Vancouver Pride Society stands by its decision to ban uniformed police from parade

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Organizers of next year’s annual Pride parade are not expecting any sponsors to drop out because uniformed officers are no longer welcome to take part.

Andrea Arnot with the Vancouver Pride Society says there hasn’t been any fallout since September’s decision was made public earlier this week.

“We haven’t had any communications around that,” she tells us.

“This decision isn’t that much different than last year. For 2017, we had no marked police vehicles and 20 per cent of officers were in uniform — the rest were marching in t-shirts and plainclothes they wanted to wear.”

Arnot has said the decision was made after hearing some members of the LGBTQ community were uncomfortable with seeing uniformed officers or police vehicles at the parade due to historic police oppression.

Arnot admits reaction has been mixed.

“There are still groups of people that fall within the LGBTQ umbrella who don’t feel safe. And so we reached this decision, asking police to just participate in a different way. Then, there are people who are very upset about the no uniforms — people who worked really hard to have the police actually participate years and years ago.”

 

Vancouver Police insist they only found out about the decision this week, through the media.

They’ve issued a statement expressing disappointment they had no input on the Vancouver Pride Society’s final decision, adding officers have been “proudly” marching in the parade for 21 years.

Arnot says police were informed back in September. “We’re wondering if it’s just a miscommunication or non-communication in between departments because we did meet with VPD in September, the week that our board made the decision.”

She also insists the safety of anyone requiring security detail will not be compromised.

“There is a difference between the police who are on duty doing their jobs. It’s different than the police marching as participants in the parade with that symbol of the uniforms that has been oppressive for people. There is a separation of the two activities that are happening.”

When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took part in last year’s pride parade, he was guarded by several plain clothes and uniformed RCMP officers.

Statement from the VPD:

We are very disappointed by the decision made by the Vancouver Pride Society to ban VPD members in uniform and in VPD t-shirts from the 2018 Pride Parade. Our members have proudly walked in the parade alongside the community for 21 consecutive years. The VPD had no input into the final decision and we heard about the ban through a news article.

We acknowledge that there are some people in the LGBTQ2S+ community who do not want to see us walking in uniform. We have taken many steps to reconcile with this community and continue to work on an ongoing basis to build trust.

We have taken many steps to build relationships with the LGBTQ2S+ community. We have an LGBTQ2S+ liaison officer, who is dedicated to working very closely with the community full-time. We have implemented the “Safe Place Program” in Vancouver in 2016, which has 400 businesses signed up to display Safe Place decals and provide safe haven to the LGBTQ2S+ community members, and this number is growing. However, we recognize that our work is not done and we will continue with our listening and outreach efforts to build on our existing trust and relationships with Vancouver’s LGBTQ2S+ community.

Statement from the Vancouver Pride Society:

Vancouver Pride met with the Vancouver Police Department on September 21st to discuss the decision reached by the board on September 19th: That police were welcome to march in the 2018 parade, just not in uniform.

That meeting was attended by three VPS representatives, including Executive Director Andrea Arnot and Co-Chair Michelle Fortin.

Three representatives from the VPD were also present, including Superintendent Marcie Flamand and LGBT liaison Officer Dale Quiring. We were told the development would be communicated back to the rest of their team.

On this same day, the VPS contacted the Mayor’s office to let them know the decision reached.

The decision for officers not to march in uniforms is not a large departure from what we saw in last year’s parade. Then, just 20% of the VPD contingent was in uniform.

Police officers in tshirts are absolutely welcome to march in the parade, as they did last year.

It is unfortunate if members of the VPD were taken by surprise by the decision due to a communication breakdown within their organization. We took every step to ensure they learned of the decision from us, and were given the impression that the decision was understood.