Halifax Regional Police (HRP) won’t be participating in this year’s Halifax Pride parade, the police force announced Monday.
HRP says they’ll be increasing their participation in the 2017 festival, but after consultations with Halifax Pride, they’ve decided not to join the parade “in consideration of a national debate about police participation in pride parades.”
READ MORE: Pride Toronto votes to remove police floats, marches from parade
“We feel that stepping away temporarily from the parade will best support the LGBT2Q+ community by helping to allow for meaningful discussion of this divisive issue,” Chief Jean-Michel Blais said in a release.
“After several months of discussion with Halifax Pride, we recognized that our participation in the parade may contribute to divisions in the LGBT2Q+ community which is contrary to our intent of building a strong and sustainable relationship.”
READ MORE: Black Lives Matter want Vancouver Police to withdraw from Pride Parade
Blais admitted some officers were disappointed in the decision, but assured that officers can still march in the parade, just not in their uniforms. He said people shouldn’t be surprised if they even see him in the parade or on bike patrol, just wearing a T-shirt, because he still wants to be involved in Pride.
Halifax Pride executive director Adam Reid calls HRP’s decision to pull out of the parade “proactive.”
“To my knowledge, HRP is the first police service in Canada to take this community-minded approach to its Pride participation,” Reid said.
Some people on the streets of Halifax were critical of the decision, saying it raised concerns about inclusion and exclusion.
“That’s called discrimination in my books, and that’s what these gay, lesbian, Pride people, transgender people are worried about is discrimination and that is discrimination,” Marjorie Kildare said.
“Those officers should be there if they want to be.”
“It’s even worse to hear that it’s the gay pride parade that they won’t be in. It’s something that I feel like took so long to overcome, everybody that can be included, should be out there marching with them,” said Courtney Fraser.
HRP will continue to be involved in the festival, and the force is looking at ideas like a community barbeque, a public lecture and a plenary session. The force will also still be on traffic duty on parade day.
Blais didn’t rule out the possibility that the HRP could be involved in parades in the future, saying they plan to reevaluate the decision in 2018. The police force has been taking part in the Pride parade for 10 years.
Nova Scotia RCMP have also been marching in the Halifax Pride parade for several years, though it’s still unclear whether they will continue to be involved or follow HRP’s lead.
RCMP say they plan to meet with representatives from Halifax Pride sometime in the near future.