“I wanted to tell him thank you, that I’m Syrian, I arrived here a month ago”, said the refugee, Bassel Mcleash. If the same principles were to apply to the behavior of Black Lives Matter, the organization could be seen as one of the worst guests that Toronto Pride has seen.
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“Mayor believes they must continue to do so going forward”, the statement said. I began to tell a few peers at work, and soon word spread.
Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Janaya Khan says some of the items on the list are negotiable, but the ban on police floats is not.
Hundreds of police officers from across the province participated in Sunday’s event. “Militarizing these events increases the potential for harm to our communities and we hope in the future SF Pride will consider community-centered approaches to security at pride events”. “I had no idea that there were that many cops that march in this, from all different agencies”, he said, adding that one of the highlights was speaking with Toronto police chief and paradegoer Mark Saunders. Pride have embraced the police.
Pride Toronto has previously said that it will hold a public town hall in August to get feedback on this year’s events.
Black Lives Matter faces backlash after Pride protest.
“This should not be about excluding the police, it should be about including all of the positive things we have done”.
Justin Trudeau also relegated his presence at the parade as normal, mentioning that he had been attending the Pride parades for years.
The BLM protestors, who led the parade, stopped the celebration about two thirds of the way along the route to make their demands.
The parade attracted tens of thousands of people to the downtown core and wrapped up a month-long Pride festivities in Toronto. “The Pride Parade was a pushover” she wrote in a column Monday.
Khan didn’t take too kindly to Pride Toronto’s comments, and emphasized that BLM’s demands should not be taken lightly.
The group’s demand to ban police floats and booths from the Pride Parade and Pride community spaces appears to have emerged as its most contentious call since Sunday, but Khan said Black Lives Matter Toronto isn’t seeking a meeting with police over the matter. He said he had only committed to having a conversation about the issues the group raised.
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Among the demands is the exlusion of parade floats manned by police, hiring more Black and trans women and Indigenous people, and increasing funding for marginalized populations including South Asians and queer Black youth. I will not tell you that there is no more floats in the parade because Pride is bigger than Black Lives Matter. It is definitely bigger than me and my committee. “That is the kind of decision that needs to be made by the community”.
