Capital Pride has 'no intentions' of barring uniformed police from parade

The chair of Ottawa's Pride festival says organizers have no intention of excluding anyoneincluding uniformed police officersfrom their parade in August.

Tammy Dopsonaddressed the matterduring the festival's media launchThursday.

The question arosein the wake of adecision in early July by pride festival organizers inSt. John's, Nfld,who asked off-dutypolice officers not to walk in uniform in thatcity's upcoming march.

"No final decision has been made on any position at this point in time," said Dopson. "What I can say is that we have no intentions of making exclusion apart of inclusion, obviously it doesn't fit."

Police participation in Pride parades was also in the spotlight July 3,when members of Toronto's Black Lives Matter movement briefly halted Toronto's Pride parade. Theydemandedorganizersno longer include police floats in the parade.

Dopsonacknowledged that her group whose motto is "Inclusive. Positive.Open." has been in talks with Ottawa police and Ottawa's black community.

Looking to other festivals for cues

"We're looking at what other Prides are doing. We're going to be taking everything they do as a cue for how we will move forward," said Dopson.

Also during Thursday's event, organizers revealed the theme for this year's festival: "Bathrooms Without Borders." It's an effort to poke a bit of fun at the debate in the U.S. over gender-neutralbathrooms, all while raising awareness of the seriousness of the issue.

This year's Ottawa Capital Pride festival runs August 15 to 21.