Re: Toronto police should step away from Pride Parade, Shree Paradkar, Jan. 23

Toronto police should step away from Pride Parade, Shree Paradkar, Jan. 23

It is quite obvious that Shree Paradkar has missed the point and not Premier Kathleen Wynne.

The point is not whether the police should or should not participate, but rather the bullying tactics employed by Black Lives Matter. Hijacking the parade last year, holding it up and leaving thousands farther along the parade route scared and confused and wondering what had happened (Anti-LGBTQ2 radicals? Terrorists?) is the point.

Black Lives Matter could have done this peacefully and calmly by requesting a sit-down after the parade to discuss how to approach police participation for the next year. They would definitely have garnered more support. All the organization achieved is to make people angry and to fuel the fire for bigots.

This group, more than some others, should know that exclusion of any group is discrimination.

Paradkar states that it took almost two decades for a uniformed police officer to walk in the parade. Why does she think it’s now a good idea to undo the progress? The police were not bullied into participating but rather came to the realization that it is the right thing to do. She now wants them to be excluded again. Really?

Fuelling the fire of discrimination does no one any good and might have the unexpected consequence of putting the fight for equality for all groups centuries backward.

Rita Maio, Woodbridge

For last year’s Pride, I had two young men help me decorate our church’s float (MCC Toronto). As we walked up Church St. to Rosedale Valley Rd., we passed several groups of uniformed officers. All were having a great time taking pictures and mixing with the throng.

I asked several rainbow-clad offices if my young friends could pose with them. The boys looked surprised when they were gathered up by the group of constables and posed for pictures.

One boy is a refugee from Indonesia, where police constantly threatened his life. The other was a refugee from Russia who had faced equal fears. I told them they should send the pics home to their friends still trying to escape, as a sign of hope. The police were so sympathetic, they gave the boys their rainbow flags and lots of hugs.

If you think these amazing people won’t be offended by having their float and groups ejected from our inclusive Pride, I think you are wrong. I think you are wrong for accepting this. It is also wrong that Black Lives Matter members can’t, or won’t, see this.

There may not be too many of us old enough to have marched back in the ’80s, before so many worked so hard to build this bridge between the gay community and Toronto police. When police attended a march in those days, they would tape over their badge numbers so they couldn’t be identified if there was an altercation.

Today, they have a float that some wish to deny them. This bullying action is really about revenge and reciprocity, not equality of rights.

Roy Dean, Toronto

Stay inclusive, editorial, Feb. 19

To promote inclusion by exercising exclusion is a contradiction in terms. In this case, not of an individual but of an indispensable social institution: the police.

Like all social institutions and individuals, police are not perfect. But they serve an important societal faction and are essential for our well-being. No society or group like Black Lives Matter can function effectively without some semblance of law and order and the department to ensure it.

For the effective and smooth working of a society, mutual understating, critical appreciation and constructive criticism are a must. Both Black Lives Matter and Toronto police have to open channels that lead to mutual understanding, critical appreciation and constructive criticism, rather than boycott and exclusion.

Clarence McMullen, Richmond Hill

I’m sorry, but Shree Paradkar’s column indicates a serious lack of understanding in how Toronto police and the LGBT community were able to build the bridges necessary for today’s working relationship — they sat down and talked it out. Together. In the same room. At the same time.

If Black Lives Matter wants a better relationship with police, slamming doors is not the way to do it. That is not how we do things in Canada. If Pride and BLM are serious about wanting better relations with the police, then it starts with communication. And it has to be a two-way street.

Is that going to right the wrongs of the past? No. But it can avert ones in the future. And isn’t that the whole point?

Sean Martin, Doc and Raider cartoonist, Montreal

As a gay man who grew up in the ’50s and ’60s in Toronto, when it was downright dangerous to be perceived by police, teachers or just about anyone else in authority as being gay, and as one who remembers well the police bathhouse raids, I am amazed and thankful for the police inclusion in my parade.

I cannot begin to know the feelings of the black community regarding systemic racism and I don’t pretend to. But I do remember the hostility by police and society in general toward the LGBTQ community.

A few years ago, as I walked down Church St. before the parade, I stopped at the police booth and talked to two young officers — one male one female. I commented on how entirely things had changed within my lifetime in police/gay relations. They acknowledged the change.

If Pride is really about inclusion, then all should be included, all who want to be a part of this amazing presentation of acceptance and celebration.

Stephen Bloom, Toronto

It is difficult for me to understand what gives Black Lives Matter the right to command obedience from Pride parade organizers as to who may participate. The whole basis of Pride is openness, inclusion and fairness. It surprises me somewhat that many black people with happy families do not speak up and reject these vengeful folk.

As a senior on a social justice team in my United Church, I believe in “Love one another.” It is impossible for me to understand why, even if people believe they have been excluded or treated unfairly, they would deliberately want to do the same to others.

Throughout my life and the lives of my children and grandchildren, I have always been proud of our Toronto police. If Pride organizers go along with the demands of Black Lives Matter and exclude the police, I will never attend another parade. I would never think of participating in wilful exclusion of any members of society.

Shirley Bush, Toronto

Like many supporters of the LGBT community, I was deeply disappointed by the decision of Pride Toronto’s membership to exclude police from the parade.

In 1994, I was one of three Liberal MPPs to vote for Bill 167 (extending spousal benefits to same-sex couples). That bill was defeated because people were not ready to fully accept gays and lesbians as inclusive members of our society, with the same rights, protections and responsibilities. We have come a long way in 20 years.

Now, members of Pride Toronto have decided that inclusiveness should only apply to them, not to members of the police who have participated in their parade and supported them for the past decade.

It should be a matter of celebration to have the support of the police, not a denigration. Let’s hope the executive of Pride Toronto has enough courage to reject the membership’s vote and continue to welcome the police to serve, protect and be included.

Dianne Poole, Eglinton MPP (1987-1995), Toronto

The recent decision by Pride Toronto to acquiesce to the written demand of Black Lives Matter to exclude Toronto police floats from the Pride Parade is a decision that demands we stop and think for a moment about the consequences of such actions.

Both Pride and BLM have indicated they are anti-discriminatory organizations that are dedicated to embracing the values of equality, inclusion and self-recognition of ourselves as human beings first and a minority second.

However, when two organizations that profess the demand for non-discriminatory inclusion elect to omit a third party, then both organizations have actively discriminated against a third party, therefore no longer making them anti-discriminatory in their nature.

Troy J. Young, Toronto

How disappointing to see that the Pride membership voted at their AGM to endorse the demands of Black Lives Matter to compromise police presence at the parade.

Pride Week and the parade were intentioned to celebrate the overall gay lifestyle and has become perhaps the largest gay cultural event in the world, attracting much business and dollars to the local economy.

It would be a shame if a subversive and racist segment of the Black Lives Matter group could influence Pride through blackmail to bow to their demands and threaten this week-long event.

Marty Fruchtman, Toronto

Has Pride Toronto become totally unglued? To succumb to a nutty fringe group like Black Lives Matter is disgraceful.

Of course the police and their floats should be included in the parade. As the Star notes in its editorial, Pride is about inclusivity. Their slogan in last year’s festival was “You can sit with us.” This says it all.

As a frequent volunteer for Pride and having marshalled in the parade for many years, I was always thrilled to see police contingents from all over southern Ontario involved in the march. It’s also great to see folks from all political stripes, from Justin Trudeau to Rona Ambrose and Patrick Brown.

The Pride festival has gone way beyond the LGBTQ+ community. It also represents what Canada is trying to be: a country that is not perfect but compared to the rest of the world, is diverse, inclusive and relatively tolerant.

Andrew van Velzen, Toronto

Most of Black Lives Matter’s demands to Pride Toronto were reasonable, aside from the demand that Toronto police be banned from future parades.

If BLM is having problems with Toronto police, then a proactive response would be to request assistance from the LGBT+ community in establishing better relations with them. After all, we have more than 35 years of hugely successful experience. Pride Toronto’s decision to ban police, many of whom are members of the LGBT+ community, is narrow, counterproductive and exclusionary.

If the smiling faces of our diverse officers in uniform are excluded from the 2017 parade, then mine will be too.

Edmond Comrie, Toronto

I want to make it very clear that Pride Toronto’s endorsement of BLM’s anti-police participation stance does not resonate well with me nor many others in the gay community. While it is incontrovertible that much work needs to be done in the police race-relations department, shutting the constabulary out of the historically inclusive Pride festivities is not the way to do it.

Rob Graham, Toronto

The Pride parade is a celebration of who we are and our achievement in a long fight to defeat discrimination of any sort. Our parade must be welcoming to all those who wish to take part in celebrating our pride and achievement. All must be welcome or we are defeating the very win we are celebrating.

Decades ago, the gay community was discriminated against and subjected to horror and even murder. It was a long and difficult fight to win equality, respect and put an end to discrimination (which still exists in some degree).

Developing a relationship with police — an understanding of where they went wrong and where we went wrong — was our greatest achievement and, for years now, we have celebrated that understanding and we have grown to respect one another.

To ban anyone is to discriminate — the very thing we fought so long to end. We cannot now be guilty of the very thing we fought against. Acceptance is a two-way street and requires effort and assistance. Other groups at odds with the police should learn from our efforts, not try to undo and destroy it.

Tim Devlin, Toronto

As your editorial points out, relations between police and the LGBT community are better than they once were, but there is still much to be done. If police are to be barred from participating in Pride events, you have to ask a simple question: How does this help?

Police officers who are also members of the LGBT community are evidently being told their presence will only be tolerated if they are out of uniform — in other words, only if they are willing to pretend they are not police officers. How long has it been true that members of the LGBT community have been told their presence would only be tolerated if they pretended not to be gay?

If the lesson being taught is that discrimination against any identifiable group is not acceptable, why should there be an exception for police officers? And why are Pride organizers taking direction from Black Lives Matter, a group with an obvious anti-police bias?

Steve Soloman, Toronto

As a Toronto police officer, I am dumbfounded and in disbelief of the decision by Pride Toronto to exclude police from participating in future parades and events.

Pride is an organization that has clearly lost itself to political and self-righteous agendas. This decision is based on complaints by Black Lives Matter Toronto, a racist organization of hate mongers and bigots who strive to achieve divisiveness within this community, and whose sole purpose seems to be to undermine progress in race and social relations between police and the public.

This is a shameful and disrespectful decision by Pride Toronto and should be widely condemned. I urge everyone to boycott this event in the future, as it does not reflect the values of inclusion, respect and community that Pride purports itself to be founded on; nor does it reflect the values of a civilized and progressive society that we Canadians should embrace.

Aaron Hodges, Newmarket

I was shocked and disappointed that members of Pride Toronto voted to ban police at the annual parade.

By capitulating to the demands of Black Lives Matter, Pride Toronto has sent a message that we are weak, unprincipled and easily intimidated. More troubling, it says that Pride Toronto no longer supports the traditional values of the LGBTQ community of tolerance and inclusion. These have been replaced by the values of discrimination, prejudice and exclusion.

If the board of Pride Toronto supports the action taken at the AGM, it would not be appropriate for the mayor, the premier and the prime minister to appear at the parade. It will no longer be the Pride I have been so proud of for many years.

Riaan Meyer, Toronto