Toronto Mayor John Tory is calling the decision by Chief Mark Saunders to drop out of this year’s Pride Parade “disappointing” and says that no one should feel excluded from the event.
“This current situation is not good for a city as inclusive as Toronto,” Tory said in a statement. “We know that diversity strengthens us as a city and pushing people apart weakens us as a city.”
In a statement released on Friday, the chief said he understands the LGBTQ communities “are divided” following a vote by Pride Toronto members last month to remove police floats and marches from their annual parade.
“To enable those differences to be addressed, I have decided the Toronto Police Service will not participate, this year, in the Pride Parade,” Saunders said.
READ MORE: Pride Toronto votes to remove police floats, marches from parade
Pride Toronto issued a statement of their own on Friday stating the festival “must continue to belong to everyone” and that they are committed to dialogue with its membership and the broader community.
“We want to be clear, members of the Toronto Police Service are still welcome to march in the Parade as members or allies of our diverse and beautiful community,” the statement read.
“We continue to hope that together we can move forward as an organization, as a community and as a city.”
The chief said police will continue to hold its annual Pride reception and that pulling out of the parade will have no impact on their ongoing outreach to LGBTQ communities.
“We will continue to develop respectful relationships and build new ones, focusing on those who feel marginalized, with the trans and racialized communities,” Saunders said. “I will sit down with any group who feels marginalized, who comes to the table with ideas on how to make things better.”
READ MORE: Black Lives Matter wants protest demands met by Pride Toronto despite flip-flop
However, Toronto police union boss Mike McCormack voiced his concern calling the move “political pandering.”
“I think this sends a very negative message to our members about inclusivity and about being a part of the community,” McCormack told reporters at police headquarters on Friday.
“If the goal from the special interest groups or the people making these bad decisions was to drive a wedge into police and our communities, and set back community relations, then they’ve achieved that goal.”
Police participation in the Pride Parade was put into question last year after the Toronto chapter of the Black Lives Matter group staged a sit-in that halted the event for nearly 30 minutes.
They had asked for nine demands to be met, one of which included a ban on police at future events.
Mathieu Chantelois, Pride Toronto’s executive director who later resigned amid allegations of racism and sexual harassment, signed the list of demands on the spot enabling the parade to continue.
READ MORE: Pride Toronto executive director resigns after allegations of racism, sexual harassment
The following day he withdrew support saying that nothing was agreed upon and that the signing was done only to get the parade moving again.
The Toronto activist group held a number of press conferences following the incident lashing out at Pride Toronto organizers for backtracking and city officials for supporting the police.
One of the group’s co-founders, Alexandria Williams, told reporters last July they were opposed to having a “militarized” police presence at the parade and would prefer officers take part in the festivities without their uniform and guns.
A spokesperson for Black Lives Matter said Friday it is disappointed with Saunders’ statement.
“They are trying to flip the narrative and make it seem as if they are choosing to pull out of Pride when in fact they were uninvited,” said spokesperson Syrus Marcus Ware.
Ware said they are frustrated that Saunders’ statement makes no mention of issues such as “anti-blackness and policing, around issues of carding.”
McCormack said officers will continue to provide security during the Pride festivities but their omission from the parade will only create further divisions within the community.
“We will always provide the security. That’s what we do,” he said. “But this sends a message on a personal level and institutional level not to be involved in Pride.”
Tory said he remains hopeful all parties involved will be able to reach a solution so that the community can “continue to build those vitally important bridges.”
VIDEO: Black Lives Matter explain why they don’t want police floats as part of the Pride parade
-With a file from The Canadian Press
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