Black Lives Matter, Vancouver police strike Pride parade deal

[Activist Alexandria Williams says the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter temporarily shut down the Toronto parade to challenge “Pride’s anti-blackness.” CBC VIDEOS]

A compromise has been struck between Black Lives Matter members and Vancouver police just days before the Pride parade — avoiding a protest that temporarily halted the parade in Toronto earlier this month.

Uniformed officers will now participate in the July 31 parade, after the Vancouver Police Department agreed not to drive its armoured rescue vehicle in the parade. The force has been part of the parade for nearly 20 years.

“This year, our sworn and civilian staff and community volunteers will again be walking in the Pride Parade, to show support for our LGBTQ2+ community, our VPD staff, family and friends,” chief Const. Adam Palmer said in a release.

Black Lives Matter Vancouver organizers posted a statement on their site deeming it a “small and partial” victory.

“While the Vancouver Police Department themselves have been civil towards us since our inception, the vehicle itself represents the ongoing violence and threat posed by institutional racism toward marginalized groups,” the statement said.

“Therefore, to remove it represents a small step towards accepting and respecting Black Lives Matter as a movement and working towards inclusion of all queer and trans people, not just those with privilege.”

BLM also sought to clarify that their issue with the police wasn’t about demonizing the Vancouver Pride Society, saying it had always been embraced by that community.

It also revealed that a member of the VPD told the group they felt scared to put on their uniforms because of the fatal shootings of five officers in Dallas.

“If they feel the visceral impact of an event that took place 3,000 miles away, surely they can sympathize with the fact that Black communities feel fear every day, as we watch story after story of our Black community being murdered, often by police.”

BLM sit-in at Toronto Pride

The controversy arose earlier in July in light of a Black Lives Matter protest in Toronto’s Pride Parade. The protesters staged a 30-minute sit-in, stopping the parade, and issued a roster of demands — which included better representation of black, gay individuals in Pride Toronto staffing and that all police floats and booths be banned from Pride marches.

Though the head of Pride Toronto signed off on the list, he later retracted his agreement saying he only signed off in order to let the parade continue.

Black Lives Matter is a protest movement that was sparked by the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida by a neighbourhood watch volunteer. George Zimmerman was cleared of second-degree murder and manslaughter in the death of the black teenager.

About two weeks after Toronto’s parade, organizers of Black Lives Matter Vancouver proclaimed the involvement of police would create an unsafe atmosphere for some communities in the parade. It said it would not participate in the parade, which also led to other groups joining the protest.

Black Lives Matter Vancouver, in a letter, lauded police for helping to “deter acts of homophobia and violence” but regardless, the organizers could not “divorce the policing institution from its historical and continued violence against indigenous and [minority] communities, racial profiling or inaction around our missing Indigenous women.”

The group suggested a public service float that would include firefighters, paramedics and police officers instead of a police-only float.

The Vancouver Pride Society kept itself in the background over the last few weeks, saying it was reaching out to Black Lives Matter Vancouver and would “continue to encourage and support meaningful dialogue between police and all parts of our community.”