December 2, 2018
For Immediate Release
Media Release
No Pride in Policing Coalition Says No to Police in Pride and Pride Toronto Conducting Safety Consultations
Toronto: A group of LGBTQ and Queer and Trans Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPoC) activists recently banded together to form the ‘No Pride in Policing Coalition’ (NPPC), organized by Queer Ontario with input from Black Lives Matter – Toronto (BLM-TO) and Queers Crash the Beat and other community activists to express our indignation at:
Pride Toronto’s (PT) decision to invite the Toronto Police Service to join the 2019 Pride Parade. This is a direct violation of the membership decision taken and reasserted in 2017, based on the recommendation of BLM-TO not to have the Toronto Police Service in Pride. This decision, which is clearly undemocratic, threatens to create further tensions in the Queer and Trans communities.
Of great concern is that this decision was undertaken without transparency or accountability. The NPPC want answers to the following:
- How did the conversations with the Toronto Police Service come about?
- Who were the ‘trusted’ LGBTQ organizations invited to that table?
- Why were none of the major political LGBTQ groups invited?
- What evidence is there that the Toronto Police have made progress?
- Why were the members of PT not informed?
- How did this decision come about, given the PT membership voted twice to support all the demands of BLM-TO including not to include the police at Pride?
- Who ultimately made this decision at PT?
For the first time, PT has also attempted to restrict access so that observers and the media cannot attend its upcoming AGM on December 4, 2018. We ask who made this decision and why, since PT members were not consulted? The NPPC calls on all queer and trans individuals, including organizations serving the queer community, to show up and challenge Pride’s undemocratic process. The NPPC encourages the media to attend PT’s AGM to record the events of the evening.
The LGBTQ and Queer and Trans BIPoC communities have experienced decades of violence from police (i.e. Project Marie, Bruce McArthur and Alloura Wells cases, etc.) and the state and continue to experience police and state violence daily. Numerous issues between PT and the LGBTQ communities also remain unresolved.
Recently Pride Toronto accepted $450,000 from Public Safety Canada, a state department with a mandate for surveillance, incarceration and securitization to conduct national consultations on the safety of LGBTQ communities. This is, in itself, a safety and security issue for all queers, in particular Black, Indigenous, (dis)Abled, Trans, refugees and other marginalized LGBTQ people.
We of the No Pride in Policing Coalition believe that PT, as it currently exists, cannot be trusted as an official voice of LGBTQ people in this city or beyond. Given the concerns outlined in this Media Release, we have lost trust in PT and we challenge them to be both transparent and accountable regarding their decision to allow the police back into the Pride Parade, which we do not accept. We call for new movement building to take place with direction from the wider LGBTQ Queer and Trans BIPoC Communities.
Note:
Spokespersons from the No Pride in Policing Coalition and founding members of the Pride Committee in 1981 will avail themselves to the media outside the doors of the Pride Toronto AGM prior to its start.
Pride Toronto AGM
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
6:30 – 9:30 PM
Harbourfront Centre
235 Queens Quay West
- 30 –
Contacts:
Black Queer Community Activist
Beverly Bain
647-980-3242
Queers Crash the Beat
Mikiki Mikiki
647-839-6467
Queer Ontario
Nick Mulé
416-979-2783