Mayor John Tory should not be taking sides in the debate about whether police take part in Toronto’s Pride parade, Black Lives Matter Toronto says.

Tory “has no place in this discussion and he should stay in his lane,” Rodney Diverlus, one of the group’s co-founders, told a news conference Thursday.

“We are not interested in his vapid interest in this community.”

Diverlus and fellow Black Lives Matter Toronto members said they will continue to demand that police floats be banned from future Pride parades.

The Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter says it won't back down from a list of demands that includes a ban on police floats from the city's annual Pride parade.

They will also continue to press for additional funding for black and South Asian culture at Pride, and the hiring of more black and indigenous employees at Pride Toronto.

“We will not stand down on these demands,” said Rinaldo Walcott.

Walcott said police floats are symbols of oppression that have no place in the parade, which has been political since its conception.

“We see your disregard for black life and we will no longer stand for that,” he said of police.

The pointed criticism of Tory came in response to a letter the mayor wrote to the Toronto Police Association earlier this week, throwing his support behind police participation in future Pride parades.

John Tory supports police participation in Pride parade

In response, Tory said Thursday that allowing police floats into the parade doesn’t mean there aren’t serious racial issues that need to be confronted.

“There are issues that are raised by Black Lives Matter, among others, that relate to the continued existence of discrimination and elements of racism in our society here in Toronto, as much as we are proud of how well we've done at inclusion and eliminating discrimination and promoting rights,” Tory said.

He said meetings will be held starting next week “involving myself and Black Lives Matter and a number of other organizations to specifically and directly address those” issues.

“The best way to go about promoting and encouraging and producing inclusivity (is) not to start with excluding people,” he said.

The controversy began when Black Lives Matter members blocked the Pride parade for about half an hour Sunday to protest the participation of police.

Black Lives Matter protest scores victory after putting Pride parade on pause

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The protesters allowed the parade to continue after Pride Toronto representatives signed off on a list of demands, which included banning the police from future parades.

However, Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois told the Star on Monday that he wouldn’t move forward on them without consulting his community, and that he had only signed the demands to get the parade moving.

Banning police from parade not my call, Pride exec says

Stephen Reid, executive director of the Police Association of Ontario, said in an interview Thursday that he’s a member of the LGBTQ2S community and marched with police co-workers in Sunday’s parade.

“I can be who I am,” Reid said.

A strong police presence at Pride sends out a strong message to the community, Reid said.

“You can become a police officer and you don’t have to feel homophobia,” Reid said. “It’s an incredibly important symbol.”

On Wednesday, Pride Toronto volunteer team lead Jacqie Lucas resigned to protest her organization’s handling of the Black Lives Matter demands.

Lucas, who helped organize the parade’s honoured groups and international grand marshals, said she resigned “in solidarity with BlackLivesMatter (sic) and apologise profusely for the mistreatment, thoughtless and complete disregard which came along with being honoured.”

Lucas said the protest pointed out “where the holes are within our organization”, and that the criticism would lead to a stronger community at Pride.

“We said all the things that Black Lives Matter wanted to hear, fair and easy requests and signed it with a hug and feathery queer pen but turned around and said ‘We really just wanted to get the parade moving’,” Lucas wrote on Facebook.

With files from Evelyn Kwong, Brennan Doherty, Sarah-Joyce Battersby and Jackie Hong.

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