Toronto’s huge Pride Parade slated for Sunday; police still shut out
Toronto’s unabashedly in-your-face celebration of everything LGBTQ is set to take place on Sunday against a backdrop of nasty recriminations involving the community, police and black citizens, and the sobering reality of a man charged with killing eight people, most of whom frequented the city’s gay district.
The huge Pride Parade, one of the country’s most colourful and flamboyant outdoor events, will see more than 120 groups march the downtown route — but uniformed police won’t be among them.
Self-described “out and proud” Const. Danielle Bottineau, the force’s LGBTQ2S liaison officer, said she has been left with conflicted sympathies over the tensions with the gay community that has led to the formal exclusion of uniformed officers from the parade for the second year in a row.
“It’s been a tough couple of years for me personally, because I’m very much immersed in the community and the service,” Bottineau said in an interview. “It’s been emotional, it’s been tough at times; I’ve had anger, I’ve had crying, I’ve had it all. I’ve seen both sides.”