Rebecca Banky selected as facilitator for talks between Hamilton police and LGBTQ community

Hamilton Police Service (HPS) says it has selected Rebecca Bankyas thethird-party facilitator to lead discussions between the police service and the city's LGBTQ community.

"I'm equal parts nervous and excited about the work," Banky, who is also chair of the city's LGBTQ advisory committee, told CBC Hamilton.

"Asa member of the queer community with many interactions with police, some positive and some overwhelmingly not, I can say I have a healthy distrust of the way police are necessarily going to perform around my community but I also have a lot of optimism."

HPS started its selection process two years ago,in response to the 38 recommendations the service received after an independent investigator found police responded inadequately and "failed to protect" LGBTQ attendees when violence broke out at a 2019 Pride festival.

HPS said it started workingwith McMaster University in 2021 to host a survey to find the right person for the role.

The survey found the facilitator should be a member of the LGBTQ community, independent of the police service and someone who is politically neutral and unbiased.

The survey also noted the person should have a background in trauma-informed practice, experience working with the LGBTQ community and "understand historical oppression of marginalized groups by police."

Police say the community had suggested that Banky be nominated.

"We acknowledge the time it has taken to get to this point. We thank the community for their input and feel Rebecca is absolutely the right person to move these much-needed conversations forward," Chief Frank Bergen said in amedia release.

Focus groups, town hall to take place over 10 months

Banky said the role will be a 10-month process with four steps.

The first step, already completed, is meeting with HPS to ask about its implementation of therecommendations and what's changed since 2019.

Banky said the processwill also include focus groups with the community where police won't be present.

Then there will bea town hall in the fall "to talk about what repair between members of the queer community and HPS can and could look like."

"I don't have answers as to what those next steps are because I want it to truly be informed by community engagement," she said.

Bankysaid she was unsure if she wanted to take on the role, even with seeminglylots of "buy in" from HPS.

"I sat down with members of the service and I said, 'I feel like the vision I have for this would be so far away from something you would see as acceptable,' and they said time and again they were willing to entertain pretty serious or radical suggestions," Banky said.

She hopes that by the end of this, people in the LGBTQ community will be more comfortable using the police servicewhile still maintaining a healthy distrust.

"There's reasons to be optimistic ... there's hope for this."