‘Black Lives Matter doesn’t decide what’s in the parade’
Pride boss signed protesters’ list of demands with a flourish on Sunday. Now he says he’s in no position to honour them and only did it to get the parade moving
Pride Toronto’s executive director says he signed a list of demands from Black Lives Matter to end the group’s blockade of Sunday’s Pride parade, but has no plans to honour them before consulting with his community.
Those demands — which include banning police floats from future parades — will now be for Pride’s membership and the community to pass judgment on, Mathieu Chantelois told the Star in a phone interview Monday.
“What’s important for people to know is that I’m not deciding what’s in the parade, Alice (Hall, co-chair of Pride’s board of directors) doesn’t decide what’s in the parade, Black Lives Matter doesn’t . . . decide what’s in the parade,” Chantelois said. “Who’s deciding what’s in the parade is the membership, and my community . . . We will let them have the final word.
“What I did (Sunday) was made the parade move.”
“Special meetings” and consultations will be held to address the issues brought up by Black Lives Matter and to make decisions on the demands, Chantelois said.
Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Janaya Khan said she wasn’t surprised by the news.
“We understand that . . . when it comes to creating more inclusive space, there’s going to be pushback and resistance around what that could look like,” Khan told the Star.
“It’s very unfortunate that (Chantelois’) reaction has been to backpedal after one day.”
Chantelois said Black Lives Matter describing Pride as anti-black was “really hurtful,” noting that this year’s events featured several black and trans performers and a panel on blackness and queer politics.
“Can we do better? Yes,” Chantelois said. “Did we do bad? Not so much.”
Chantelois added that he would “absolutely” like to meet with Toronto police to discuss the demand, how police can improve their relationship with “marginalized communities” and how the force can participate in Pride in the future.
“Of course I want the police to be part of Pride in many ways,” Chantelois said. “And if it’s not a float, it’s going to be something else. But for me, Pride’s for everybody and that includes our police force.”
Chantelois said he’s reached out to the force’s LGBTQ liaison officer and hasn’t heard back yet, but emphasized that a meeting “will happen for sure.”
LeRoi Newbold, a Black Lives Matter steering committee member, said that Chantelois had appeared genuine when agreeing to the demands Sunday. “At the moment when Mathieu signed the agreement, he was smiling, he was hugging members of our community, he was celebratory,” Newbold said, noting that members of 2-Spirit and Latinx groups were present as well. “It would be very disappointing to find out that his engagement with this political act was disingenuous.”
The group is looking forward to Pride meeting at least one of the demands, though, Khan said — holding a town-hall meeting for marginalized communities within six months, where Black Lives Matter expects Pride to present an action plan on how it will address the other demands, which included increased funding and support for Black Queer Youth events and Blockorama, the Pride showcase for black performers; a reinstatement of the South Asian stage; the hiring of more black deaf and ASL interpreters and black trans women, indigenous people, and others from vulnerable communities.
“We didn’t have expectations that there would be a cease-and-desist immediately, that the police floats in this year’s Pride would suddenly disappear,” Khan said. “Rather, it was really opening up the space for dialogue and to bring Pride back to its political roots, which has always been its history.
“We’ve kept in line with our politic and our practice, and I’m waiting for Pride to do the same.”
In a news release Monday evening, Pride Toronto said it would be holding a town hall next month to “gather feedback about the 2016 festival.”
Earlier Monday, Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders told reporters that “there really isn’t much that I can say or offer” about the Black Lives Matter demand that police be excluded from future Pride parades.
Black Lives Matter, an honoured guest at this year’s parade, stopped floats and marchers at Yonge and College Sts. until Pride officials agreed to their demands, which included excluding police floats from future marches.
Police also wouldn’t be allowed to have booths at future Pride celebrations, if the demands are met.
Saunders said he hasn’t yet heard from the Pride executive about the Black Lives Matter demands and so he can’t comment.
“I’m going to wait until the executive talks to me,” Saunders said, adding he doesn’t know when that will happen.
Saunders vigorously defended his force’s attempts to be inclusive and said he will always try to improve relations with the LGBT community.
“We’re always looking for ways to be progressive,” Saunders said. “We have to get it right.”
He noted that other police forces, including the RCMP and OPP, also participate in the annual Pride marches.
Particular work needs to be spent building positive relationships with the transgender community, he said.
“We need to fix that,” Saunders said. “It’s not a one-day-a-year thing.”
He added that officers enjoy participating in the Pride parade.
“A lot of people volunteer to work the parade because it’s a fantastic parade,” Saunders said.
Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack was more blunt. On Sunday he called the agreement to exclude police from future Pride parades “a slap in the face” to all police officers.
He is calling for an apology from Pride Toronto organizers.
“Our officers feel thrown under the bus, as it were, or betrayed by the organizers,” he said Monday. “They’re saying that they signed the document just to move things along . . . If that’s what you did, you should apologize.” With files from Sarah-Joyce Battersby and Wendy Gillis