Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders apologizes for 1981 gay bathhouse raids
Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders made a historic apology today for raids on four gay bathhouses in the city that took place 35 years ago.
Saunders, who made the apology during the annual Pride reception at police headquarters, called the raids "one of the largest mass arrests in Canadian history." The chief said the February 1981 event was notable for its "destructiveness" and that the raids did not occur on only one night.
"The 35th anniversary of the 1981 raids is a time when the Toronto Police Service expresses its regrets for those very actions. It is also an occasion to acknowledge the lessons learned about the risks of treating any part of Toronto's many communities as not fully a part of society," Saunders said.
He and others say it was largely because of the raids that LGBT issues were catapulted onto the public stage.
"If it weren't for the raids, Pride wouldn't have happened.… It was a cry for what police had done," he said.
Saunders plans to march in the Pride parade on July 3, following in the footsteps of Bill Blair, who became the first Toronto police chief to do so in 2005.
