How Hamilton failed the 2001 Can. Law Enforcement Games

I hosted the 25th Anniversary of The Canadian Law Enforcement Games in Hamilton. The games were organized by the Ontario Law Enforcement Athletic Association and I was a Board member.
I fought our Board for 4 years to get the games in Hamilton. They had been in Ottawa for 23 years and Guelph for 1 year and this was our anniversary.
The games were open to any Canadian police agency, and included the Canadian Border Services Association, Paramedics and firefighters. We would normally have 1000-1500 competitors for 25+ events. The events were scheduled for various sport venues in Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, St. Catherine’s and Niagara Falls. All the area hotels were advertised in our campaign and a discount was offered. As usual, other non-sport activities, sightseeing and presentations were arranged for the partners and spouses of the competitors.
As soon as our campaign was rolled out, announcing Hamilton as the host city, we started to get rejection notices from different agencies and departments.
As we got closer to the start date of the 10 day games, we had to start notifying our partners that the games may be cancelled.
The games were held but 33+% of our regular athletes and services pulled out, refusing to come to Hamilton. They cited a decaying downtown with higher than average drug use and street crime. Hamilton’s trademark “The Steel City” reputation was met with “and it shows!”
Keep in mind that these were experienced police officers, used to less-than-perfect environments. Some of the attending athletes left their families home for the first time, instead of bringing them with them.
The Board suffered a huge financial loss in venue contracts, agreements and were unable to recover. The organization shut down 4 years later.
When I tried to meet with staff from city hall to discuss this situation, I received a phone call from someone’s assistant, who took my info to pass on but I’m still waiting for the return call.
I’ve lived here 73 years, I’m a business owner and I can say the condition of Hamilton is worse today than it was in 2001. You, the powers that run this city, do not want to hear what’s wrong because it will offend a specific group, social agency or activist group.