Women strip-searched, charged in bathhouse raids reject public apology

A group of women who were strip-searched during a bathhouse raidthat targeted an all-femalepartyin 2000 haverejected Wednesday'sapology by Toronto police,because they say it isn't meaningful and comes with no real change.

• Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders apologizes for 1981 gay bathhouse raids

"We see that the apology is well-meaning and well-intentioned," saidChanelleGallant, who was there along with about 350 other women on the night of the raid 16 years ago. "But we don't see the apology as being meaningful because it doesn't reflect a change in the actual practices of the police."

In Septemberof 2000, six male Toronto police officers raided aparty at the Club Toronto bathhouse where they barged in on women, many of whom were naked.

Gallant said the experience was "terrifying and very dangerous" for the women,"in particular members of the bathhouse who were racialized women, migrants, who did not have documentation or status [and]who had children."

JPHornickwas arrested and charged with liquor violations at the time ofthe raid. She says she hashad her share of apologies from police since 2000.

"The police really tore through the place top to bottom asking questions, pulling signs off walls...interrogating us for a fair bit of the night," she said, adding that when she was charged with the violations, police posted them on her communal mailbox.

"It was very angering. It was an unnecessary attempt to humiliate me."

After months of talks with police, the women who experienced the raid withdrew supportfrom the official event held byChief Mark Saunders Wednesday where heofficially apologized for the police raids conducted onfour gay bathhouses across the city in 1981, as well as otherToronto police bathhouse raids.

Saunders did not single out orspecificallyapologize forthe 2000 bathhouse raids in his remarks at police headquarters duringthe public apology.

A supportive setting

Organizers said the Pussy Palace party was designed to help women explore their sexuality in a supportive setting.

Instead, male police officers broke it up and laid several charges against the organizers, accusing them of violating liquor laws.

In 2002, an Ontario provincial court judge ruled that police were wrong to raid the party.

The judge dismissed the charges, arguing male officers should never have gone into the Pussy Palace, because it amounted to a strip search of thewomenand that violated their Charter rights.

In 2005, a class-action lawsuit and complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission resulted in a $350,000 settlement, part of which covered legal fees and part of which was donated to charities of the complainants' choice.

The settlement included a formal apology in writing from the male officers involved in the raid to the Toronto Women's Bathhouse Committee, and alsorequired the force to establish sensitivity training for all members regarding the LGBT community.

History of the Pussy Palace

In December, 2001, Gallantdescribedthe significance of the eventin an articlepublished by Torquere, ajournal published by the now defunctCanadian Lesbian and Gay Studies Association. Gallant wrote that the Pussy Palacegave "queerwomen's pleasure and sexual cultures a higher profile in Toronto."

Loralee Gillis, alsoone of theorganizers, wrote in the same journalthat thePussy Palace was "like a dream."

"We had no clue what to expect. We didn't know whether to expect ten women or one hundred," she wrote. "Much to our surprise, four hundred women stood in the rain for two hours or more to get in."

Gilliswrote that at the time of the raid, she noticed a "palpable change in women's bodies and their demeanor" as they found out the menwere present. "Naked women grabbed for towels, clothes or anything to hide themselves from these police officers," she said.

'It is tokenism'

The apology from Toronto Police forthe bathhouse raids indicatesan improved relationship between some more privileged members of the LGBTQ community and police, according to Gallant.

"It doesn't reflect a change in the actual practices of the police.I think it is tokenism," she said.