Pride says it 'never agreed' to exclude police, as Black Lives Matter slams police for 'pink-washing'

A day after signing a list of demands from Black Lives Matter protesters,Pride Toronto says it never agreed to exclude police from its events.

The activistgrouppresented the list at a sit-in halting the city's massive Pride parade for about 30 minutes Sunday, demanding that Toronto police floats and boothsbe barred fromPride marches, parades and community events.Their demands also included a commitment to increase representation among Pride Toronto staff and to better support black events during Pride.

On Monday, Pride Toronto said in no uncertain terms it did not agree to bar police from the festival.

"Pride Toronto never agreed to exclude police services from the Pride parade...We have had, and will continue to have, discussions with the police about the nature of their involvement as parade participants," the organizationsaid in a statement.

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"Frankly, Black Lives Matter isn't going to tell us there's no more floats in the parade," Pride Toronto executive director MathieuChanteloistoldCP24earlier in the day.

Police 'pink-washing'

ButJanayaKhan told CBC News her group is not looking toexclude officers who identify asLGBTfrom participating in Pride events,but itopposes floats accompanied by uniformed, armed officers calling them a stark reminder of the history of brutality faced bytheLGBTcommunity and visible minorities.

"To be clear, we said, 'No floats. No police floats,'" Khan said. "But we have no desire to police the police in terms of whether they should actually be there or not when they're LGBTQ-identified."

Khan said her group's actions arein keeping with "histories of resistance" that have long been a part of the tradition of Pride.

"If we think about the dyke march thathappened 20 years ago, gay men were saying, 'Why should youhave your own Pride?' ... Twenty years later it's an integral part of what Pride is all over the world. We're saying, should we wait 20 years before black lives are also considered an integral part?"

'Officers are feelingbetrayed'

Khan's criticism targeted police more than Pride organizers, however, taking aim at the force for only recently acknowledging its role in gay bathhouse raids that took place more than 30 years ago, and failing to apologize for a second raid on lesbians at Pussy Palace in the1990s.

"This type of pink-washing that's happening, where it's like, 'We're in alignment with gender and sexually diverse people, but not in alignment withracializedpeople,' we can't stand for that," she said.

Meanwhile, Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association, said the group's demandshas LGBT officers feeling sidelined.

"I'm not surprised at Black Lives Matter and their shenanigans, but when people who are the organizers of this sign a document basically saying police shouldn't be involved I think our officers are feeling betrayed."

"We're supposed to be celebrating and now what are we talking about? We're talking about Black Lives Matter and them hijacking the parade to facilitate a political agenda."

'We won'

Black Lives Matter protesters were triumphant after Chantelois signed their list of demands, allowing the parade to resume. "We shut it down. We won," the group tweeted.

Khantold CBC Radio'sMetro Morning earlierMondaythat allowing police in the parade madesome communities feel unsafe and contributedto the event's "anti-blackness."

"We didn't halt the parade, we made progress in the parade,"Khan said."We're fighting for Pride to be more inclusive."

• Full list of Black Lives Matter Toronto's demands

Alica Hall, co-chair of Pride Toronto, said her organization will meet with Toronto police to discuss the force's participation in any futurefestivities.

On Monday, Toronto police ChiefMarkSaunders said he hadn'theard anything official from Pride Toronto and is waiting for organizers to contact him about what will happen next.The police chief frequently marches in the parade, along with dozens of officers, including some who are part of the LBGT community.

Hall alsosaid she wasdisappointedthat Black Lives Matter didn't notify organizers about the demonstration but said she doesn't feel Pride Toronto lost by signing the agreement, calling the move "a moment of progress."

In February, Pride Toronto invited the groupto help lead the parade, praising itfor its fierce protests about police treatment of black people in the cityspecifically, the practice of carding and the shooting death of AndrewLoku.TheToronto father of five was killed by police on July 5, 2015.Black Lives Matter has been highly critical of the Special Investigations Unit and the fact only parts of the SIU'sreport into Loku's death were released.

Gay police officer criticizes move

Following the sit-in, manycriticized Black Lives Matter's push to keep police out of Pride events.

Chuck Krangle, a Toronto police constable who isgay, wrote an open letter to the organization that concludes: "Exclusion does not promote inclusion."

Seeing hundreds of police officers walking in the Pride parade was an eye-opening experience, Krangle said in the letter,which you can read here.

Khan told CBC News she has seen the letter and maintains the aim of the group's protest are to make Pride as inclusive as possible.

"I say, 'We hear you.' Our objective is not to exclude those whose professions are within police and law enforcement," she said.

On Monday, Khan also acknowledged criticisms of the sit-in as aspectacle.

"For us, it was a statement, it was a moment of the potential of real change to occur.Tell me one massive action in the world that's changed the world that hasn't involved that."