One officer allegedly told a line of men standing against a shower wall “I wish these Undercover police wore red dots on their clothing to show, according to one officer, “who are the straights.” Accounts from thoseĪrrested later presented to city council described hateful police behaviour. and used crowbars to open patron lockers. Operation Soapĭuring the Operation Soap raids, police entered the four bathhouses at 11 p.m. The bathhouse raids on 5 February 1981 proved a turning point in relations between Toronto police and the city's gay community (photo by Frank Lennon, courtesy Toronto Star).
Police also targeted public washrooms known for clandestine encounters, sometimes hiding in the vents to catch sexual acts. Man as an uncontrollable sexual libertine who commits crimes of lust, prostitutes himself, who is capable of infecting those with whom he comes in contact with by spreading homosexuality or venereal disease.” Bruner summed up those views as “stereotyped notions of the homosexual View was found among many officers by law student and journalist Arnold Bruner while compiling a study for the city on police relations with the gay community following the raids.
In the March 1979 edition of the Metropolitan Toronto Police Association newsletter, staff sergeant Tom Moclair’s essay “The Homosexual Fad” portrayed gay men as arrogant, militant deviants who recruited innocent children into their lifestyle. Of small raids beginning in December 1978.
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Bathhouse owners whose businesses were once tacitly approved by the morality squad were no longer informed of upcoming police actions, resulting in a series Men,” added to public intolerance of gay men and resulted in a police raid of the publication’s office.Īt the same time, community relations with the Metropolitan Toronto Police Force deteriorated. ShortlyĪfter Jaques was murdered, an article by Gerald Hannon in the gay liberation journal Body Politic, “Men Loving Boys Loving The August 1977 sexual assault and murder of shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques by several men in a Yonge Street massage parlour provoked sensational media coverage that emphasized the participation of gay men. Egg- and insult-tossing at drag performers heading to Halloween balls along Yonge Street grew to the point where municipal and police intervention was required to control the public. The years leading up to the raids were tense for Toronto’s gay community. The raids marked a turning point for Toronto’s gay community, as the protests that followed indicated they would no longer endure derogatory treatment from the police, media and the public. Most of those arrested were found innocent of the charges. It was, up to that time, the largest single arrest in Toronto’s history. When the night was over, 286 men were charged for being found in a common bawdy house (a brothel), while 20 were charged for operating a bawdy house. Bathhouse patrons were subjected to excessive behaviour by police, including verbal taunts about their sexuality. On 5 February 1981, patrons of four bathhouses in downtown Toronto (The Barracks, The Club, Richmond Street Health Emporium, and Roman II Health and Recreation Spa) were surprised by 200 police officers in a series of coordinated raids, called “Operation Soap.” Law enforcement officials claimed the raids resulted from six months of undercover work into alleged sex work and other “indecent acts” at each establishment.