June 28, 2019
Letter to the editor
Regarding safety from violence and hate during last weekend’s Pride festivities in Toronto:
Pride Executive Director Olivia Nuamah says that Pride and Toronto Police Services increased security measures to keep people safe this past weekend. This is not the case. With little Pride TO marshal support or police presence a large, active and organized community support team of about 50 queer activists from dozens of community groups came together on Friday and Saturday to ensure marchers in the more vulnerable trans and dyke marches were not exposed to the hatred or violence of either religious right or fascist ‘protesters’. Police did not lift a finger to ensure these marches were not exposed to hatred.
Community activists identified a handful of fascists just ahead of Friday night’s march and escorted them onto subway trains and away from the area. We drowned out religious right megaphones and placards with community noisemakers and banners at both marches, and many marchers happily pitched in to help. On Saturday at city hall many trans, queer and other antifascist activists kept a couple dozen violent fascists away from Masjid Toronto (the mosque on Dundas), onto which the fascists unsuccessfully attempted to march, and followed them into the Eaton Center after the fascists announced they were heading to Church street where the dyke march was just finishing. The police went all out on Saturday to protect and help the fascists target a mosque and Pride festivities, using batons and on horseback physically stopping the queer community and allies from heading off the fascists from their intended targets of hate.
The previous weekend these same fascists attacked people attending the Hamilton Pride festivities while police looked the other way, except to later arrest queers attending the festivities who attempted to protect themselves. It is the fascists who get protection from the police, not our community who, while he police were busy protecting fascists, were marching along Carlton street past two groups of people spewing hatred at the queer community with no police in sight. That’s ok, our community activists ably kept that hatred away from the march but the institution of policing once again clearly demonstrated why they are not welcome to celebrate with us in Pride events. It was community support and the marchers themselves who eventually made the haters leave, even though police tried to step in on the hater’s behalf.
The community should be proud of the success we had in keeping our marches free from the hatred and violence aimed at us last weekend. To those bicycling ahead of the marches identifying the haters, to those drowning out and hiding their words from the march, to those risking their physical safety to keep the fascists away from the marches: we all thank you. queer community.
While we worked in collaboration with the handful of Pride Toronto march marshals, there were no police and few Pride TO folks with us in any of this work, their focus was on Sunday’s parade, already better protected by the presence of media and waves of onlookers. Our members who society marginalizes the most still can not look to the police nor Pride TO to prioritize their safety. From Stonewall to today, our community has always been led by trans and Black, Indigenous and people of colour members in the struggle for dignity and safety for all.
Gary Kinsman
YC Lee
Freddie S.E. Arps
Nick Mule
Jocelyn Piercy
Sasha
and many other Toronto queer community activists