Toronto rises up after the bathhouse raids
After the raids, thousands took to the streets in Toronto. The night that became Canada's Stonewall.
On 6 February 1981, shortly before midnight, thousands of people gathered at the corner of Yonge and Wellesley Streets in Toronto. They were angry. The night before, under the code name "Operation Soap", police had simultaneously stormed four gay bathhouses. Officers broke open lockers with crowbars, smashed the fittings and mocked the patrons. Almost three hundred men were charged as found-ins at a bawdy house, and twenty more as keepers. It was the largest mass arrest in the city's history. The police found no evidence of prostitution.
The community's response came faster than anyone had expected. With leaflets, phone trees and word of mouth, a protest was organised within a day. At its peak, more than three thousand people marched through downtown to the police station of 52 Division. There a wall of uniforms awaited them. The march turned north towards the Ontario legislature, where the situation escalated. There were scuffles, injuries and eleven arrests.
For many, this night was a turning point. Men who had kept silent for years for fear of being outed or losing their jobs were suddenly out on the streets in public. Further demonstrations followed, a defence fund for the accused and a broad debate about police abuse. Most of those charged were later acquitted. In June of the same year, Toronto celebrated a Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, from which one of the largest Pride festivals in the world emerged.
Today, the raids and the protest are regarded as Toronto's Stonewall. An apology was long in coming. Only in 2016, after thirty-five years, did the city's police chief publicly ask for forgiveness. Many activists called it a first step, nothing more.