Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the application to have uniformed officers march in the 2018 Pride Parade is in but his primary focus is “trying to mend the relationship” between officers and the city’s LGBTQ community.
While speaking with CP24 on Tuesday evening, Saunders said the formal application has been submitted but his work is not done yet.
“My focus has been on trying to mend the relationship,” he said. “We know that elements of trust were compromised and strained as a result of the recent past and that has been my primary focus.”
“That is the difference between community safety and compromising and we know that the marginalized members of the LGBTQ community are the most strained and we are doing everything and anything that we can and you’ll see over the next period of time that some of the things that we are doing to get to that point and I’m excited about what the future has to offer and I really want to work hard at that.”
Toronto police officers were allowed to attend last year’s Pride Parade so long as they did not dress in their uniforms or appear in cruisers. At the time, 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. Saunders said at the time the service would respect the demands and not participate.
Since then, members of Toronto’s LGBTQ community have said that tensions have grown larger amid the investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur.
Pride Toronto Executive Director Olivia Nuamah told the Globe and Mail earlier this month that police participating in this year’s parade remains a “significant issue.”
Toronto resident Jesse Lutersz set up a Facebook event earlier this month to encourage those attending this year’s parade to wear black to “honour those we have recently lost, as well as those who we may never find or identify.”
McArthur was arrested by police on January 18 after officers 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. Police have said they expect additional charges will be laid in the case.
None of the charges have been proven in court.
When asked about the level of participation the Toronto Police Services is hoping to execute at this year’s parade, Saunders said he just wants to see that “we’ve got it right.”
“It’s not my parade. It is Pride Parade,” Saunders said. “I’d just like to see that we’ve got it right, that’s everybody’s got it right and move forward from there. That is the avenue that I am taking, I think it is the right thing to do and I look forward to those opportunities that we’re going to be having in the near future.”
Saunders said that his recent interactions with community members have been “very positive.”
“As I have the oppourtunity of talking to more committees, to more community members, to more stakeholders and developing those relationships that provides more oppourtunity for success.”
In Toronto, Pride month is scheduled to begin on June 1 with a flag raising ceremony at City Hall and the parade is scheduled to take place on June 24.
