NPPC ·

June 22, 2021 NPPC Statement

Rally and teach-in: 12pm, Sunday June 27, 2021

PRIDE Day Rally and March: “We Must 'Change Everything’: Creating Liveable Queer, Trans and Two Spirit Lives without Police and Prisons”

No Pride in Policing Coalition Co-Hosted by No More Silence

For Immediate Release Contact: info@noprideinpolicing.ca

The No Pride in Policing Coalition with No More Silence will be holding a Pride Day rally and march on Sunday June 27, 2021.
The rally will begin at 12:00pm at Nathan Phillips Square.
There will be a media conference beginning at 11:30am.

The No Pride in Policing Coalition with No More Silence will be holding a Pride Day rally and march on Sunday June 27, 2021.
The rally will begin at 12:00pm at Nathan Phillips Square.
There will be a media conference beginning at 11:30am.

June 27th, 12 PM

June 27th, 12 PM

The theme for this year is “We Must 'Change Everything’: Creating Liveable Queer, Trans and Two Spirit Lives without Police and Prisons.” For there to be liveable queer, trans, and Two Spirit lives we must actively move towards abolishing police and prisons and their anti-Black, racist, white supremacist and colonial foundations. They do nothing to protect most people, but they are a major threat to many Black, Indigenous and racialized people. We call for changing everything because a police and prison abolitionist approach is not only about police and prisons but is about building a new society based on caring for others and meeting people’s needs.
The theme for this year is “We Must 'Change Everything’: Creating Liveable Queer, Trans and Two Spirit Lives without Police and Prisons.” For there to be liveable queer, trans, and Two Spirit lives we must actively move towards abolishing police and prisons and their anti-Black, racist, white supremacist and colonial foundations. They do nothing to protect most people, but they are a major threat to many Black, Indigenous and racialized people. We call for changing everything because a police and prison abolitionist approach is not only about police and prisons but is about building a new society based on caring for others and meeting people’s needs.
The rally and march this year, is co-hosted by No Pride in Policing Coalition and No More Silence.
The event is supported by:
Black Lives Matter – Toronto, Butterfly - Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network, Circle of Cedar Two Spirit Drummers, TransPride Toronto, Doctors for Defunding Police, Maggie's, Palestinian Youth Movement, Scholar Strike Canada,
Unifor Chair in Social Justice and Democracy, Society for Socialist Studies, Toronto Prisoner Rights Project,
Showing Up for Racial Justice – Toronto, and Queer Ontario.

As NPPC spokesperson Beverly Bain puts it,

“Abolition of the police and prisons is not only  about getting rid of these institutions, it is part of building a new society based on community  safety and care. It requires a massive transfer of resources from policing and carceral injustice,  from punishing, imprisoning and disciplining people towards instead meeting people’s social  needs and ending racism, poverty, sexism, and social injustice. It is in this context that Black,  Indigenous, Two spirit queers and trans and all LGBTQT people can live truly liveable lives.”

NPPC spokesperson Gary Kinsman added,

“We have already seen these community-based  safety initiative emerging from groups like Maggie’s when they did community searches trying  to find Alloura Wells when the police were doing nothing; or when the Alliance for South Asian  AIDS Prevention (ASAAP) undertook important community safety initiatives when brown men  were going missing when the police were doing little. It was these community-based initiatives,  and networking and information sharing based on them — which the police actively discouraged  — that held the promise of keeping people alive and safe while the police left us to be killed.” 

We are in June of 2021 following a year of uprising led by Black and Indigenous activists to end police violence and the carceral state, and still Nothing has changed. There has been no accountability or action taken in the police killings of D’Andre Campbell, Ejaz Chaudry, Chantal Moore, Rodney Levi, and in the suspicious death of Regis Korchinski Paquet in the presence of Police. Agencies like the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and similar state investigative bodies have continued to allow the police to get away with murder.
Bill 251 was recently passed by the provincial government. The Bill under cover of opposition to “human trafficking” is part of a broader strategy that expands police funding and extends police powers in relation to children’s services and other social agencies, extending carceral relations into social services and social agencies, to be co-ordinated by the police. This is a major threat to people in Black, Indigenous and racialized communities, to sex workers (especially migrant sex workers) and to young people. We call for the urgent repeal of this legislation.
In the recent Missing and Missed report (released on April 13th) into the police leaving Middle Eastern and South-Asian men of colour to be killed by a serial killer and in putting trans women, and trans sex workers in situations of danger there is also despite a devastating critique of the institutionalized problems with the police a central proposal for strengthening policing regarding ‘missing persons’ including police co-ordination with social work and other social agencies in doing this. This includes the proposed ‘embedding’ of social workers in the police. As with embedded journalists in the military this means social workers aligned with and regulated by the police. Instead, we must rely on our own community safety initiatives in queer, trans and sex worker communities and take missing persons funding away from the police and transfer it to community-based groups.
During the Pandemic we witnessed the escalation of police powers granted by the provincial government even though the police have nothing to do with health. These powers were used in a racist and selective fashion with the police often protecting white supremacist ‘anti-masker’ groups but carding, harassing, ticketing and arresting Black, Indigenous, unhoused/homeless people and groups. Various police forces have been violently evicting people from encampments even when these people have nowhere else to go. The police have also been supporting landlords in evicting tenants during the pandemic

The NPPC has scheduled a series of on-line events through the month of June leading up to Pride. Please see our website for these events https://www.noprideinpolicing.ca/

The June 27 rally and march will be moderated by Beverly Bain and Allesandra Jodhan, featuring Audrey Huntley (No More Silence), Circle of Cedar Two Spirit Drum Group, Elene Lam (Butterfly), Joey Twins, Kiké Roach (Unifor Chair in Social Justice), Lama (Palestinian Poet & Activist), Nanky Rai (Doctors for Defunding Police), Robyn Maynard, Ravyn Wngz (BLM Toronto),
& Terri Monture (Mohawk Wolf Clan, Six Nations).
About The NPPC

The No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPPC) is an antiracist queer and trans group formed to support Black Lives Matter – Toronto and is focused on defunding and abolishing the police. We initiated the Pride Day 2020 Defund and Abolish All Police rally and teach-in of close to 3,000 people held at Nathan Philips Square, June 28, 2020 and the 600 person rally for defunding and abolishing the Toronto police held outside Toronto Police HQ on July 16, 2020.

Contact Us

For more info or media requests:

About The NPPC

The No Pride in Policing Coalition (NPPC) is an antiracist queer and trans group formed to support Black Lives Matter – Toronto and is focused on defunding and abolishing the police. We initiated the Pride Day 2020 Defund and Abolish All Police rally and teach-in of close to 3,000 people held at Nathan Philips Square, June 28, 2020 and the 600 person rally for defunding and abolishing the Toronto police held outside Toronto Police HQ on July 16, 2020.

Contact Us

For more info or media requests: