The Raids of Bigotry: Operation Soap

·38 min·2 clips

At 11 p.m. on February 5, 1981, 150 officers burst into four Yonge Street bathhouses wearing red dots to identify themselves.

1. Canadian History Ehx covers Operation Soap, the February 5, 1981 police raids on four Toronto bathhouses that produced 306 arrests. 2. Host Craig Baird narrates the story with archival-style clips from Erica Vela's Global News podcast "What Happened To," featuring Ron Rosenies, activist Dennis Finlay and historian Tom Hooper. 3. Baird argues that the Criminal Law Amendment Act of June 27, 1969 only partly decriminalized homosexuality, since it required parties over 21 and a private home with just two people, so police could still target bathhouses. 4. The episode uses Everett Klippert as an example: he was jailed for gross indecency, released in 1971 and not pardoned until 2020, 24 years after his death. 5. Baird traces the 1970s run-up, including Glad Day Bookshop opening in December 1970, the launch of The Body Politic on November 1, 1971, the 1974 Brunswick Four case and the 1977 police raid on the Body Politic offices. 6. The 1977 murder of 12-year-old Emmanuel Jacques on Yonge Street prompted a city crackdown, led by Peter Ackroyd, on adult stores, strip houses and gay bathhouses, and the December 8, 1978 raid on The Barracks led to the Right to Privacy Committee. 7. On the night of the raid, Rosenies recalls officers calling the men "dirty faggots," Baird reports that police wore red dots, and Finlay describes sledgehammers and bolt cutters used on doors despite offers of keys. 8. Police demanded the arrested men's employers' and wives' names, and mailed venereal disease testing notices to their homes, a policy Toronto Public Health dropped after complaints. 9. About 3,000 people blocked Yonge Street within 24 hours, and Brent Hawkes ended a 25-day hunger strike on March 12 after the city appointed an adviser, while Finlay says packed courtrooms helped win about 87% of cases over four years. 10. Suited to listeners interested in Canadian LGBTQ rights history and Toronto's Pride origins.

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