Black Lives Matter failed to show respect at Pride parade
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Black Lives Matter has Toronto on the run
By Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 06:51 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 07:00 PM EDT
In Toronto this summer, Black Rage is confronting White Guilt and Black Rage is winning.
The town’s in a tizzy over the relatively recent arrival of a Toronto chapter of the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement.
That has the city’s elites -- from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to Toronto Mayor John Tory -- walking around on eggshells, trying not to offend the BLMers.
Which is pointless because BLM lives in a permanent state of taking offence over the fact that, in its view, our society is systemically racist towards blacks and other people of colour, and if you disagree, it’s because you’re a racist.
Not even so-called “progressive” elements in the city -- for example the organizers of the city’s giant annual Pride Parade celebrating the achievements of the gay community -- are safe from BLM’s wrath.
Pride tried to make common cause with BLM by naming it its “honoured group” in last Sunday’s Gay Pride Parade.
Fat chance. BLM, after accepting the honour, threw it back in Pride’s face.
They halted the parade (attended by a million people) for half an hour, while presenting a list of demands accusing Pride itself of “anti-Blackness” and demanding, among other things, that police floats and booths (they REALLY don’t like the police) be excluded from next year’s Pride events.
Pride officials, desperate to get their parade moving again, immediately signed off on BLM’s demands although they now say they didn’t mean it because they were under duress.
Be that as it may, everyone in the city’s officialdom is now talking to everyone else about what role the police should have in next year’s Pride parade, from Pride officials, to the mayor, to the police union to the city’s (black) police chief, so BLM accomplished what it set out to do -- turn the police presence at Pride into a public controversy.
That’s not its only victory.
A Toronto coroner identified protests by BLM, along with requests from mental health organizations, as key factors leading to a public inquest into last July’s fatal police shooting of Andrew Loku, a 45-year-old black man with mental health issues, who was wielding a hammer when he was confronted.
While Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit cleared the officer involved of wrongdoing, BLM refused to let the matter drop.
BLM was also one of the groups that successfully pressured the Toronto police services board and provincial government to ban carding -- the prior police practice of recording the identities and information provided by people who are not under criminal investigation during street checks.
BLM has been successful because it practices the same sort of identify politics -- which defines people by factors such as their skin colour rather than as individuals -- as the Wynne government does.
Only BLM does it better and got a rattled Wynne to agree with it that there is “systemic racism” in Ontario, when she waded into one of their protests at the provincial legislature, after they had earlier demonstrated outside her home.
BLM’s confrontational tactics resemble those of an earlier activist group in Toronto -- the Black Action Defence Committee -- but they’re more effective today because Toronto and Ontario politics have moved considerably to the left over the past few decades.
Today, no self-described “progressive” politician wants to take them head-on, lest they be accused of being racist themselves.
The city is even giving them a race relations award.
Whatever one thinks of BLM’s agenda, their tactics are working.
Black Lives Matter at Toronto's Pride parade held in downtown Toronto on July 3, 2016. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)
Black Lives Matter has Toronto on the run | Goldstein | Columnists | Opinion | T
By Lorrie Goldstein, Toronto Sun
First posted: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 06:51 PM EDT | Updated: Wednesday, July 06, 2016 07:00 PM EDT
In Toronto this summer, Black Rage is confronting White Guilt and Black Rage is winning.
The town’s in a tizzy over the relatively recent arrival of a Toronto chapter of the U.S.-based Black Lives Matter movement.
That has the city’s elites -- from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne to Toronto Mayor John Tory -- walking around on eggshells, trying not to offend the BLMers.
Which is pointless because BLM lives in a permanent state of taking offence over the fact that, in its view, our society is systemically racist towards blacks and other people of colour, and if you disagree, it’s because you’re a racist.
Not even so-called “progressive” elements in the city -- for example the organizers of the city’s giant annual Pride Parade celebrating the achievements of the gay community -- are safe from BLM’s wrath.
Pride tried to make common cause with BLM by naming it its “honoured group” in last Sunday’s Gay Pride Parade.
Fat chance. BLM, after accepting the honour, threw it back in Pride’s face.
They halted the parade (attended by a million people) for half an hour, while presenting a list of demands accusing Pride itself of “anti-Blackness” and demanding, among other things, that police floats and booths (they REALLY don’t like the police) be excluded from next year’s Pride events.
Pride officials, desperate to get their parade moving again, immediately signed off on BLM’s demands although they now say they didn’t mean it because they were under duress.
Be that as it may, everyone in the city’s officialdom is now talking to everyone else about what role the police should have in next year’s Pride parade, from Pride officials, to the mayor, to the police union to the city’s (black) police chief, so BLM accomplished what it set out to do -- turn the police presence at Pride into a public controversy.
That’s not its only victory.
A Toronto coroner identified protests by BLM, along with requests from mental health organizations, as key factors leading to a public inquest into last July’s fatal police shooting of Andrew Loku, a 45-year-old black man with mental health issues, who was wielding a hammer when he was confronted.
While Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit cleared the officer involved of wrongdoing, BLM refused to let the matter drop.
BLM was also one of the groups that successfully pressured the Toronto police services board and provincial government to ban carding -- the prior police practice of recording the identities and information provided by people who are not under criminal investigation during street checks.
BLM has been successful because it practices the same sort of identify politics -- which defines people by factors such as their skin colour rather than as individuals -- as the Wynne government does.
Only BLM does it better and got a rattled Wynne to agree with it that there is “systemic racism” in Ontario, when she waded into one of their protests at the provincial legislature, after they had earlier demonstrated outside her home.
BLM’s confrontational tactics resemble those of an earlier activist group in Toronto -- the Black Action Defence Committee -- but they’re more effective today because Toronto and Ontario politics have moved considerably to the left over the past few decades.
Today, no self-described “progressive” politician wants to take them head-on, lest they be accused of being racist themselves.
The city is even giving them a race relations award.
Whatever one thinks of BLM’s agenda, their tactics are working.
Black Lives Matter at Toronto's Pride parade held in downtown Toronto on July 3, 2016. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)
Black Lives Matter has Toronto on the run | Goldstein | Columnists | Opinion | T
You're right. In the one post I said "some" while in the first I said "most". My bad. I should have been consistent. Thank you for pointing that part out.
That STILL doesn't mean I don't think BLM doesn't exist in Canada, as you implied. It does, I just don't think it's as big an issue in Canada as it is in the US.
I STILL think there were US BLM people in the parade that pushed this idea.
I have NO PROBLEM with some of what they said. My biggest issue was their "No cops" demand which to me is still utter BS and I'm glad all of what was signed for is negated/will be hopefully negated.
That clarify things, or you going to accuse me of backtracking or some BS?
I don't suppose you have any evidence do you?
Keep on back peddling Serry!
No.... OWN IT!
It's probably mostly Americans, some Americans mostly and mostly likely Americans made the Canadian BLM group do things because BLM Canada wouldn't do such things except if BLM Americans mostly, or some, told them to do it.
It's truly sad that when a Cdn BLMer is so oppressed that they don't know it and have to be told.
CDN BLMers are polite too! They would NEVER do such a thing unless a US BLMer told them to do it.
ITT: Racist scum
Lake Arthur police officer fired after controversial picture sur - KATC.com | Continuous News Coverage | Acadiana-Lafayette
A Lake Arthur police officer is now out of a job over a controversial picture on Facebook.
The photo was apparently taken at a Ku Klux Klan meeting last summer in North Carolina.
Lake Arthur police officer fired after controversial picture sur - KATC.com | Continuous News Coverage | Acadiana-Lafayette
A Lake Arthur police officer is now out of a job over a controversial picture on Facebook.
The photo was apparently taken at a Ku Klux Klan meeting last summer in North Carolina.
Barbara Kay: In BLM’s view to be white is to be racist and to be black is to be a victim | National Post
'It’s an old saying, but a true one, that revolutions eventually eat their children, and here is a perfect example. BLM Toronto is spouting nonsense. Nobody in Pride is anti-black. Black LGBT participants have never been unsafe or excluded from a parade, and never would be. That’s not to say that Pride is inclusive to everyone. Last year, pushed by feminists, Pride denied permission for participation by the Canadian Association for Equality, a group on whose board I sit that supports men experiencing male-centric life stressors. But hey, just straight white men, so who cares, right? (In fact CAFÉ serves straights, gays, and all races.) So forgive me a touch of Schadenfreude at Pride’s BLM predicament."
'It’s an old saying, but a true one, that revolutions eventually eat their children, and here is a perfect example. BLM Toronto is spouting nonsense. Nobody in Pride is anti-black. Black LGBT participants have never been unsafe or excluded from a parade, and never would be. That’s not to say that Pride is inclusive to everyone. Last year, pushed by feminists, Pride denied permission for participation by the Canadian Association for Equality, a group on whose board I sit that supports men experiencing male-centric life stressors. But hey, just straight white men, so who cares, right? (In fact CAFÉ serves straights, gays, and all races.) So forgive me a touch of Schadenfreude at Pride’s BLM predicament."
ITT: Racist scum
Lake Arthur police officer fired after controversial picture sur - KATC.com | Continuous News Coverage | Acadiana-Lafayette
A Lake Arthur police officer is now out of a job over a controversial picture on Facebook.
The photo was apparently taken at a Ku Klux Klan meeting last summer in North Carolina.
I guess you didn't notice that this thread was about the Gay Pride Parade in Toronto?
God you're as dense as a back of sledge hammers.
It's about BLM. BLM who protests constantly about police brutality, the lopsided deaths of blacks to pigs. Follow along if your brain capacity allows you.
Pride Toronto official quits over Black Lives Matter backtrack
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 11:30 AM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 12:38 PM EDT
TORONTO - An official with Pride Toronto has stepped down in support of Black Lives Matter-Toronto.
Jacqie Lucas, who organized volunteers at Pride, made her resignation public in a statement posted to Facebook Wednesday evening.
She said it was shameful how BLM demands -- such as banning police floats and uniformed officers from the parade – had been agreed to and then retracted..
"I have resigned my position at Pride Toronto as of (Tuesday) morning in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and apologize profusely for the mistreatment, thoughtless and complete disregard that came along with being honoured (as the lead group in the parade)," Lucas wrote.
BLM held a 30-minute sit-in during the parade and produced a list of demands that were to be agreed to before they would allow the parade to continue.
Mathieu Chantelois, executive director of Pride Toronto, signed the demands and later said he did so simply to keep the parade moving.
Pride Toronto will meet with BLM to discuss their concerns, Chantelois said.
Lucas called parade organizers liars and shamed them for not being sensitive to the needs of the marginalized LGBT community, who don't want police in the parade and are demanding more rights and funding from Pride Toronto.
"This (BLM) is the honoured group doing honourable things and we can't even give them the dignity of a second thought because we are pissed off that we had to wait 20 minutes. They are showing us where the holes are within our organization,” Lucas wrote.
Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois signs a list of demands from the Black Lives Matter movement as they stage a sit-in at the annual Pride Parade on July 3, 2016. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press)
Pride Toronto official quits over Black Lives Matter backtrack | Toronto & GTA |
Black Lives Matter focused on Pride parade not Santa Claus parade
By Terry Davidson, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 05:24 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 05:33 PM EDT
The city’s Santa Claus Parade isn’t on Black Lives Matter’s naughty list.
At Thursday’s press conference about its ongoing dispute with Pride Toronto, Black Lives Matter officials reacted sharply when asked if they intend to protest later this year at Toronto’s Santa Claus Parade, given that police will also be involved in that event.
“The Santa Claus Parade, the police are involved in that, is that something you guys are considering ... protesting?” asked a TV reporter.
Black Lives Matter was quick to dismiss that question.
“Sir, we’re here to talk about Pride, and not really here for questions ... that are trying to dilute our acting for our community,” said Black Lives Matter’s Alexandria Williams.
BLM co-founder Janaya Khan then took over where her colleague left off.
“The last time I checked, Santa Claus was not part of a marginalized community,” said Khan. “The last time I checked, he was a portly, well-fed, jolly, white man who lives in the north in a giant home, and has an entire industry that he can rely on.”
Black Lives Matter focused on Pride parade not Santa Claus parade | Toronto & GT
Tory hopes police, Pride and Black Lives Matter can 'sort things out'
Black Lives Matter says mayor should 'stay in his lane'
By Shawn Jeffords, Political Bureau Chief
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 02:04 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 05:41 PM EDT
Council could wade into the Black Lives Matter/Pride parade controversy next week.
A motion asking council to “re-affirm” its support for the Toronto Police Service’s participation in the annual parade is on the agenda for the meeting that starts on Tuesday.
The resolution from Councillor Justin Di Ciano calls for the cops to continue to “provide a safe and inclusive atmosphere for residents and visitors, while participating fully in every aspect of this city-wide event.”
On Sunday, Black Lives Matter Toronto disrupted the Pride Parade, at which they were an honoured guest, and asked organizers to sign a list of demands before they would let the event continue. On that list was a stipulation that Toronto Police no longer be permitted to have a float in the parade. C
ouncillor Jon Burnside, a former cop who seconded Di Ciano’s motion, said he doesn’t want people to think this is a statement slamming Black Lives Matter.
He hopes council, and the community, will view it as an endorsement of working together.
“For me, this isn’t about Black Lives Matter,” he said. “This is about the relationship between the police and the gay community. If Pride has shown us anything, it’s that you get results from being inclusive, collaborating, working with the police. Albeit, it’s a 30-year effort but for me, just to throw that away with the stroke of a pen, I just don’t see it that way.”
Burnside said he suspects council will take flak for even considering delving into the issue.
“To me, it’s about the success the gay community has had working with the police and bringing them into the fold and helping them to understand the issues and then moving forward,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mayor John Tory stood by his words of support for the city’s police and their participation in future Pride parades.
On Thursday, Black Lives Matter Toronto urged Tory to “stay in his lane” when it comes to their on-going beef with Pride organizers.
“I stand by those words and I think they encompassed my sentiments about this,” Tory said of his letter of support to Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack earlier this week. “I went on to say, that I hope all those involved, Black Lives Matter, Pride, the police ... can all sit down and sort these things out.”
Tory said he believes the police should be praised for the evolution of their relationship with the LGBTQ community. They have also done good work policing the event itself over the years, he said.
“I think we’re all about inclusivity in the City of Toronto, (and) that the best way to go about promoting and encouraging and producing inclusivity was not to start with excluding people,” he said.
But Tory, who will meet with representatives of Black Lives Matter next week, said he agrees with the group’s assertions that there are “elements of racism in our society.”
“We have work to do,” Tory said.
Tory hopes police, Pride and Black Lives Matter can 'sort things out' | Toronto
Pride must honour deal: Black Lives Matter
By Terry Davidson, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 11:18 AM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 06:57 PM EDT
Black Lives Matter is demanding that Pride Toronto honour its written agreement to ban police floats from future parades — and accusing Mayor John Tory of being “in cahoots” with the cops.
Officials with Black Lives Matter - Toronto said a history of “anti-blackness” within Pride and continued police harassment against blacks both gay and straight are reasons Pride officials must honour the contract of demands signed during Sunday’s Pride parade.
BLM staged a 30-minute sit-in that halted the parade until Pride’s Mathieu Chantelois signed off on the demands, including one banning Toronto Police floats in future parades. Chantelois said he signed off on the demands only to get the parade moving again, and that Pride won’t be forced into honouring them.
But BLM co-founder Alexandria Williams called Pride’s “flip-flopping” and its handling of “blackness” within the LGBT community “abysmal.”
“The fact that Mathieu (Chantelois) has gone back and forth in his solidarity with us shows that Black Lives Matter and the black LGBT community does not have a place in Pride Toronto,” Williams said.
Mayor John Tory has come out in support of continued police participation in Pride events, but BLM’s Rodney Diverlus said Tory needs to “stay in his lane” and out of the conversation.
“Mayor Tory ... has no place in this discussion and he needs to stay in his lane,” said Diverlus. “This is an issue between the LGBT community, the black community, Pride Toronto, and the community at large. This is a conversation that has existed before he took office and will continue after he (leaves) office.”
BLM co-founder Janaya Khan accused Tory of being “in cahoots” with Toronto Police.
“The mayor has a particular role: to represent all people in this city,” said Khan. “What the Mayor has done is very clearly stated that he is in cahoots with the police, that he is not invested with ... black liberation.
“A mayor should not be taking sides.”
TDavidson@postmedia.com
Pride must honour deal: Black Lives Matter | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
Pride's management should resign
By Sue-Ann Levy, Toronto Sun
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 08:22 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 08:49 PM EDT
Tracey Sandilands must be experiencing a real sense of deja vu watching the Pride Toronto organization she once headed and our weak politicians brought to their knees by the Black Lives Matter - Toronto folks.
After all, it was just five years ago that the former Pride executive director resigned after a tumultuous year that saw the gay community divided over the toxic participation of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) in the parade and the financial fallout from their involvement (They lost $250,000 in sponsorship as a direct result of QuAIA’s participation that year.)
The Pride organization over which she presided found itself unable to stick with promises it made to council to ban QuAIA from the 2010 parade, backing down to pressure from the community’s rabid left just before the actual event and after they got their city grant.
The Pride organization was in crisis in 2011, its reputation in tatters and many felt that those who ran the show had lost touch with all but a small fringe element of Toronto’s gay community.
Sound familiar?
Fast forward to 2016 and we see once again that publicly-funded Pride Toronto is in crisis — this time due to Black Lives Matter.
For this reason alone, I think all of Pride’s management should resign: Executive director, Mathieu Chantelois and the two co-chairs, Aaron GlynWilliams and Alicia Hall, who have allowed this repeat train wreck to happen.
Only the mantra has changed in the past five years. In 2010, the rabid left claimed banning QuAIA was a free speech issue. Now if those of us dare question BLM’s motives, we’re racist and white supremacists.
Clearly Pride’s organizers did not learn their lessons from QuAIA. We’re seeing internal turmoil judging by the resignation of Jacqie Lucas, who organized Pride’s volunteers.
We’re seeing the same lack of tolerance of opinions other than their own and an unwillingness to include anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their politically correct view of the world – as witnessed by GlynWilliams’ rather unfortunate tirade on Facebook after I wrote a critical column about the gay vigil post-Orlando.
We’re seeing the same poor judgement in their decision to make BLM their honourary group this year (for reasons that seemed a stretch to me considering the parade was and is about gay rights, not black rights and we had just witnessed the tragic massacre of 49 gay people in Orlando).
BLM, given its track record of protest and disrupting meetings over the past few months, was a sit-down waiting to happen.
I would have never chosen them. But once they sabotaged the Pride parade and Chantelois acquiesced to their ridiculous demands by signing their document with a feathered pen (how camp was that), the die was cast.
He couldn’t win with this group, whether he signed their list of demands or not.
Now we see the same “deer caught in the headlights” efforts we saw five years ago to appease everyone (BLM and the police). It means no one wins and the group has found yet another excuse to agitate.
Of course it hasn’t helped matters that Mayor John Tory is too darn politically correct (and likely frightened) to stand up to the group’s nonsense.
I have a suggestion: Can all of Pride’s management and start all over again.
I say make Pride Toronto truly representative of the gay community in this city — not just the politically correct left.
If political is what people want, let’s not forget there are still 72 countries in the world where gays can be killed or imprisoned for being who they are. That’s where we should focus our efforts.
SLevy@postmedia.com
Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois signs a list of demands from the Black Lives Matter movement as they stage a sit-in at the annual Pride Parade on July 3, 2016. (Mark Blinch/The Canadian Press)
Pride's management should resign | Levy | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun
The foggy logic of Black Lives Matter
And the silence from Queen's Park on the whole Pride controversy
By Christina Blizzard, Queen's Park Columnist
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 05:48 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 05:52 PM EDT
Bear with me as I struggle through the foggy logic in the Pride vs. Black Lives Matter spat.
BLM held a news conference Thursday at which they said Mayor John Tory is in “cahoots,” with police and hurled epithets at Pride executive director Mathieu Chantelois for what they believe is a flip-flop, after he signed their demands when they held up the Pride parade.
“We’re being very clear in the fact that we’re asking the mayor to stay in his lane when he’s taking the side between community and the police,” Rodney Diverlus told reporters.
I’d say Tory has a fairly solid right to an opinion. He represents all the people of Toronto as opposed to BLM, who represent those who shout the loudest. The ones who stupidly threw smoke bombs in a parade of hundreds of thousands of people.
For safety’s sake, Chantelois had to sign.
BLM’s anger towards everyone except themselves is creating divisions in this city that we thought had been healed.
No one’s denying this city’s had problems with the black and gay community in the past. But attitudes have changed. And I’m one who’s views have changed over the years.
We can’t always be looking in the rear-view mirror and fighting old battles.
Just when you think there’s reconciliation, another rift opens. I thought the whole idea behind Pride was to demonstrate the exuberance and love of the gay community and to educate the great unwashed — of which I count myself a member.
So congratulations. They’ve done a good job. Cities grow and evolve. And Pride has had a lot to do with that. It’s become an event that the whole city celebrates. Now BLM says that’s not what they want. They want an inclusive event — but they want to exclude cops and they won’t sell their merchandise to white people.
They don’t know what they want — and they won’t be happy until they get it.
Remember all the fuss when conservative politicians didn’t show up at Pride? Mayor Mel Lastman hesitated about participating, nervous about the nudity. He went and had a great time, drenching everyone with a Super Soaker. Lastman went because he was told it wasn’t political.
Former Mayor Rob Ford was slammed for not going. He was told he represented everyone, including the gay community. And it wasn’t political.
Now we’re told it’s always been political.
Make up your mind. Pick a lane. Any lane.
The BLM demand for a ban on police floats in Pride is ludicrous, especially in the wake of the Orlando shootings.
I’m no expert at policing, but if I were in charge, I wouldn’t just have snipers on the rooftops, I’d have cops interspersed along the route and integrated into the parade to protect the parade-goers.
And yes, I’m outraged by two shocking police shootings in the U.S., but that’s another country. A different culture. Another history. That’s for the U.S. to solve, while we deal with our own issues.
What’s remarkable is the silence provincially, despite the fact it gives $270,000 to the parade.
In an e-mail, a spokesman for anti-racism minister Michael Coteau said his government has set up public meetings to discuss systemic racism.
“Our government recognizes that systemic racism continues to create barriers that lead to unfair outcomes for racialized, black and indigenous people in Ontario, in the same way that the LGBTQ community continues to feel the impact of a history of marginalization despite recent gains,” said Eric Dillane.
What we need is some grown up leadership to dig us out of this politically-correct morass they’ve dug us into.
Protesters from the Black Lives Matter sit on the ground to halt the annual Pride parade. (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The foggy logic of Black Lives Matter | Blizzard | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun
Tory knows his role in BLM dust-up
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 07:54 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 07:57 PM EDT
Despite what Black Lives Matter said Thursday, Toronto Mayor John Tory did “stay in his lane” when he said police should continue to be a part of the city’s annual Gay Pride Parade.
BLM’s assertion Tory “has no place in the discussion” about its fight with Pride over this issue is also wrong and not just because Tory is a member of the police services board.
It’s also because the city gives an annual grant to the Pride parade — $160,500 this year alone — plus in-kind services such as, ironically, policing and post-parade clean-up.
Queen’s Park kicked in $270,000,
Ottawa $140,200.
Since that’s all taxpayers’ money, the public too, has a stake in the Pride parade.
If Pride were to give in to BLM and ban any visible police presence from the parade next year, we would urge the city, provincial and federal governments to withdraw all taxpayer support from the parade.
This isn’t about free speech. Pride has always been free to include controversial organizations in its parade, as it did the now-defunct Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in previous years and Black Lives Matter this year, which Pride named its “honoured group”.
But actions have consequences and if Pride was to ban the police from the parade next year then in our view it shouldn’t receive financial support from taxpayers.
It’s not as if Tory is looking to pick
a fight with BLM.
Indeed he’s done everything possible
to avoid one.
In fact, we would have preferred the mayor — or any municipal, provincial or federal politician — to simply stand up to BLM and give a polite but firm “no” to its various demands.
Particularly after it shut down the Pride parade for almost half an hour Sunday to embarrass Pride officials and further its demands for countering, as BLM puts it, the “anti-Blackness” of the Pride organization.
Enough is enough. Police floats and booths should be allowed at next year’s Pride parade and any gay police officer should be free to march in it, in uniform or street clothes.
Why? Because as gay Toronto police officer Chuck Krangle wisely put it in a letter to Pride officials after BLM’s sit-in, “exclusion does not promote inclusion.” Exactly.
Tory knows his role in BLM dust-up | Editorial | Editorial | Opinion | Toronto S
Pride belongs to everyone, not just elites
By Supriya Dwivedi, Postmedia Network
First posted: Thursday, July 07, 2016 06:33 PM EDT | Updated: Thursday, July 07, 2016 06:44 PM EDT
After a decade of having a prime minister who refused to march in a Pride parade, Canadians were treated to their new PM marching alongside the queer community on Sunday.
It was a nice reminder of the progress that has been made for equality in this country in a seemingly short time span.
However, progress does not come to all communities at the same speed.
The Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter brought the Toronto Pride Parade to a halt for 25 minutes in order to make the point that space for queer people of colour has been methodically eroded, and demanded greater inclusivity for all.
Nine demands were made, and yet people seemed to be incensed over just one: “Removal of police floats/booths in all Pride marches/parades/community spaces.”
Given the hysteria of some of BLM’s detractors, it should be noted that nowhere does it state police cannot be present at the parade or that security should be undermined in any way.
Pride Toronto had announced back in February that BLM would be this year’s honoured group.
The announcement took note of BLM’s track record of successfully bringing attention to police brutality.
And now people are livid that the group did exactly what Pride lauded them for doing.
While many in the LGBTQ community seem to think police abuse and targeting of certain communities is relegated to the past, one only needs to look to the current practices of police forces all across the country to see this is not the case for communities of colour.
The anger directed towards BLM seems to boil down to the argument that the Pride parade was somehow an ill-fitted venue choice to stage the sit-in.
This would be ludicrous if it weren’t such a sad display of historical misunderstanding, as Pride itself was borne out of protest.
The first Pride ever was in 1969 after New York’s Stonewall Inn was raided and members of the New York LGBTQ community were subjected to police brutality.
In 1981, Toronto’s first Pride Parade came about in the aftermath of the infamous police bathhouse raids.
It only took the Toronto police 35 years to apologize for that, finally having done so just last month.
The most vociferous objections to BLM seem to be coming from folks who are white and upper middle class.
Which makes sense, as nobody is claiming that police officers still systematically target white, upper middle-class members of the LGBTQ community the way they once did not, so long ago.
So while many in the white, LGBTQ community may have moved on from the past, the LGBTQ community of colour still faces issues with police on a daily basis.
Is Pride not a space for them as well?
People do not have the ability to pick and choose to just be LGBTQ, without having any other aspect of their racial or ethnic identity coming into play.
Queer people of colour have to deal with both issues, simultaneously, at all times.
It seems ridiculous that this would even need to be pointed out, but in the aftermath of all the white voices chastising a group fighting for intersectional equality, this is what it boils down to: The march to equality has been easier for some members of the community than others.
Pride belongs to everyone, not just those at the top.
Co-founders of Black Lives Matter Alexandria Williams, right, and Rodney Diverlus speaks at the microphone during press conference to talk about the mayor, police and Pride Toronto and what happened on the weekend and their demands as an organization on Thursday July 7, 2016. (Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network)
Pride belongs to everyone, not just elites | Diwivedi | Cartoons | Opinion | Tor
protip: stop posting the entire internet.
I don't normally post that much. I just added the articles for those that were interested. I removed what was posted. I won't post anymore in this thread due to negative reaction.
