Operation Soap

The murder of Emanuel Jaques, an immigrant shoeshine boy, led to large protests to "clean up" Yonge Street in 1977. The political momentum from the protests would lead to Toronto police raiding many adult stores, body-rub parlours, and shoeshine stands along Yonge Street. Police would raid these establishments and make charges against business owners, effectively closing down many businesses even if many charges were eventually dropped. Mayor John Sewell strongly supported gay rights in his 1978–1980 term as mayor. He condemned police raids, including the controversial raid on the gay magazine The Body Politic, where Toronto Police confiscated the newspaper's subscription lists, advertisers lists, and other user information. Sewell strongly opposed these acts; however, his views ultimately cost him re-election. Without strong civic condemnation of raids on gay establishments, Operation Soap was the first raid on a gay establishment after Sewell left office. ==Timeline (1981–1985)==

1981 • February 5: At 11 p.m., more than 150 police simultaneously raid the Club Baths, the Romans II Health and Recreation Spa, the Richmond Street Health Emporium and the Barracks in Toronto. Twenty owners, including George Hislop and Peter Maloney, are charged with "keeping a common bawdyhouse"; 286 men are charged as found-ins. The Richmond is so heavily damaged that it never reopens. • February 6: Over 3,000 protestors stage a mass demonstration against the raids, blocking traffic at several major intersections. • February 11: Hislop announces that he will run as an independent protest candidate in the riding of St. George in the 1981 provincial election. • February 16: Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto pastor Brent Hawkes begins a 25-day hunger strike. • March 30: Charges stemming from an earlier raid at the Barracks go to trial. • April 21: Six more people, including Hislop, are charged in connection to the February 5 raid. • May 30: A similar raid takes place in Edmonton, Alberta. • June 12: The March 30 trial finds two Barracks employees guilty of keeping a common bawdyhouse; three owners are found not guilty. • June 16: Police raid two more bathhouses, the Back Door Gym and Sauna and the International Steam Baths, arresting a further 21 men. • June 20: Demonstrators protest the June 16 raids; police violence against the protestors is reported. • July 3: The New Democratic Party calls for the bawdyhouse section of the Criminal Code to be repealed. • September 24: Bruner's report, Out of the Closet: Study of Relations Between Homosexual Community and Police, is released. It recognizes the gay community as a legitimate community, and calls for a permanent dialogue committee between the community and the Toronto Police. • September 30: A man charged with assaulting a police officer at the June 20 protests is acquitted in provincial court; the judge calls for an investigation into police conduct. • October 7: Toronto's lesbian community holds its first Dykes in the Street march. • November 2: The first keeper trial from the February 5 raids comes before the court. One employee pleads guilty, but is given an absolute discharge; five others have their charges withdrawn. • November 20: The head of the Club Baths pleads guilty to conspiracy and is fined $40,000. 1982 • January 11: The owner of the Richmond Street baths pleads guilty; five other charges are dropped. • January 20: Police chief Jack Ackroyd issues a statement that gay people are entitled to "the same rights, respect, service and protection as all citizens", and recognizing them as "legitimate members of the community". Gay leaders note, however, that his statement recognizes gay individuals, but says nothing about the legitimacy of "the gay community". • February 6: A demonstration commemorating the anniversary of the raids is held. • March 26: One owner of the Back Door Gym is found guilty and fined $3,000; two others are given conditional discharges. • June 2: A full-page ad supporting repeal of the bawdyhouse laws, signed by over 1,400 people, appears in The Globe and Mail. 1983–1985 By April 1983, 87 per cent of the "found-ins" charged in the Toronto and Montreal raids have been acquitted at trial; 36 individuals have been found guilty but received absolute or conditional discharges. The last remaining charge related to the 1981 raids was settled by plea bargain on February 7, 1985. ==Retrospect==

At the time it was widely believed that the raids were approved by Attorney General of Ontario Roy McMurtry and the provincial government. In a 2007 interview, however, McMurtry said that this was not the case: "The irony of the whole thing was that I had expressed my concern to the chief of police; that it really looked like we were dissolving into a police state. The whole thing looked terrible. Without a doubt, that was one of my most frustrating experiences." McMurtry subsequently served as Chief Justice of Ontario and wrote the 2003 decision of Ontario's Court of Appeal in favour of same-sex marriage. In 2016, the play RAID: Operation Soap, written by Raymond Helkio and starring performance artist Keith Cole and actor Johnny Salib, premiered to a sold-out audience at Buddies In Bad Times Theatre in commemoration of 35 years since the raids. The same year, then-Toronto Police chief Mark Saunders expressed regrets on behalf of the Toronto Police Service for the raids. Journalist Matthew Hays has criticized the media's frequent labelling of the Toronto raids as being Canada's Stonewall; according to Hays, that distinction should be extended to the 1977 Mystique and Truxx bathhouse raids in Montreal, which led within just a few months to Quebec becoming the first government in Canada to pass a law banning discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The raids and their aftermath are profiled as a key moment in Canadian LGBTQ history in Noam Gonick's 2025 documentary film Parade: Queer Acts of Love and Resistance. ==See also==