The list includes nine demands that range from banning police floats in future parades to increasing funding for spaces for racialized communities.
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The parade kicked off Sunday 2 p.m. local time, with dozens of roaring motorcycles driving down Bloor and Church streets in Toronto, with the rainbow flag clearly displayed.
The president for the union representing Toronto’s police officers says he was outraged at the demands.
“The support that I have from my peers and supervisors has been unwavering”, he wrote in an open letter to Toronto Pride.
When asked about the letter at an unrelated event on Wednesday, Tory told reporters that his statement was meant to be “entirely positive” and that it should “speak for itself”. “Because what it does is silence the thousands and thousands of people who live in the middle and the thousands and thousands of people who want to come to Pride and feel included, but can not because of the police”. The police have embraced Pride and Pride has embraced the police.
“I can’t co-opt what is mine”, said Khan, who is part of the LGBTQ community, adding: “It was never community consensus that police floats should be a part of Pride to begin with. Black Lives Matter. You can’t tell me the organizers could be that naive to think this wouldn’t happen”.
The letter did not specifically call for police to be banned.
Toronto Pride organizers are denying that they agreed to exclude police from marching in future parades-a demand made by Black Lives Matter Toronto during a controversial protest Sunday. “We have had, and will continue to have, discussions with the police about the nature of their involvement as parade participants”. “For me, it is just another great Pride celebration”. “And we really need to start teasing out what it means when increased police presence means that numerous LGBTQ-identified community members feel less and less safe”.
“Pride should live up to their motto – ‘You can sit with us.’ You can’t throw police under the bus and to do that”.
“As queer people of color, we are disproportionately targeted by both vigilante and police violence”, said BLM member Malkia Cyril.
If police are not allowed to participate in LGBTQ events such as Pride, “it will feel like we are taking a step backwards”, Turner said.
Black Lives Matter Toronto says the vitriol demonstrates the racism it is trying to combat with its actions.
Trudeau, who joined other politicians in the Toronto Parade, did not give details other than that the government is exploring the “best way” to implement the cards while studying other jurisdictions.
Chantelois said that he was on board with all of the demands except for excluding police floats from Pride. After speaking with black LGBT groups in the area and hearing about major issues with funding and being acknowledged by Pride at the same level as other groups, BLM made a decision to take action and raise awareness of these issues.
Mathieu Chantelois, executive director of Pride Toronto, met with BLMTO and, according to the group, signed a document agreeing to all of the demands. He said he had only committed to having a conversation about the issues the group raised. “Frankly, Black Lives Matter is not going to tell us that there are no more floats anymore in the parade”.
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It seems inevitable that someone will accuse Black Lives Matter of injecting identity politics into what is ostensibly an “apolitical” event, but the cops seem like the true identitarians here.
