Although many gay bathhouses had previously been raided in Canada and other smaller raids followed,[1] Operation Soap is considered a special turning point in the history of thelesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Canada; the raids and their aftermath are today widely considered to be the Canadian equivalent of the 1969Stonewall riots inNew York City.[3] Mass protests and rallies were held denouncing the incident.[4] These evolved into Toronto's currentPride Week, which is now one of the world's largestgay pride festivals and celebrated its 44th anniversary in 2025.
Most charges connected to the incident were eventually dropped or discharged, although some bathhouse owners were fined $40,000. Canada's "bawdy-house" law, under which the charges in this raid were laid, remained in effect until it was repealed in 2019,[5] but was only rarely applied against gay establishments after the trials connected to the 1981 raids ended.[1]
Themurder 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.[6]
MayorJohn Sewell strongly supported gay rights in his 1978–1980 term as mayor. He condemned police raids, including the controversial raid on the gay magazineThe Body Politic, where Toronto Police confiscated the newspaper's subscription lists, advertisers lists, and other user information.[7] Sewell strongly opposed these acts; however, his views ultimately cost him re-election.[8] Without strong civic condemnation of raids on gay establishments, Operation Soap was the first raid on a gay establishment after Sewell left office.
February 5: At 11 p.m., more than 150 police simultaneously raid theClub Baths, the Romans II Health and Recreation Spa, the Richmond Street Health Emporium and the Barracks in Toronto.[9] Twenty owners, includingGeorge Hislop andPeter Maloney, are charged with "keeping a common bawdyhouse";[10] 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 20: Over 4,000 protestors march fromQueen's Park to 52 Division of the Toronto Police.[9]
March 6: A "Gay Freedom Rally", effectively Toronto's first Pride event, is held.[9] Speakers, including authorMargaret Atwood and Member of ParliamentSvend Robinson, denounce the bathhouse raids. Robinson would later become Canada's first openly gay Member of Parliament in 1989; although he was already an MP and a civil libertarian activist at the time of the raids, he had not yet publicly come out.
March 12: Hawkes ends his hunger strike whenToronto City Council asks the mayor's community and race relations advisor,Daniel Hill, to investigate the bathhouse raids and the larger issue of police relations with the gay community. Hill later declines, but Arnold Bruner takes on the investigation on July 13.
March 19: The provincial election is held; Hislop loses toProgressive Conservative candidateSusan Fish. Fish was also supportive of the gay community in her riding; shortly after her election, she participated in a rally atQueen's Park to support the inclusion of sexual identity in theOntario Human Rights Code.[11]
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.
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'slesbian 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 anabsolute discharge; five others have their charges withdrawn.
November 20: The head of the Club Baths pleads guilty to conspiracy and is fined $40,000.
January 11: The owner of the Richmond Street baths pleads guilty; five other charges are dropped.
January 20: Police chiefJack 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 inThe Globe and Mail.
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.
At the time it was widely believed that the raids were approved byAttorney General of OntarioRoy 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 apolice state. The whole thing looked terrible. Without a doubt, that was one of my most frustrating experiences."[12] McMurtry subsequently served asChief Justice of Ontario and wrote the 2003 decision of Ontario'sCourt of Appeal in favour ofsame-sex marriage.
In 2016, the playRAID: Operation Soap, written by Raymond Helkio and starring performance artistKeith Cole and actor Johnny Salib, premiered to a sold-out audience atBuddies In Bad Times Theatre in commemoration of 35 years since the raids.[13] The same year, then-Toronto Police chiefMark Saunders expressed regrets on behalf of the Toronto Police Service for the raids.[14]
JournalistMatthew 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 the1977 Mystique and Truxx bathhouse raids inMontreal, 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.[15]
^Gordon, Rebecca; Ingram, Gordon Brent; Bouthillette, Anne-Marie; Retter, Yolanda (March 1998)."The Price of Visibility". Review ofQueers in Space: Communities, Public Places, Sites of Resistance by Gordon Brent Ingram, Anne-Marie Bouthillette, Yolanda Retter.The Women's Review of Books.15 (6): 7.doi:10.2307/4022897.JSTOR4022897.
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