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Pride Week has kicked off in Hamilton with a ceremony at the central police station, where for the first time, Hamilton Police have raised the Pride flag to show their support.
It was just after 9:30 this morning the historic moment came for the force and the city’s LGBT community. Chief Glenn De Caire alongside Deirdre Pike, a social planner and community activist sent the rainbow flag up to stay for the duration of Hamilton’s pride week.
It’s a very important symbol and police say they are pleased to have it fly outside of their station, making them the third service in Ontario to raise it for Pride Week. It promotes the principles of equality and dignity for all.
Even though Canadians are becoming more open and accepting, there are still people who experience violence, assault and verbal abuse because of their gender and sexual orientation. Chief De Caire spoke about their hate crime analysis during the ceremony today.
“There were 121 hate bias incidents that took place, and 15 of those were based on a person’s sexual orientation. And 15 is 15 too many.”
“For the Hamilton Police service when it comes to hate crime, our position is very clear: it is jail time, every time.”
Police ask that you call 911 if you do experience a hate crime and that a detective from their specific unit targeting those offences will take the case.
All event details can be found at Hamilton Pride’s website.
Additional video: Morning Live coverage of the event
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