Hamilton's political police
On May 26, Hamilton Police issued the following media release:
“Hamilton Police Arrest Protester at Hamilton Airport
“Hamilton Police have charged a 33-year-old female with trespassing after a protest at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport.
“On Thursday, May 26, 2022, at approximately 5:30 pm., Premier Doug Ford attended the airport on a campaign stop. A protest subsequently formed outside the premises and eventually moved onto private property, blocking the road to the Cargojet facility. The protesters were asked to move off the roadway. All individuals complied but one individual refused to move and was arrested.
“The individual was transported off the property and immediately released with a ticket for Trespass to Property.
“The protest continued to operate peacefully off private property for the remainder of the campaign rally.”
This police media release is demonstrably false in multiple respects:
The arrested person WAS NOT A PROTESTER. Caryma S’ad is a well-known South Asian lawyer and documentarian who displayed a written invitation to the Ford rally that was addressed to her name and email address and signed by the Premier.
S’ad was not arrested at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport. The arrest took place in a parking lot outside the CargoJet facility well east of the airport.
An individual claiming to represent the CargoJet facility who refused to identify himself to S’ad, said she was being barred from the rally because the organizers “knew her intentions”.
She was arrested at 6:30 pm not 5:30 pm but well BEFORE any protest took place by others unconnected to S’ad.
Premier Doug Ford was not present at the time of the arrest which was 30 minutes before the official 7 pm start time of his political rally.
After the arrest and for about 45 minutes, about 25 people participated in a peaceful protest on a public road several hundred metres from the Ford rally location. The first participants were directed to this location by police who told them the CargoJet parking lot was private property where they could not protest.
This peaceful protest started well AFTER the individual had been arrested and transported by police, and did not include Caryma S’ad. About 50 minutes after it began, Hamilton police declared the public road was subject to a new trespass order that allegedly applied to the entire public and private areas near the John C Munro Airport. They ordered the protesters to leave.
The protesters were threatened with arrest. They offered to relocate to Airport Road, a further several hundred metres from the Ford Rally location and were told their vehicles would be seized if left in a nearby parking lot. At this point, the protest dispersed and did not “continue to operate” as alleged in the media release.
Several independent observers with no connections to the arrested individual were present in close proximity to the arrest including CATCH coordinator Don McLean (the author of this report) and can attest to these facts.
There are several disturbing questions:
Why did the police issue a false and misleading media release?
Why were a large number of Hamilton police (at least 10) dispatched to the Ford rally site?
Why was Caryma S’ad grabbed and handcuffed and transported more than a kilometre rather than the normal procedure of simply handing her a trespassing ticket?
The vice-chair of the Hamilton Police Services, Fred Bennick, is a Progressive Conservative candidate in the current provincial election. Was he present at the Ford rally? What role did he play in mobilizing the large number of police to arrest a single individual?
Why were peaceful protesters forced to leave a public road? Why were those protesters threatened with the seizure of their vehicles?
Why do local media outlets unquestioningly repeat the claims in a Hamilton Police Services media release? How often do the police mislead the public with their media releases?
