On October 31st 1977, the lesbian and gay community in Toronto organized “Operation Jack-O-Lantern”: patrol teams consisting of community members, lawyers, and first-aiders. These patrols were formed in response to the lack of protection from the Toronto Police on every Halloween, when the gay community was faced with queerbashing and organized homophobic protests.
Protestors would gather across the street of the St. Charles Tavern and hurl insults and eggs at gays celebrating festivities. Operation Jack-O-Lantern was organized by GATE (Gay Alliance Towards Equality) and MCC Toronto. When concerns about Halloween queerbashing was raised with the Toronto Police, the response of the police was advising people to not go out on Halloween night.
Gerald Hannon describes these events in the Body Politic (December 1981):
“For years, Halloween had been a truly terrifying night for Toronto gays. Thousands of people –mostly young suburbanites – chanting “kill the queers,” throwing egg[s]… and attempting to break down the tavern doors. Gangs of queer bashing thugs roamed the area and adjacent back lanes and side streets became particularly dangerous for gay people going to the tavern or even private parties. The police claimed they could do nothing –the crowd was too large, they said, and the best they could do was keep traffic moving.”
Halloween was a special time of year for queer people. Queer people were frequently targeted by police and arrested and beaten-up for cross-dressing, but Halloween was a chance for crossdressing to be overlooked, which led to an increase in festivities and costume balls.
In the third year of Operation Jack-O-Lantern, the police agreed to help with the patrols, and prevent crowds from gathering. Although this is a moment of hope for the community –the collaborative efforts at patrolling and the participation of the police were effective in reducing violent incidents –when looking at this point of time in the history of violence against the LGBTQ community, some of the most shocking acts of violence, committed by the police themselves, were still to come. Four years later in 1981, the Bathhouse raids, known as “Operation Soap”, would result in the harassment and arrests of hundreds of gay men. It’s important to be aware of this when we look at the instances of cooperation from the police –because we can understand them for what they are, “instances”. The history of policing and the LGBTQ2S+ community indicate that not only are the police perpetrators of violence, they have failed time an again to protect this community.
The relationship between the Toronto Police and the queer community continues to be fraught. However, police brutality is an intersectional issue, and is also experienced by other marginalized communities. At the Toronto pride parade in 2016, Black Lives Matter TO staged a protest, shutting down the parade for 30 minutes. One of the demands of this protest was a ban of uniformed officers, as well as TPS floats and cruisers, from participating in the event. In March of 2016, BLM set up camp outside of the police headquarters to protest the killing of Black men, including the death of Andrew Loku in 2015. The police chief Mark Saunders did not meet with the protestors. “Their specific demand from me was: Identify the person who shot Andrew Loku and charge him with murder,” Saunders said. “And that wasn’t going to happen. No. 1, it wasn’t lawful and No. 2, I was not going to do that.”
Coincidentally, on June 22nd, 2016, Saunders apologized on behalf of the police on the 35th anniversary of the Bathhouse raids. But can such an apology be received when police brutality continues to occur, and the chief of the police refuses to listen to the demands of those who are most vulnerable?
Tensions between the LGBTQ2S+ community and the Toronto Police were heightened once again by the mishandling of the Bruce McArthur murders. Although the police had information that connected McArthur to three missing men, the police failed to look into his criminal record in 2013 when he was interviewed by police. Several factors play into why the police failed to apprehend McArthur earlier, one of these factors was the racialized background of his victims, deliberately picked because they would not generate much attention from the police.
This is not the first instance of the murders of gay men that had inadequate investigation from Toronto Police. Between 1975 and 1978, 14 gay men were murdered, 7 of which remain unsolved. History repeats itself. During the McArthur investigations, Saunders deflected blame about the improper handling of the investigation, claiming that people in the queer community had not provided enough information: “We knew that people were missing and we knew we didn’t have the right answers. But nobody was coming to us with anything.” In April 1979, The Right to Privacy Committee (RTPC), a Toronto advocacy organization, addressed the problem of the police asking the gay community for assistance. “How can homicide officers get full cooperation from the gay community when some other group of police are criminalizing and harassing gays by raiding gay steambaths?” These instances of blaming the community for not coming forward with information are incredibly frustrating considering the history of police violence in the LGBTQ2S+ community. Operation Jack-O-Lantern, and similar cases of community-based organizing to protect vulnerable members, are great examples of the alternatives which can be created when police services fail to, and even perpetuate, violence.
About the Author:
Leila Black is a master’s student in the Gender Studies and Social Justice program at McMaster, and was born and raised in east end Toronto
References:
“Police During Halloween at the St. Charles,” The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions, accessed November 5, 2021, https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/items/show/1024
“Halloween Crowds and Violence ,” The ArQuives Digital Exhibitions, accessed November 5, 2021, https://digitalexhibitions.arquives.ca/items/show/1025.
Brockback, Nicole. “How police may have missed a chance to catch serial killer Bruce McArthur in 2013”. CBC News. April 14 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/epstein-report-bruce-mcarthur-toronto-police-1.5986451
Hannon, Gerald. “Controlled crowd a Hallowe’en Treat”. Body Politic, no. [79], Dec 1981, p. 11.
Hooper, Tom. “The gay community has long been over-policed and under protected. The Bruce McArthur case is the final straw”. CBC News. April 16 2018. https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/pride-police-1.4618663
Martis, Eternity. “Why Toronto police aren’t marching in Pride”. Xtra Magazine. June 20, 2019. https://xtramagazine.com/power/why-toronto-police-arent-marching-in-pride-157996
Popert, Ken. “Hallowe’en: Pressure Gets Action.” Body Politic, no. [39], Dec 1977-Jan 1978, p. 8. Archives of Sexuality and Gender.
“Police Chief Mark Saunders explains why he didn’t meet with Black Lives Matter”. CBC News. May 18, 2016. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mark-saunders-police-black-lives-matter-1.3587533
“Toronto.” Body Politic, no. [38], Nov. 1977, p. 4. Archives of Sexuality and Gender.