Black Lives Matter attend Pride Toronto town hall

By News Staff

Members of Black Lives Matter Toronto (BLMTO) as well as other community groups attended the first of two Pride Toronto meetings, as the festival looks to get feedback and input for its 2017 events.

This year’s Pride Parade was stopped by members of BLMTO, who asked for and received an end to a police presence at the parade.

However, the executive director of Pride who signed the agreement later said he only agreed to get the parade moving. Mathieu Chantelois has since resigned.

It would take very little for Pride to bring marginalized groups back into the fold, Syrus Ware of BLMTO said at Tuesday’s meeting.

“With very small tweaks they could have enough funding to do all the things they need, to have ASL interpretation, to have support for Black queer youth … they could make a parade we could all march in,” Ware said.

“We wouldn’t have to worry about being carded while we’re walking down the street with our LGBT brothers and sisters.”


 

Related stories:

Black Lives Matter briefly stops Toronto’s Pride parade

Shame on us: Pride Toronto member resigns in solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Mathieu Chantelois resigns as executive director of Pride Toronto


BLMTO wants to ban police floats and booths from the Pride Parade and Pride community spaces. However, they are open to participation from LGBTQ officers.

“We believe they should not have police floats and we believe they should not be in uniform and they should not be armed,” Janaya Khan, a member of BLMTO, said earlier this year.

“That type of police presence within the parade itself is inherently problematic and creates very exclusive space for police officers and excludes marginalized communities from participating in the parade.”

The group is also calling for more spaces for black queer youth, for more diverse hiring at Pride Toronto (including black trans women, black queer people, and Indigenous people), and more black deaf and hearing ASL interpreters.

The next meeting will take place at the Ada Slaight Hall at 585 Dundas St. E. on Wednesday, from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

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