WARNING: This story contains details that readers may find disturbing and offensive.
Hamilton police are appealing for witnesses to come forward after seeing video of a Hamilton man hurling transphobic and racist slurs at passengers on an HSR bus.
On Tuesday, police issued a news release about the three-minute video after CBC Hamilton asked the police department about it a day earlier. It also said the incident was reported through the service’s online reporting tool by a third party in another province.
The video, posted online Monday, appears to have been captured from inside an HSR bus as it approached the Lawrence Road entrance to Gage Park.
The person recording the video appears to be a 42-year-old Hamilton man named Chris.
He regularly streams live on YouTube and other social media platforms. His channel has numerous videos of him getting into heated confrontations with other people in the city.
The transphobic tirade that went viral is just an excerpt from a now-deleted live stream that aired on Monday.
CBC Hamilton viewed the video but did not publish it to protect the others in the video — who have not been identified and do not appear to have consented to the recording — from further harm.
Streamer insults and threatens riders
In the video, Chris is sitting on an HSR bus heading to the Friends Festival at Gage Park. He’s also been streaming live at the festival for the past few days.
“I don’t know what that fool is laughing at, a weird transformer-looking fool,” Chris says, pointing to a passenger sitting in front of him.
“Does anyone love you?” replies the rider, looking defensive.
Chris can be heard making fun of the people he’s filming, asking the rider what their pronouns are, and insulting the rider some more.
“You drift because nobody cares about you,” the rider replies to Chris in the video.
In the live video, Chris threatens passengers on an HSR bus after hurling transphobic insults at them. (YouTube)
Chris tells the rider to “get off the bus and tell me that” before threatening to punch the rider and making more transphobic comments.
“If you’re a man, I’ll beat you up,” he says in the video.
Chris then proceeds to insult another rider in the next minute of the video.
He then looks at a third rider, who is of colour, and makes a racist comment, suggesting the rider “go back to Pakistan”.
As Chris begins to exit the bus, he accuses one of the first two conductors of kicking him.
“Do it again, dammit,” he says as he holds a clenched fist in the face of one of the riders.
“I’m going to kick your fucking head in,” he says as he exits the bus and walks toward Gage Park, cursing some more.
The streamer discusses the profanity in a separate video
In a separate live stream shortly after the incident, Chris said he ended the stream, made the video private and would likely delete it, calling it “an insurance policy for myself.”
“If I keep broadcasting as long as I am, you’re just going to keep reinforcing me,” he told his small group of onlookers.
Chris said it was a “rare” encounter and “not my proudest moment”, but said he only made the video private to avoid being flagged by YouTube, adding that he had no concerns about breaking the law.
“I made it a little difficult. I noticed that after this stream I lost two [subscribers] … it is what it is, to all my local Hamiltonians, if you can’t deal with that kind of stuff then get off this channel,” he said.
“I’m sorry if this content bothers you, but if it’s any consolation, it bothers me too. I don’t like being like that… I don’t know why I got so excited,” he said.
He did not respond to emails from CBC Hamilton and did not confirm comments from CBC Hamilton to respond to media requests in one of his live chats Monday night.
Mayor calls video ‘reprehensible’
The video comes as Hamilton witnesses a record number of hate crimes.
In 2021, police reported 108 hate incidents (87 of which were not considered crimes), a 35 percent increase on 2020, but the figure is around average compared to previous years.
If anyone witnessed this reprehensible incident or knows who this person is, please call Hamilton Hate Crimes Investigator Sergeant Rebecca Moran at 905-546-5511.
To report anonymously, contact Crime Stoppers at:
1-800- 222-8477 or https://t.co/BOevcTOANp
—@HamiltonsMayor
Recently released figures from Statistics Canada also show that levels of various criminal acts of harassment and threats continue to rise across the country. There were 2,073 reported hate crimes in 2017 and last year there were 3,360 nationally.
The number of reported hate crimes related to sexual orientation in Canada more than doubled between 2017 and 2021, according to the statistics, jumping from 204 to 423 respectively.
Hamilton Police say they are urging any victims or witnesses to contact Hamilton Hate Crimes Investigator Sergeant Rebecca Moran at 905-546-5511 or Crime Stoppers.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger also encouraged people to head out, calling the incident “reprehensible.”
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