Toronto police can march in next year’s Pride parade

Pride officials have said that they will be allowing police officers to march in next year’s Pride parade — provided they meet the Rules of Parade Entry. This is expected to bring down the tension between Toronto’s LGBT2Q+ community and Toronto police over the last two years.

In 2017, as the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum across North America, Toronto police officers did not march in uniform in the Pride parade — a first for the parade since 2000. Then in April of this year, Toronto police agreed to withdrawal their application to march in the 2018 Pride parade after event organizers said the presence of uniformed officers would make members of the LGBT2Q+ community feel unsafe.

At a news conference Mayor John Tory and police Chief Mark Saunders spoke about police being allowed to take part in the parade.

“Marching in uniform in the Pride parade is an important event, not just to show our support for the LGBTQ+ communities, but also to the proud members of the Toronto Police Service that are within the LGBTQ+ community. And so it really means a lot to us as an organization and also as a community as a whole,” Saunders said.