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Black Lives Matter Toronto briefly halts Pride parade
July 3, 2016 - 6:25pm
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Good thing he had a pen with him.
Thanks for the link Magoo.... of course it leaves me wondering if any of this was brought up at the organizational meetings that go on for literally months before the parade.
They had police floats??
BLM's behaviour was less than stellar, imho.
I think every one I have been at, including last months here in Saskatoon, has had reps from the police and other emergency and public sector employees.
The army was there too. Might not be your cup of tea, or mine, but it is of interest to some LGBT people. Remember Don't ask Don't tell down in the states?
Meanwhile, in Manitoba, who is there to back up the parade when the elected officials are not:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-rcmp-steinbach-pride-par...
"exclusion does not promote inclusion"
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/gay-cop-black-lives-matter-letter-...
I stand with BLM on this, and the demands were perfectly reasonable, and the Pride organizers did the right thing in agreeing to the demands. Don't know if BLM tried to meet with the organizers prior to this year's parade, but it is possible that they felt the organizers would not respond unless the issue was forced.
It does leave me wondering, is BLM going to intervene to protest the Toronto Police Service's continued participation in the annual launch of
Caribana,Scotiabank Toronto Caribbean CarnivalToronto Caribbean Carnival? Will they be holding the organizers of that event to the same standard regarding the hiring of indigenous people, the transgendered and other margninalized communities? I have no problem with grandstanding (ACT UP proved the effectiveness of the tactic), but I do crave a certain amount of consistency.And what would the consequences of rejecting those demands have been?
Pride TO's executive director says Pride won't be bound to any of BLMTO's demands until it has consulted with the community. He signed the paper to get the parade moving:
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/04/police-chief-waiting-on-prid...
TO Star columnist Desmond Cole weighs in on Newstalk 1010 (midway down page)
http://www.newstalk1010.com/news/2016/07/04/listen-police-union-slams-de...
I dunno. Pride is way more significant, politically, than Caribana. I think activists are entitled to target selectively based on what they expect the results will be.
Sure, but do they have the right to tell LGBT people they can't march in their own pride parade?
... wearing the uniforms which reflect their workplace, which has also been a part of their struggle?
Activists have the right to raise whatever issues they want. The question is do they have the right to deny others access.
That is the gist of this agreement which they held up the parade to get the organizers to sign.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/black-lives-matter-pride-protest-1...
And it is academic, because they aren't necessarily going to honour that request, which is completely fair, considering it was signed under duress.
Here is a piece from Rabble. Being neither gay nor black I wil leave it to those communities to decide what tactics are acceptable. Personally I agree with this assessement of the modern day Pride Parades but since it is not my event I normally don't air that opinion.
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/nora-loreto/2016/07/black-lives-matter-m...
I fully support what BLMTO did. When you're marginalized, direct action is the way to go. It's what works.
Well the action worked, in that people are paying attention. Does that mean all those demands must be met? No.
I have to admit, i have seen a lot of BLM activists being jerks to people for no reason, just screaming at peoples faces when someone tries to talk to them, ...yeah a lot of times it comes off as arrogant, abusive and intolerant. Like the ex-tea party republican turned BLM activist who jumped on stage at the bernie rally in seattle and just screamed at everyone and ultimately derailed the whole thing.
and i think people would be more understanding if they made an attempt to negotiate and talk to these groups about what they want in the spirit of solidarity first before resulting to these tactics. like if queers against apartheid had done this after being shut out of pride, i'd get it. but when you're included, and even given an "honorary" spot in the parade and then decide to do your negotiating in this manner it seems like they're using peoples willingness to engage to brow beat them into agreeing w their demands with no consultation.
personally i think activism works best when the confrontational tactics are directed at the powerful, on their turf and citizens, allies and potential allies are engaged with in the spirit of mutual respect, compassion and understanding.
I think the counter-argument to that is that it is not just about the rich and powerful. It is about all of us.
And if we want to talk rudeness and respect, being concerned about being shot kind of trumps verbal abuse.
So I get the tactic. And while ultimately this is something between those communities, I will repeat that the validity of the concerns doesn't mean anyone has to concede all of those demands.
Yup. And your tactics will never sit entirely well with the more comfortable.
Indeed, looking forward to seeing the reaction when the Toronto Caribbean Carnival parade is interrupted by gay activists demanding the organizers denounce governments throughout the Caribbean for their criminalization of same sex activity and admonish those participating in the parade who hold homophobic sentiments.
This was exactly my thought also. And in the wake of the Orlando massacre, I found this gesture to be especially churlish.
Did BLM ask Pride Toronto to do anything external to its organization? Seems like a bizarre analogy.
The protest, like many tings, has a historical context. It's only this year that Blockorama has been permitted to return from the space that Pride Toronto threw it out of some years back. It's only weeks since a Black Lives Matter presence was shouted down at a police-attended event in Toronto's gay village with the (to me and many others, very racist) taunt "All Lives Matter." The former South Asian stage was shut down, apparely to make room for more pounding dance music. The list goes on.
It's partly in an effort at redressing the historical marginalization of people of colour in the pride festivities that BLM was made the honoured group this year. Pride Toronto is currently working to improve on this front, and has splendidly avoided demonizing BLM protesters. Who, by the way, are mostly LGBT+ people themselves.
xtra-ca coverage
Why Black Lives Matter is Toronto's most effective LGBT movement
Chantelois said that he was on board with all of the demands except for excluding police floats from Pride.
Consult the community on the one demand, meet the others which are about inclusion -- seems a good call.
Do you not accept BLM activists as part of the queer community?
If their uniforms symbolize oppression and violence against black people, why not?
What about Orlando makes this especially churlish?
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2691219151/
Good interview with a representation from Black Lives Matter and also with a representative from Pride Toronto. ETA: I heard this earlier on the radio, and the interview with the Pride Toronto rep went on longer -- it gets cut here, though, which is too bad.
Being dependent on media reporting rather than seeing what went on first hand, I must admit that I am puzzled that there was no "dropping the beads" by the activists speaking on behalf of he group... of course this may have been something that the media opted to omit - although after re-reading the list of demands itself, BLM seems to identify as essentially an ally rather than part of the LGBT communities and I am never terribly enamoured of vanguardism on the part of allies. But to directly respond to the question, I am sure that the the activists within BLM are part of the alphabet soup in something pretty close to the proportion they are in other populations.
Without getting into the numerous reasons why it is not as simple as that, the organizer who signed that demand pointed out the most basic reason why not:
because that is a decision to be made by the entire community.
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/07/04/police-chief-waiting-on-prid...