Mayor John Tory says excluding police from future pride parades would be a “backwards step for the whole community.”
Tory made the comment to reporters on Wednesday, one day after penning a letter to Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack thanking police for their involvement in pride this year and expressing confidence that their participation would “continue for years to come.”
The letter came in the wake of a sit-in by members of Black Lives Matter- Toronto that disrupted Sunday’s Pride parade. The group presented a list of demands that included barring police floats from future parades and the parade resumed only after Pride Toronto Executive Director Mathieu Chantelois signed the list.
For his part, Chantelois has maintained that he only committed to having a conversation about the issues that were raised by the protesters and did not agree to exclude police floats from the parade.
“We have come so far in the relations between police and the LGBTQ2S community. The police have embraced pride and pride have embraced police and I think to go backwards from there would be a backwards step or the whole community and pride,” Tory said after attending an Eid event at the Enercare Centre on Wednesday. “Now is not the time to go backwards; now is the time to go forward and to include more people in pride celebrations and the spirit of pride.”
Tory’s letter does not explicitly mention Black Lives Matter- Toronto but it does refer to the “debate currently taking place with regard to Pride and our police.”
The letter also notes that having police march in the annual pride parade and keep the event safe has always been a “hallmark” of the celebrations.
“All I was saying was thank you to the police service from the chief on down for their contributions to better relationships with the LGBTQ2S community,” Tory said on Wednesday. “I have no comment with respect to anybody else at all. My words I think speak for themselves.”
Tory did not comment on Pride Toronto’s decision to sign the list of demands made by Black Lives Matter – Toronto but in a subsequent interview with CP24 McCormack said it was the wrong thing to do.
“We understand that the parade needed to get moving and there was some issues around that but you can’t throw the police under the bus to do that,” he said, noting that he has been in touch with members of Pride Toronto and has requested an apology. “We should be having discussions about inclusion not exclusion.”
Pride Toronto has previously said that it will hold a public town hall in August to get feedback on this year's events. Members of Pride Toronto are also expected to hold a sit-down meeting with Police Chief Mark Saunders later this week.
