Multiple groups representing the city’s LGBTQ community are asking for Toronto police to withdraw their application to march in the 2018 Pride Parade.
A statement issued on Monday said the relationship between police and the city’s LGBTQ community “cannot be mended through a parade.”
The statement was issued by Pride Toronto, The 519, the Alliance for South Asian AIDS Prevention, the Black Coalition for Aids Prevention, the Toronto People with Aids Foundation, and the Sherbourne Health Centre.
“We recognise steps have been taken to work in collaboration and consultation to understand what we need to be safe. This will not be accomplished in one day,” the statement said. “Marching won’t contribute towards solving these issues; they are beyond the reach of symbolic gestures.”
“We believe that our resources are better invested in shared efforts that focus on deeper dialogue, collaborative action, and sustained institutional change. Only a significant commitment and meaningful action can start the critical work of making our communities safer.”
While speaking with CP24 on March 27, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said an application to have uniformed officers march in this year’s parade was submitted but he noted that his primary focus is mending the relationship with Toronto’s LGBTQ community.
Toronto police officers were allowed to attend last year’s Pride Parade so long as they did not appear in uniform or cruisers. Officers agreed to these terms after Black Lives Matter called on uniformed police to be excluded from the parade saying their presence made LGBTQ black youth and other members of racial and sexual minority groups feel unsafe.
The statement said tensions have since grown stronger amid the ongoing investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.
“It is an incredibly complex and difficult time,” the statement said. “The arrest of Bruce McArthur, the allege serial killer, has added a new poignancy and a new pain to the fears that sit at the heart of anyone who lives a life of difference.”
“At the end of June, we will come together, as we have for decades, and we will be seen. We will rally and rise, but it will be with heavy hearts, as we have not yet begun to grapple with our anger, shock and grief.”
McArthur was arrested by police on January 18 after investigators previously denied suggestions that there was a serial killer operating in the city’s gay village.
To date McArthur has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and investigators have said they expect to lay more charges in connection with the case.
None of these charges have been proven in court.
“These men were part of our communities and so a part of our family,” the statement read. “The fact that we did not have the chance to know some of these men as members of our communities speaks to the invisibility and vulnerability that go hand-in-hand with shame and stigma.”
“The disappearances and deaths of Alloura Wells and Tess Richey also speak to the marginalization of our communities and the silencing of our concerns.”
On March 27, Saunders said that his recent interactions with community members before submitting the application to participate in the parade had been “very positive.”
Speaking on the matter, spokesperson Don Peat for Mayor John Tory told CP24 this is an issue between these two sides.
“Mayor Tory firmly believes this is a matter for the police and the LGBT2Q community to work out, with restored trust and collaboration as the number one priority.”
Pride month in Toronto is scheduled to begin on June 1 with a flag rising ceremony at City Hall and the city’s parade is scheduled to take place on June 24.
