Pride Toronto issues apology for 'history of anti-blackness'

Pride Toronto is apologizing for allowing a “history of anti-blackness and repeated marginalization of the marginalized” within its community to continue and is vowing to demonstrate progress on “each and every item” that was included in a list of demands made by protesters with the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter this past summer.

In a written statement released shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday, Pride Toronto’s board of directors apologized “emphatically and unreservedly” for its role in “deepening the divisions in our community.”

As well, the board apologized for allowing its former executive director Mathieu Chantelois to backtrack on the demands that he agreed to following a protest by Black Lives matter activists that briefly halted the annual Pride parade in July. Chantelois resigned about a month later.

“Pride Toronto regrets the way Black Lives Matter – Toronto Coalition’s (BLMTO) protest was handled by our organization and the statements made following the parade that did not represent our organization. We apologize that the lack of decisive decision-making has left many in our communities feeling attacked. This is the opposite of what Pride is all about,” the statement reads. “There has been an unbelievable amount of racism expressed by members of our community through this organization. For that, we are sorry.”

Members of Black Lives Mater-Toronto have previously accused Pride Toronto of implementing a number of “anti-black policies” and being responsible for “a number of attacks to the black queer and trans community.”

Among other things, the group has taken issue with the organization’s refusal to properly fund and support the Blockorama stage, which is geared towards black members of the LGTBQ community. The group has also raised concerns with the organization’s lack of support for the Black Queer Youth coalition and Blackness Yes!

Speaking with CP24 on Tuesday morning, Black Lives Matter – Toronto co-founder Syrus Ware said that while the apology from Pride Toronto is a step it does little to rectify the long-standing issues raised by his group.

“Once again we are seeing another statement with more words and what we are really interested in is action,” she said. “This statement makes a lot of claims about really wanting to address anti-black racism but yet it is another statement that has been released to the general public without any actual connection to Black Lives Matter- Toronto, Black Queer Youth (BQY) or Blackness Yes!”

In its statement, Pride Toronto said that for many years the black queer community “has had to fight for their rightful place in the Pride festival.” Through this, Pride Toronto said that it “did not make enough of an effort to engage with members of our black community.” Furthermore, the organization said that it made decisions, such as relocating programming by the Black Queer Youth group, with a lack of understanding of the issue and without properly consulting those affected.

Discussing the path forward, Ware said that it is her hope that Pride Toronto holds an “actual in-depth consultation with black queer and trans communities” as soon as possible.

“Saying you want to do better is one thing, saying a lot of words is one thing, we want to see actions,” she said. “We want to see actual engagement with our communities and actual efforts being made to make changes.”

Apology comes on the heels of two town halls

The apology from Pride Toronto came two weeks after a number of town halls were held.

In addition to the 700 people who showed up at the town halls, Pride Toronto said it heard from another 1,100 community members who weighed in via email and about 1,000 others who responded to a survey.

“What’s been regrettable about it is that it has shown a very divided community on this issue,” Board of directors co-chair Aaron GlynWilliams told CP24 on Tuesday morning. “Many of the comments that the organization has received and has heard were very racist in nature and that is troubling.”

GlynWilliams said he is optimistic that the statement released Monday night will be “the beginning of continuing a conversation and repairing some of the mistakes that were made” during the most recent pride festival.

That conversation, GlynWilliams said, must lead to real change that takes into account the interests of the entire LGBTQ community.

“We are trying to be sensitive and understanding of the various views that are being shared with us and move forward in a constructive way,” he said.

In addition to apologizing for its “history of anti-blackness” Pride Toronto also used its statement to reiterate its plan to use its dispute resolution process to evaluate a demand from Black Lives Matter - Toronto to stop allowing police booths and floats at the annual pride festival.

That demand has been widely criticized with Mayor John Tory calling it a “backwards step for the whole community" and Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack calling it a "slap in the face" to all officers.