The debate rages on.
Last night members of Pride Toronto voted against allowing the police to participate in the city’s upcoming pride parade. Members voted 163-161 against allowing police to participate in the 2019 Pride March.
Whether the results of the Tuesday night vote are binding isn’t clear.
The vote comes just months after the organization released an open letter that stated if the Toronto police service were to submit an application to participate in the 2019 event, organizers would review it and provided that the application meets the parade entry rules, police will be granted a permit to participate and march.
Tension between the police service and Toronto's LGBTQ community began when Black Lives Matter Toronto called on uniformed officers to be excluded from the parade when they staged a sit-in at the 2016 pride parade, halting the event for nearly 30 minutes.
The following year, police were denied the opportunity to participate in the Pride parade after organizers voted to ban uniformed officers and police floats.
In April 2018, Pride Toronto asked the police service to withdraw their 2018 Pride Parade application in the wake of the investigation into alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur. McArthur has been charged with eight counts of first-degree murder in connection to several missing men with ties to the city’s LGBTQ community.
Following the Tuesday night vote the Toronto police release a statement which read that they "remain committed to a maintaining a dialogue with Pride Toronto as well as the larger LGBTQS community to deliver policing services that are inclusive and responsive to the needs of the community regardless of the outcome of one particular vote or event."
