A Kitchener man, charged with two counts of assault tied to an incident during Hamilton Pride celebrations in 2019, pleaded guilty to one of the charges in a Hamilton Court on Thursday.
Christopher Vanderweide, 27, pleaded guilty to one count of assault and received a suspended sentence and probation for 12 months, according to the ministry of the attorney general.
The charges were connected to an incident at Gage Park on June 15, 2019, involving a violent clash between two groups.
Video footage of the altercation circulating on social media showed a man resembling Vanderweide wearing an armour-like vest and smashing people in the face with a helmet.
Hamilton police charged Vanderweide, and four other people, just eleven days after the incident.
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Vanderweide’s second assault charge was withdrawn by the Crown at Thursday’s hearing.
The clash at Hamilton Pride became the focal point of an independent review of how the Hamilton Police Service (HPS) responded to violence at last year’s festival in Gage Park.
The 125-page report suggested HPS acted too slowly when violent protesters attacked festival-goers
The service is now in the process of acting on 38 recommendations from the study which includes hands-on training and interaction for officers with respect to LGBTQ2 issues and undertaking a diversity audit and organizational culture review.
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