Police may not be banned from Pride parade, executive director says

Toronto police may not be exiled from the Pride parade after all.

Mathieu Chantelois, executive director of Pride Toronto, said that the controversial deal he signed on Sunday, with a feather pen and sealed with a hug, is not necessarily written in stone.

“One thing needs to be really clear. I don’t decide who goes in the parade. Black Lives Matter doesn’t decide who goes in the parade. Our community decides,” he said.

“Over the next weeks we will consult with them, we will make sure that what the community wants we will do. If they want police to have floats in the parade, the police will have floats in the parade,” Chantelois continued.

Black Lives Matter Toronto led the parade, which for the first time in Canadian history included the prime minister, but brought it to a halt for about 30 minutes by staging a sit-in at Yonge and College.

The group refused to continue marching until a list of demands were agreed to, which included a ban on police participating in future pride parades.

Chantelois then came over to the group, signed the documents with a big feather pen and sealed the deal with a hug.

“We did the thing we had to do, make sure the parade was moving,” Chantelois explained. “Yesterday was not a place of negotiation, it was a place of you sign this paper or the parade stops forever, they would still be sitting in the street right now. I did what I had to do.”

The Toronto police union said it feels betrayed by Pride’s actions.

“We weren’t surprised at the behavior of Black Lives Matter, we were surprised at organizers acquiescing to the demands of a group that hijacked the parade. They need to fix it and they need to fix it now,” Mike McCormack, head of the Toronto Police Association, said.

As well, a gay Toronto police officer penned an open letter to Pride about the demand to remove police floats from the parade.

“Police officers are significantly represented in the LGBTQ community and it would be unacceptable to alienate and discriminate against them and those who support them,” Chuck Krangle wrote. “They too struggled to gain a place and workplace free from discrimination and bias.”

Political activist Desmond Cole supports the tactics of Black Lives Matter, saying the group is run by mainly queer and trans black women who have been underrepresented in the LGBTQ banner.

Cole added that no matter how festive the event is, Pride is political.

“We only have pride because of Operation Soap in 1981 when bathhouses were raided.The Pride parade is about police brutuality and these are people who exeprience police brutality and you are telling them this is the wrong place for them to express how they feel?” Cole said.

“Look at all the people saying it was a hostage situation. Is this what you describe as a hostage situation, some women sitting in the street saying can you please listen to us…this is what it’s come to? This is the most peaceful and effective protest. I think some of the anger out there in the public is because they are so effective,” he continued.