Pride Toronto has apologized for its handling of the Black Lives Matter protest at this year’s Pride parade, and for what it calls its own “history of anti-blackness.”

But Black Lives Matter Toronto says it does not want to see an apology from Pride — it wants to see Pride take action on the nine demands BLMTO issued at the parade.

The demand with the highest profile — that police officers no longer be allowed to have floats in the parade or booths at Pride festivities — remains unsatisfied, in BLMTO’s view.

Pride said it will take the issue to an independent arbitrator, which has been its standard method of dispute resolution since 2012.

But BLMTO says that’s an inappropriate method of addressing the problem.

“This isn’t a dispute between community members, it’s a discussion about including a very violent government body in the parade,” said BLMTO spokesperson LeRoi Newbold.

“Police come in uniform with their specific divisions and they participate in the parade as an institution, as a governmental body. That comes with the symbolism of everything that the police represent,” Newbold added.

In a statement nearly 2,000 words long, posted to Pride’s website on Monday night, the organization’s board of directors said they were “apologizing emphatically and unreservedly for (Pride’s) role in deepening the divisions in our community, for a history of anti-blackness and repeated marginalization of the marginalized within our community that our organization has continued.”

Pride’s directors said they regretted the way they handled the BLMTO protest and were sorry for the “unbelievable amount of racism expressed by members of our community through this organization.”

The directors also apologized to members of law enforcement who had “felt unfairly attacked and targeted by the community that it turns to for love and support.”

In an interview Tuesday, Pride co-chair Aaron GlynWilliams said the statement of apology was not meant to address specific actions at the parade, but rather was a way to acknowledge Pride’s failure to address divisions within its own community.

“The apology was writ large for the way the organization has been somewhat silent since the (parade),” GlynWilliams said. “But also … this is somewhat an outcome of a very long history that the organization has, and has had, with members of marginalized communities and black queer communities, and that’s also something that we’re trying to recognize.”

In addition to the arbitration to determine how police participate in future Pride parades, GlynWilliams said, Pride will hold meetings this winter to talk to BLMTO and other black and LGBTQ groups about the progress being made on the other eight demands.

Newbold said BLMTO has not been contacted about those winter meetings.

On July 3, BLM activists brought the 2016 Pride parade to a halt for more than 30 minutes with a protest that called on Pride to answer for its “anti-blackness.”

The parade resumed after Pride executive director Mathieu Chantelois and board co-chair Alica Hall signed the list of BLMTO demands, which included a ban on police floats and booths, increased funding for pride events geared to minority groups and the hiring of more staff from vulnerable communities.

Pride continues to say it is committed to meeting those demands.

But Chantelois came under fire when, in the parade’s aftermath, he said he had signed the list of demands merely to get the parade moving again.

Chantelois resigned his post in August “to pursue an opportunity with another organization.”

He has not yet been replaced.

Pride’s Monday statement came after several outreach activities intended to consult with LGBTQ and minority communities on what they want from the organization. This included two nights of town hall meetings, a 1,000-person survey and emails from more than 1,100 members of the public.

“The responses we received clearly demonstrate a very divided community. … Particularly in a city like Toronto, where our intersecting identities and lived experiences mean our experiences in this city are very different,” Pride wrote in its statement.

GlynWilliams acknowledged both sides of the debate on police presence.

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“LGBT officers in uniform want to be celebrated, and that’s an important part of Pride, and frankly members of our community feel safer with the police there, particularly post-Orlando (gay nightclub shooting) and other events of violence,” GlynWilliams said.

“But we also understand some of our most marginalized groups, the groups that really started the Pride movement, continue to face unfair discrimination and that maybe 400 officers in uniform and dozens of vehicles with sirens blaring is traumatizing.”

Newbold said that, even if police continued to march and have floats at Pride, BLMTO would not stage another parade-stopping protest next year. Rather, Newbold said, they would find other creative ways of pushing for black queer and trans spaces in and outside of Pride.