Going down

>> Progress in gay and police relations slowly coming undone

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

A year ago, an incident with a screwdriver in a West End basement started Claudine Metcalfe doubting. Metcalfe, who heads local gay advocacy group Dire Enfants de Violence, has spoken countless times to the suburbanite youth studying at local police academies in an effort to teach them how to deal politely with the gay population.

"I tell them to treat gays like anybody else. If a woman comes to pick up another woman at the station, they shouldn't make remarks about it. If a gay is caught having sex in public, they shouldn't be showered with derisive names any more than a heterosexual caught doing the same thing," says Metcalfe.

She can't say if it was a flathead, slotted, crosshead or Phillips head screwdriver that undid her notion of progress in the gay community's relationship with local cops. But she knows every other sorry detail of the discouraging tale.

"A lesbian couple living with their kid had a male neighbour, in his 40s, who kept harassing them and saying that they should be ashamed of themselves," recounts Metcalfe. Objects started disappearing from the shared locker space, locks were vandalized and mail was stolen. Metcalfe says that the man eventually threatened one of the women with a screwdriver in the basement of the building. "When they complained, police didn't take them seriously. They suggested their worries were unfounded and maybe they should move away," says Metcalfe.

The couple has since relocated, but Metcalfe says they can't escape the anxiety that has resulted from the event. Nor was it an isolated case. "In May, a gay man was assaulted in the course of a one-night stand. He was shy, but his friends convinced him to take his complaint to the police at Station 22 in the Village. Instead of taking the complaint, the officer mocked him and told him to go home."

Metcalfe says her phone rings about once a week with stories like these. One involved a lesbian hauled in for hitchhiking when she was trying to catch a cab. Cops showered her with unflattering epithets. Another gay man assaulted at knifepoint was also turned down flat when he tried to get Ahuntsic police to take his complaint. A prominent local lawyer, who is gay, complains that he failed to get cops at Station 22 to take his complaint when he was threatened and harassed last March.

A police rep from Station 22 tells the Mirror that he is unaware of such cases and that the squad continues to attempt to improve relations with the gay community.

Copwatcher Yves Manseau of Mouvement Action Justice says that as the gay community becomes more mainstream, its fringes have been left behind. "As the cops see many in the gay community shun these people, we see the police thinking it's okay to be hard on them too. We see drag queens, homeless gays or gay prostitutes appear more marginalized than ever."

For Metcalfe and the movement, the only option is to soldier on against prejudice. "We're finding it increasingly frustrating that all the work the gay and lesbian community has been doing for five years is being wasted because the police aren't interested in becoming sensitized to these issues. The police," she says, "are becoming blind and deaf to our needs." :