Pride Toronto is requesting for the Toronto Police force to withdraw its application to march in this year’s Pride Parade, saying the fractured relationship between police and the queer community “cannot be mended through a parade.”

In a Twitter statement signed by leaders of five community groups, including Pride Toronto executive director Olivia Nuamah, and addressed to “LGBTQ2S communities and our broader community of Toronto,” the organization said, “it is an incredibly complex and difficult time.”

The statement detailed how the community has been shaken by the murders of six men — Majeed Kayhan, 59; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Selim Esen, 44; Andrew Kinsman, 49; Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40; and a sixth unknown man — whose remains were found in planters in various backyards in Toronto, the work of an alleged serial killer targeting the queer community. The statement also referenced Alloura Wells, 27, and Tess Richey, 22, whose suspicious deaths also rocked the Gay Village.

“The individual stories and lived experiences of each of these people were unique,” the statement reads. “But what they did share was that the investigations into their disappearances were insufficient, community knowledge and expertise was not accessed and despite the fact that many of us felt and voiced our concerns, we were dismissed.”

Only last week, the Star obtained documents through a freedom of information request that revealed Pride Toronto was at one point open to the idea of allowing officers in uniform to march in the parade. A briefing note prepared for Mayor John Tory on Aug. 9 by his former aide Bryan Frois said, “Pride and TPS have agreed that there will be a police presence — in uniform — in the 2018 parade.”

Toronto police spokesperson Meaghan Gray confirmed to the Star last week that police had submitted a formal application to participate, and that it was “still pending a final decision.” Police were unable to comment Monday night on this new development.

In December, police would tell media that they had no evidence of a serial killer being active in the Gay Village. After that, the talks shifted between Pride and police in January when Pride Toronto put forth a suggestion that officers would march out of uniform, with only the police chief himself in uniform.

But all of this discussion was before 66-year-old landscaper Bruce McArthur was arrested on Jan. 18 and charged with six counts of first-degree murder. It was before the community was shocked to hear that McArthur had been reported for trying to strangle an intimate partner in 2016, one year before the disappearances of Kinsman and Esen, and was let go by police after questioning.

And it was before police chief Mark Saunders was quoted in a Globe and Mail interview as suggesting that the alleged killer might have been arrested sooner if civilians had come forward to police with vital information.

“This has severely shaken our community’s already often tenuous trust in the city’s law enforcement,” Pride Toronto’s statement continues. “We feel more vulnerable than ever.”

Read more:

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Earlier in March, the Toronto police board voted unanimously to commission an external investigation into the way missing persons probes are handled by the force, spurred on by the worsening trust between the queer community and police.

The Pride leaders say that although they “recognize steps have been taken to work in collaboration … this will not be accomplished in one day. Marching won’t contribute towards solving these issues; they are beyond the reach of symbolic gestures.

“We request that the Police withdraw their application to march in the 2018 Pride Parade. We believe that our resources are better invested in shared efforts that focus on deeper dialogue, collaborative action, and sustained institutional change. Only a significant commitment and meaningful action can start the critical work of making our communities safer.”

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Strangely absent from the statement is any mention of Black Lives Matter Toronto: it was their shutdown of the 2016 Pride Parade that prompted Pride executives to agree to ban uniformed officers for the 2017 festivities. Several BLMTO leaders have retweeted Pride Toronto’s statement.

The leaders who signed the statement include Nuamah; Maura Lawless, executive director of The 519; Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention; Shannon Ryan, executive director of the Black Coalition for Aids Prevention; Murray Jose-Boerbridge, executive director of the Toronto People with Aids Foundation; and Hazelle Palmer, executive director of the Sherbourne Health Centre.

With files from Samantha Beattie