

Codi Wilson, CP24.com





Pride Toronto is welcoming police participation in next year’s parade after uniformed officers were excluded for the past two years.

In an open letter released Tuesday, Pride Toronto said when the police service submits an application to participate in this year’s event, organizers will review it and provided that the application meets the parade entry rules, Toronto police will be granted a marching permit.

“For many members of our communities, this decision will feel premature; we may not all see the same signs of a mending relationship,” Pride Toronto said in the written statement.

“Indeed, some of the change is subtle and some just getting underway. We are heartened that the seeds are being planted, but we acknowledge and respect those who will find this decision a difficult one.”

Tension between the police service and the LGBTQ community began to mount at the 2016 parade when Black Lives Matter Toronto held a sit-in protest and called for uniformed officers to be excluded from the parade. The group said that the presence of officers at the parade made members of the community feel unsafe.

In 2017, it was the first time in 17 years that Toronto police did not march in the parade in uniform.

This past April, Pride Toronto asked the police service to withdraw their 2018 Pride Parade application in the wake of the investigation into Bruce McArthur, who has now been charged with the murders of several missing men with ties to the city’s LGBT community.

“We asked for time to mourn and to discover how to heal. The police honored our request, and the parade became an important moment in our collective expression of resilience and our individual expressions of heartache,” Pride Toronto added.

“Even more importantly, we also asked the Toronto Police to embark on a process of increased co-operation and collaborative action with the city’s LGBT2Q+ organizations. We sought, and continue to seek, institutional change that takes time and openness to achieve.”

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday morning, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said police have been working hard to build a better relationship with members of the LGBT community.

“This is just a start to a much longer journey,” he said. “We are not where we need to be yet.”

Black Lives Matter – Toronto spokesperson Rodney Diverlus says he is struggling to understand what prompted this change since he and his group have seen no attempt by police or Pride Toronto to address issues about representation of black queer and trans people during the annual event, or this ongoing concerns about police brutality or anti-black racism.

“We’ve seen no tangible changes, we’ve seen no tangible programs, no tangible attempt by the police to ameliorate these issues,” Diverlus said.

He said the ongoing questions surrounding the Bruce McArthur homicide investigation compound his concerns about allowing police to participate in the parade.

“What we’re seeing right now is essentially Toronto police, Toronto pride and the mayor try to railroad and push through the police’s participation, the community won’t stand for this.”

Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack thanked Pride Toronto for “taking a step in the right direction.”

“This parade is about inclusiveness and about community,” he said. “It allows people to see police officers as part of the community… It empowers police officers. It empowers the community and I think it is a great event to do that.”

Mayor John Tory, who also attended Tuesday’s news conference, echoed Saunders’ comments, noting that the “process of building up confidence and building up trust is well underway.”

When asked about the timing of today’s news conference, which was held just days before the municipal election, Olivia Nuamah, the executive director of Pride Toronto, said the organization wanted to get the conversation started early.

“I didn’t want to be having this conversation months before (the parade),” she said. “I knew it was going to be an issue on the table.”