TORONTO — Members of the Toronto police force say they’re angry that Pride organizers agreed to a list of demands set out by Black Lives Matter during Sunday’s parade.
The list includes nine demands that range from banning police floats in future parades to increasing funding for spaces for racialized communities.
Members of Black Lives Matter Toronto held a sit in part way through the city’s 36th annual Pride Parade, stopping it from moving forward for about a half hour, until Pride organizers signed the list of demands.
We shut it down. We won. #blackpride pic.twitter.com/KH6YH6Ai4W
— BlackLivesMatter TO (@BLM_TO) July 3, 2016
The president for the union representing the city’s police officers says he’s outraged at the demands.
He says the police force has been actively involved in Pride for years, and officers shouldn’t be excluded from future parades.
And while Pride Toronto’s executive director signed the document during the parade, organizers are now saying that they were really just commiting to “having a conversation” about the list.
Janaya Khan, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, says that while some of the items on the list are negotiable, the ban on police floats isn’t.
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