Academics from across Canada call for LGBTQ activist’s release
Support continues to pour in from around Canada for a Hamilton LGTBQ+ activist whose allies believe has been wrongly jailed after violence broke out at Pride celebrations three weeks ago.
A wide range of academics and institutions have signed a letter circulating on social media Friday calling for Cedar Hopperton’s freedom from a Milton correctional centre.
Sakura Saunders, a member of Solidarity K’jipuktuk Halifax, said she posted the letter earlier to garner signatories for the message to Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger and council.
“We are writing to express our strong concern and objection to the repression of queer community members in Hamilton following the disruption of Hamilton Pride by far right groups and religious extremists,” the letter begins.
On June 15, people wearing pink masks positioned a large, black, fabric screen in front of extremist Christian preachers who waved anti-LGBTQ+ signs and hollered similar messages through a megaphone at Pride celebrants in Gage Park. The extremists responded with pushes and punches, which led to more violence.
The letter expresses outrage at Hamilton police for having “criminalized those in the LGBTQQI2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and two-spirited) community who stood up to and created a barrier between the intruders and the Pride attendees.”
So far, out of five people, only one alt-right demonstrator has been charged in the aftermath. The other four, including Hopperton, were aligned with the LGBTQ+ side of the struggle.
The letter calls Hopperton’s arrest for breach of parole conditions “especially concerning given that they were not even present at the Pride event.” Police provided evidence to the Ontario Parole Board they allege shows Hopperton was at Pride, but the 33-year-old and several friends have sworn that wasn’t the case.
It wasn’t until Thursday that police acknowledged a speech Hopperton gave during a June 18 community forum at city hall after the Pride violence also factored into the evidence presented to the parole board.