Toronto’s top cop says he is committed to ensuring the safety of Toronto police officers in the wake of a deadly targeted shooting of officers in Dallas Thursday night.
Chief Mark Saunders made the comments in an internal memo addressed to members of the Toronto Police Service on Friday.
The letter begins by recognizing the events in Dallas where five police officers were killed and seven others wounded by a gunman who allegedly targeted white officers. It happened at a protest over two recent shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota.
In the letter, Saunders assures officers that their safety is “enormously” important and that “all necessary precautions” will be taken to secure it.
“What happened in Dallas last night and this morning is shocking. It is beyond our comprehension. Our condolences are with the families of those officers killed and injured,” the letter reads.
“Let me be clear. The safety of the men and women of the Toronto Police Service, who serve and protect this city, day and night, is enormously important to me. I will always make sure you have the best, and safest, equipment, and the intelligence and training to provide you with the greatest protection.”
The letter goes on to describe the subsequent fallout from the Pride Parade protest as “attacks on the TPS.”
Last week, Black Lives Matter-Toronto halted the Pride Parade for about 30 minutes until Pride organizers signed a document demanding several issues be addressed.
Most controversially, one of the demands asked Pride organizers to ban police from marching in future parades.
Saunders, who has been fairly tight-lipped on the incident since it happened, said in the letter that the recent events were driven by “people in this city who want to drive a wedge between the TPS and the LGBTQ communities.”
“They will not succeed. It must be a source of great anger to them that the TPS has made enormous strides in recent years to enhance and develop our relationship with those communities,” Saunders said.
Though Saunders does not explicitly mention Black Lives Matter-Toronto in the letter, he says that he has always been open to speaking with “marginalised communities” about the issues that affect them – something that Black Lives Matter-Toronto has often demanded of authorities.
“I have said, again and again, that I will sit down with any person or group who has ideas on better ways to reach out to marginalized communities, on how to work to make the city safer and more inclusive. That offer stands,” he said.
“I am interested in dialogue. What I am not interested in is monologues from those with nothing to offer except abuse and insult.”
Despite backlash, Saunders says that the response police have received from the community since the protest has been “overwhelmingly positive.”
“We have received many calls, emails, texts and social media posts that tell us how much the people of Toronto appreciate what you do. Members of the LGBT communities tell us they appreciate and understand how much better our relationship is, how they, indeed, feel served and protected by you and how strongly they feel the TPS must continue to work closely with the LGBT communities,” the letter reads.
Yesterday, members of Black Lives Matter-Toronto said they were unwilling to compromise on their demands of Pride Toronto after executive director Mathieu Chantelois backtracked on the agreement.
Chantelois said he only agreed to have a conversation with the group about their demands and did not commit to excluding police floats altogether.
Black Lives Matter-Toronto said that they were disappointed by Pride Toronto but is unwavering on their demands.
“These demands were accepted and they were accepted in full so we are going to hold Pride Toronto for the acceptance of the demands in full,” Black Lives Matter-Toronto co-founder Rodney Diverlus said at a news conference on Thursday.
The group is expected to hold a meeting with members of the black LGBTQ community in the next few weeks to discuss their next steps.
Read the full letter from Saunders to the Toronto Police Service below: