June 1, 2022 Protest Against Mayor John Tory, 8:30am
Queer and Trans Protest Against Mayor John Tory, 8:30am June 1st Pride Toronto flag raising ceremony
Queer and Trans Protest Against Mayor John Tory at the June 1st Pride Toronto flag raising ceremony
May 31, 2022 - Members and allies of the No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPPC) will be gathering at 8:30am on Wednesday June 1st at Nathan Phillips Square to protest Mayor John Tory at the Pride Toronto flag raising ceremony. While Pride flag raisings are important and celebratory, Pride Toronto is asking for people to “Join Mayor John Tory … for the annual event celebrating the history, diversity and courage of Toronto's 2SLGBTQ+ communities.” Those picketing the Mayor refuse to join with him in his attacks on unhoused people and in his defense of the police.
As Beverly Bain from NPPC points out “Those picketing the Mayor will be pointing out that Tory has nothing to do with ‘celebrating the history, diversity and courage’ of queer and trans communities as he has been actively involved in mandating police brutality against unhoused encampments and their supporters (including many queer, trans and Indigenous people). Almost from the moment that the Pride Toronto membership voted to bar the police as an institutional presence from the Pride parade documents reveal Tory was organizing to use grants to get the police back into the Pride parade; and he has been a major defender of the police and an opponent of defunding and abolishing the police. The police are a major threat to Black, Indigenous and racialized people in this city.”
Bain also points out “it is important to remember that Pride started at the Stonewall rebellion against police repression in 1969, and that Pride Toronto itself traces the origin of its Pride march/parade back to the massive rebellions against the police raids on gay bathhouses in 1981.”
Brief speakers at the picket and statements will include Beverly Bain (for the NPPC); Indigenous Harm Reduction; Jennifer Jewell, a queer, disabled, homeless advocate in her 50s; queer historian Tom Hooper on the documents he has managed to get released revealing John Tory's attempts to get the police back in Pride; and Butterfly: Asian and Migrant Sex Worker Support Network.
The June 1st picket will be the beginning of a series of events with the theme of “Abolitionist Pride (Abolishing police and prisons): Reclaiming our Radical Histories and Creating Liveable Futures” that will also include an on-line educational/discussion on Saturday June 11 at 2pm on “When is ending a blood ban not ending a blood ban?” with Dr. OmiSoore Dryden, Christopher Karas and Gary Kinsman; and the Abolitionist Pride march on Sunday June 26th starting at 11am at Nathan Philips Square.
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