The "Brunswick Four" and Canada's Stonewall
Four lesbians sing a cheeky song in Toronto and are led away by the police. The beginning of an awakening.
On 5 January 1974, it was amateur night at the Brunswick House, a popular beer hall in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood. Four women were sitting there over a drink: Adrienne Potts, Pat Murphy, Sue Wells and Heather Elizabeth. Male customers were harassing them. The answer came from the stage. Three of them sang their own version of the musical classic "I Enjoy Being a Girl", except that the chorus now went "I Enjoy Being a Dyke".
The audience applauded, the management did not. It refused to serve the women any more, told them to leave and finally called the police. Eight officers dragged them out of the bar, and two of the women were injured. At the station, homophobic insults were hurled, but no charges were laid at first. When the women later returned to the Brunswick House to look for witnesses, they were taken away again. This time the police charged three of them, among other things with causing a disturbance.
They were defended by Judy LaMarsh, a former Liberal federal minister, who took on the case out of outrage at the police's conduct. The queer community raised money at dances and filled the courtroom every day. The press reported extensively, something that hardly ever happened with a lesbian subject at the time. In the end, only Adrienne Potts was convicted, receiving a suspended sentence with three months' probation.
Today the incident is regarded as "Canada's Stonewall". It gave the country's growing lesbian and gay movement a noticeable boost, but was then forgotten for a long time. Recognition only came half a century later: in November 2024, Toronto's police chief publicly apologised to those affected. Late satisfaction for women who had once been dragged out of a bar because of a song.