NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam is backing women affected by the infamous September 2000 raid of a lesbian bathhouse in Toronto who are demanding Mayor John Tory publicly meet with them to discuss the next police chief's involvement in the operation and others like it.

"I think it would be very helpful for them to have this meeting," said Wong-Tam, the NDP's critic on 2SLGBTQ+ issues who was elected provincially after 12 years on Toronto city council, in an interview on Tuesday. "The advice I would give to the mayor is don't delay this."

"The longer you delay this, the worse off it's going to be."

The bathhouse raid continues to foster distrust of the police two-plus decades after it took place on Sept. 14, 2000. A celebration was being held at a women's bathhouse in downtown Toronto on Mutual Street, which is within Toronto Centre, Wong-Tam's riding as MPP and where they were previously a councillor. It was disrupted by a police raid, and a judge later declared the searches conducted by police were unreasonable strip searches akin to "visual rape."

The only charges resulting from the raid, Liquor License Act charges made against two organizers of the event, were later dropped. The Ontario Human Rights Commission also ordered the Toronto Police Service to pay $350,000 to organizers and attendees for violating their rights.

In 2016, then-police chief Mark Saunders said the service "expresses regret" for past bathhouse raids. Chanelle Gallant, an organizer of the "Pussy Palace"-dubbed Sept. 14, 2000 bathhouse event that was raided, dismissed Saunders' words as lacking meaning.

"It doesn't reflect a change in the actual practices of the police," Gallant told CBC at the time.

Myron Demkiw, a 32-year veteran of the Toronto police, was named chief-designate by the Toronto Police Services Board on Sept. 15, 2022. He's to take over as chief of police on Dec. 18, 2022. He was identified as one of the five male police who executed the raid when the officers sued then-councillor Kyle Rae for defamation for criticizing them and the raid.

In an open letter voicing opposition to Demkiw's appointment as police chief, Gallant and JP Hornick, organizers of the bathhouse event, said Demkiw identified himself on the night-of as a member of the "morality squad," and that he was involved in "a series of additional raids on queer spaces that same year."

In the same letter, Hornick and Gallant asked Tory to meet with them to discuss how Demkiw was chosen to lead Toronto's police, in spite of his past.

"We must raise serious questions about how this appointment could have taken place, and what it signals for historically over-policed communities in Toronto," Hornick and Gallant wrote.

"We demand a public meeting with Mayor Tory to address our concerns — Torontonians deserve answers to these outstanding questions. Nothing less will do," their letter concluded.

Wong-Tam shared the letter on Twitter on Friday, saying in a post that they "(encouraged) the Mayor and Toronto Police Services Board to review the concerns that community members are raising about Mr. Demkiw’s appointment."

As of Monday, more than 500 people had virtually signed the letter as a show of support, Hornick said on CP24 on Monday.

On Saturday, Toronto Police Services Board chair Jim Hart and Tory offered to hold a meeting that Demkiw would also attend. Hornick said she and Gallant rejected this offer because they were the only others invited to what was proposed to them as a private meeting.

"That is not at all what we're looking for," Hornick said.

Hornick and Gallant have since asked instead for Tory and Hart to participate in a public meeting, which Demkiw would not attend.

"It is our view that it is not appropriate for Mr. Demkiw to attend as the meeting's purpose is for the (2SLGBTQIA) community to voice their concerns about his appointment and they must be able to do so freely and without intimidation," Hornick and Gallant responded on Saturday.

Neither Tory nor Hart have publicly responded yet.

Wong-Tam said Hornick's and Gallant's requests are "quite reasonable," and that they'll continue advocating for the meeting.

"What I'm really trying to do is to make sure that the community that has experienced the harm — the ones who are asking for public accountability in a public way or a public meeting — I'm just trying to make sure that they get what they're looking for," Wong-Tam said.

NDP’s Wong-Tam backs call for public meeting over top cop involved in Pussy Palace raid

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