Pride Toronto members demand leaders resign over deal to let uniformed police officers in parade

A number of Pride Toronto members say they've lost faithin the organization and are calling for its board andexecutive director to resign in the wake of a raucous annual general meeting.

The tense meeting this Tuesday was shut down after members questioned Pride'scontroversial decision to allow uniformed Toronto police officers to march in the 2019 parade following a two-year ban. Members have since raised a number of other issues they sayexpose deep rifts between the LGBTcommunity and the organization's leadership, including executive directorOliviaNuamah.

During an impromptu session before the official start of the meeting, Pride Toronto members like Gary Kinsman sought answers about Nuamahand the board's "lack of accountability and transparency" about the policing issuewhich they contend"unilaterally undermined" their wishes.

"It was a horrible experience, but it really shows that Pride Toronto has lost the support of its members and the support of the community," Kinsman, a longtime member and sociology professor at LaurentianUniversity, said of the board's reaction to their questions.

Reporters were barredfrom attending the meeting for the first time in Pride Toronto's history. Only members were permitted inside.

The organization's handling of attendees'questions hasreignited tensions, Kinsman said, and pointsto a growing schism between Pride Toronto andtheLGBTcommunity it's elected to serve.

"The current executive director has shown that she can't actually deal with this," he told CBC Radio'sHere and Now.

"She has overturned democratic decisions of the members without consulting them and she's unable to actually answer pretty basic questions about why the police are being invited back in."

Pride Toronto defends move

CBC Toronto has askedPride Toronto why it swiftly adjourned the meeting when the topic of police in the parade was raised, but hasn't received a response.

Nuamahrecently defended the organization'smove, saying since the exclusion of uniformed, armedofficers marching alongside police vehicles, Pride has developed "much more transparent and better working relationship" with police.

She admits that she alone made the decision to allow police back into the parade.

"I fancy myself somebody who works inside community, somebody who understands what it means to have substantive conversations about such a complex and difficult issue, and for the last year and a half my only priority has been speaking to people about the position Pride is in,"Nuamah said in an interview with CBC Radio'sMetro Morningin October.

'Lack of accountability and transparency'

Canada's largest municipal police force hasbeen excluded from the festivities since 2017 amid a strained relationship with the LGBT community especially those who are racialized.

Tensions were further inflamed in January following the arrest of accused serial killer Bruce McArthur.

While the allegations against McArthur haven't been proven in court, the grisly discovery of the remains of eight men with ties to the Gay Villageconfirmed decade-old fears that a serial killer was targeting Toronto's LGBTcommunity.

BeverlyBain, who identifies as a black queer activist, saidsubsequent attempts between Pride and the force to mend the strained relationshipand address police violenceare falling short.

"We don't see that police are making increased efforts to ensure members of our communities are safe," she toldMetro Morningon Thursday.

"We continue to see a lack of accountability and transparency, and answers for experiences oftranswomen and queer black, Indigenous and people of colour."

Last month, the federal governmentpledged $450,000aimed at helping Pride Toronto develop strategies to make LGBTcommunities in Canada live more securely and improve the criminal justice system.

But some Pride members have criticized the organization's acceptance of the grant, pointing out concerns about the government arm,Public Safety Canada, that's supplying the funds.

Public Safety Canada'smandate includes policing and corrections, Bainsays, and theLGBT community still hasconcerns about police violence.

"The Pride board and executive director have lost our trust," said Bain, who has been a member of the organization for 20 years.

"We do not feel that what they're doing is in good faith in terms of representing out interests in a way that keeps us safe."

'Travesty of what Pride should be'

Kinsman echoed this, arguingthe grant only further adds to Pride Toronto's pattern of dismissing member concerns.

"It really, in some ways, showed to me that Pride is more willing to stand with governments, and with the police, and with corporations that are sometimes opposed to people in our communities, rather than to stand with its actual members and the people in our communities who are under attack by the police and other forms of oppression," he said.

"It was really quite a travesty of what Pride should be."

Kinsman, 63, is a founding member of Pride Toronto's predecessor, the Lesbian and Gay Pride Day Committee a grassroots initiative launched 37 years ago that advocated forLGBTrights during atime of protests, legal fights and backlash.

"What Pride has actually become is something that is no longer in continuity with what we started in 1981," he said, referring to the organization's roots in resistance

"At the end of the day, if they're still inviting the police there will be civil disobedience or other actions that will make it impossible for this to take place."