By Police1 Staff
TORONTO — Members of Pride Toronto held a vote Tuesday night to ban police floats and marches from the city’s annual parade, according to Global News.
The vote was in response to one of the demands made by Black Lives Matter-Toronto during a sit-in at last year’s pride parade requesting Pride organizers ban police floats and booths, CP24 reported.
Apparently to some, our demands are “too radical/divisive.” Look for yourselves fam #BlackPride pic.twitter.com/NxfaMnYUaf
— BlackLivesMatter TO (@BLM_TO) July 4, 2016
Although the vote was held, is unclear if police are truly banned from participating in future pride parades. Toronto Police Spokesperson Mark Pugash told CP24 they will need clarification before they can proceed with action.
“We don’t know what happened. People can’t seem to agree on whether police were excluded or whether it has something to do with uniforms and guns,” Pugash said.
Pride Toronto board member Aaron GlynWilliams told CTV News that the vote doesn’t mean police can’t participate in the parade.
“Perhaps a cavalcade of sirens and inmate buses and vehicles is not the most appropriate way to participate in the parade,” GlynWilliams told CTV. “Nowhere in what I just said is that it is not appropriate to participate.”
Pugash told CP24 whatever the outcome, law enforcement will continue to protect the public and reach out to the LGBTQ community.
“We have good relationships. We’ve made progress. We still have work to do,” Pugash said. “But we are going build relationships, we are going to create new relationships. We will choose inclusion over division. It is a shame people don’t agree with that.”