CALGARY—Putting a lens on community, Calgary’s LGBTQ folks, people of colour and police are going to talk.

On Sunday, April 29, Calgary Pride will host its first community town hall between the communities, various stakeholders and police. This is the first of three events.

“This really is geared toward community,” said Jason Kingsley, president and executive producer of Calgary Pride. “We just want to make sure we’re engaging our community and providing an opportunity for individuals to have a voice in our community, and providing a discussion.”

Kingsley hopes engaging with police will result in a better understanding of challenges the LGBTQ community faces and hopefully offer up solutions.

In anticipation for the event, and the larger conversation happening in many jurisdictions concerning police relationships with vulnerable communities, StarMetro fielded suggestions from various community members and posed a list of questions to Calgary Deputy Police Chief Sat Parhar.

Here’s what they had to say:

Q: How would you describe the Calgary Police Service’s relationship with the LGBTQ, people of colour and more diverse communities?

A: I’m not just saying this because I’m here, I think it’s actually quite phenomenal. I think we have a real positive open-communication style with them. Not only with just Pride, we deal with many different facets of that community.

And then there’s people of colour. We try to deal with every community group out there if possible. We inform them on what we are, who we are as police and how we can support them and how we can help them through their struggles. I think it’s important. I come from a diverse background, I’m first-generation East Indian from India and I know the struggles that people of colour have when they’re coming to new countries.

Q: Some people in the community portray the relationship with CPS as strained. Do you think that’s a reflection of what’s actually happening on the ground?

A: We’re 1.3 million people and I think that’s always going to be an element of our community. The question for us is how do we get to those people and try to inform them, or try to change their hearts and souls in regards to how the relationship is.

But that doesn’t mean we don’t have issues and that doesn’t mean we can’t be better.

We have really strong relationships with the LGBTQ community. We have a chief advisory board from that community that tries to advise us about some of the things that are going on. We try to get out as much as possible. We have pride in wanting to be part of Pride and the parade; they’re really good things for us to do.

Q: Have there been other conversations over the last year that we may not have seen in terms of improving relationships with the LGBTQ community?

A: There’s been lots of conversation in the background. We’ve had the Pride committee and people from the LGBTQ committee come in and do some training with our executive to talk about language, things that are going on right now, current affairs and how to reflect or speak so that we’re speaking in a respectful way, not a disrespectful way. We had them in for a few hours to talk with our senior officers to talk about what that is. We’re going to continue working on curriculum, but we are in constant conversation with Jason Kingsley, who is with Pride, and the larger LGBTQ community.

Q: Have police had diversity and inclusion training?

A: We have a diversity training course for our front line. It’s a 40-hour, weeklong course and the LGBTQ piece is one piece of that larger program. It really is about understanding different cultures, different styles, different communities within Calgary. How to make sure we’re supporting them the best way we can. So, we do lots of training for our officers, lots of messaging that comes out about where we’re trying to go. The town halls are just another way to communicate how we want that open dialogue and remain accountable. It’s an opportunity for the community to say, you know, we want to challenge you or we want to support you, whatever they want to say.

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Q: People of colour don’t typically report discrimination involving police because of shame or fear. How are police working to address systemic barriers when it comes to those experiences with police?

A: That kind of thinking isn’t uncommon in any marginalized field. We’re very conscious of the shame and the idea that people don’t want to report because of that. We do a lot of work. I’ve got to tell you, I’m at community events on a regular basis with all of our diverse communities talking about who we are and what we represent, trying to create that open dialogue. I think we have the largest diversity policing unit in Canada. We have liaison officers in the Middle Eastern portfolio, African portfolio and many other ones, like the LGBTQ portfolio and elderly portfolio, just to make sure we’re being current on everything we’re trying to accomplish and trying to make it safe for people to come in and report.

Q: What things has CPS done in terms of moving toward the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) recommendations?

A: We have a dedicated strategist, Cst. Cindy Provost, she comes from the community and is a police officer, regarding all the truth and reconciliation work. We’re building our Indigenous framework, it’s not really a framework, we want to come up with a solution driven by them, not by us. We’re working with elders, with so many different Indigenous communities here, it’s good.

We just opened a friendship centre up, downtown, in our Safe Communities Opportunity and Resource (SORCe) building. That was a pretty big deal, having the Indigenous friendship centre in our building. Those are great positive relationships.

There are some key pieces on the recommendations that deal specifically with policing. They’re on our radar and we’re working through it with the Indigenous community, not for them. We’re doing it together.

Q: Last year, why did police feel disappointed in Calgary Pride’s decision to ask that officers not march in its parade in uniform when they were part of the discussions that led up to that decision?

A: I was in that conversation and it was real positive. There was nothing awkward about it. But the reality was that our message at that meeting was basically, it’s your parade and ultimately it’s your decision.

Do we want our officers to be in uniform? Absolutely, we want our officers to be in uniform because that’s who you call. We want people in the parade to be the ones who come to the calls and show up when you need ’em, right? We have to, at some point, welcome and figure that piece out together. We respect that it’s your parade and it’s your decision, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to be in uniform. We still have to reflect what our thoughts are and I think it’s being honest and open and transparent with them to let them know this is what you think and this is what our people think.

I marched in that Pride Parade last year in a T-shirt and it was a good event anyways.

Helen Pike is a Calgary-based reporter covering social justice, democracy and immigration. Follow her on Twitter: @Metropike

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