From Embers

Five summers ago on June 15th 2019, a group of homophobic “street preachers” and their white nationalist allies attempted to enter and disrupt the annual Hamilton Pride celebrations at Gage Park. Based on experience the previous year at Hamilton Pride and elsewhere in southern Ontario, anarchists and radical queers were expecting this and had organized to counter them. Wearing pink t-shirts over their faces and carrying a 30’ wide 9’ tall black banner nicknamed the Black Hole, the Pride Defenders confronted the bigots and formed a wall between them and the Pride festival. The situation in the park quickly escalated into an all-out brawl, with several Pride Defenders sustaining serious injuries. Despite the chaotic scene, the banner held and the haters accepted a police escort out of the park. Much of the fight was captured on right-wing livestreams and it created an immediate political scandal. The Pride Committee blamed the police for failing to intervene and the Police Board announced an independent inves