of water or food, unclean and
publicly exposed washroom facilities, and the lack of information with regard to police
procedures or the status of his detention, which lasted 26 hours. But of greatest concern to us was
Dan’s subjection to differential treatment and homophobic taunts because of his sexual
orientation.

That is: upon mentioning his boyfriend, who was arrested alongside him and held at the same
detention centre, he was told by an officer that “the people in here don’t really take too kind to
your type, so I recommend you act straight during your visit here” -- a comment that, while
seemingly ‘protective,’ was intended as a way of keeping Dan from displaying any so-called
‘homosexual tendencies’ instead of protecting him from any homophobic attacks, as police
officers are obliged to do. And to make matters worse: Dan and his boyfriend were then moved
to a single-person cell, which Dan describes as being a ‘dog pen,’ which were used to house
other LGBTQ persons. More specifically: a lesbian couple and two other women who didn’t
identify as lesbians but were segregated due to their perception as such by police officers.
Aside from being a reprehensible violation of Section Ten of the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, such a practice is grossly discriminatory in the way it targeted individuals and
subjected them to less humane treatment because of their disclosed or perceived sexual
orientation. But this was not an isolated incident…

While reporting on the arrest of two other journalists, Lisa Walter of Our Times Magazine was
arrested on June 26th and subjected to similar treatment. According to a statement she provided to
Xtra:2

“We had shown our press passes; officers said mine was fake. I was called a ‘fucking
dyke,’ a ‘douchebag’ and other slurs by officers…The most aggressive sergeant
loudly questioned my gender and started calling me ‘sir’ and ‘mister.’ He mocked my
need for medication and later claimed I was the ‘girl in high school who never got
laid.’”

Indeed, much like the views of the police officer at York University who gave the judgmental
and oppressive statement on the fate of women who wear less-than-conservative outfits (the
infamous “women should avoid dressing like sluts if they don’t want to be victimized”
comment), we wonder how many officers hold the deplorable “you shouldn’t act like the homo
if you don‘t want to get beat up” views expressed by the officer overseeing Dan’s detention, or
the “you’re a dyke because you didn’t get laid in high school” views expressed by Lisa’s officer.
For while it can certainly be argued that these are comments made by a few so-called ‘bad
apples’ within the Toronto Police force, the fact that the officers made these comments under
unsupervised situations, and during a period when police officers were legally given free reign to
treat detainees as they saw fit, seems to indicate that these views are more pervasive within the
police force than not; which is unfortunate given that LGBTQ communities have been fighting
for over four decades to be seen as full citizens by police forces nation-wide, and to be provided
the same level of police protection afforded to our heterosexual counterparts. Especially against
the discrimination and violence that comes about because of people’s intolerance towards our
public displays of affection or unconventional expressions of gender.

Needless to say, this is a major step backwards for a police force that has always lauded itself for
having a good relationship with Toronto’s LGBTQ communities -- at least in its public
presentations and promotional materials. If this is still the case, then we are pressed to ask:

 Why did police officers feel the need to treat LGBTQ individuals differently from the
presumably straight detainees by placing them into single-person cells, even when allowed to
be with their partners?

 Who were the Supervisors responsible for the behaviour of the discriminatory police officers
at the detention centre, and do they recognize the discrimination that took place at the
facilities?

 If so, what steps have the Supervisors taken to discipline the offending officers?

 And lastly, what actions can we expect from the Toronto Police Service to ensure that their
 police officers understand the discrimination we face as queer and trans people, that they
treat us with the respect we deserve as citizens, and never engage in such vile behaviour
again?

We have been asking these question for over a year now, and we are STILL waiting for an
adequate answer -- any answer, to be exact!

___________________

1 http://rabble.ca/rabbletv/program-guide/2010/06/features/exclusive-eighteen-year-old-toronto-
g8g20-detainee-recounts-

2 http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Queer_journalist_seeks_answers_after_G20_nab-
8907.aspx