February 12 Toronto More than a […]

When

1981-02-12

Description

February 12 Toronto More than a hundred people attended a heated and acrimonious meeting of the Metropolitan Toronto Board of Police Commissioners, held one week after the Toronto bath raids. Numerous prominent speakers demanded an independent inquiry into the raids, including Alan Borovoy of the CCLA, journalist June Callwood, MPP Margaret Campbell (Lib.–St. George), Alderman Gordon Cressy, and Jack Layton from the Working Group on Minority-Police Relations. Gay speakers included George Hislop and Rev. Brent Hawkes of MCC Toronto. Plainclothes police officers were spotted sitting among the spectators. Protesters outside the meeting, facing a wall of police security, chanted, "Sack Jack, Dump Phil," in reference to Police Chief Jack Ackroyd and Police Commission Chairman Phil Givens. The meeting ended in hoots and jeers from the crowd as Givens announced, "We deny any allegations of police harassment," and added that there was no need for an inquiry. On February 15, Rev. Brent Hawkes began a hunger strike (which lasted twenty-five days) to demand an independent inquiry into the raids. (See also March 12, 1981.)

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