Officers free to choose what to wear to Pride, chief says
Capital Pride has asked Ottawa police officers not to attend festivities in uniform
Ottawa's police chief says he'll leave it up to officers to decide whether they want to attend Pride festivities in uniform, or obey a request from festival organizers to leave their police attire at home.
- Ottawa Pride group asks police to leave uniforms, vehicles out of parade
- Read Capital Pride's statement on police participation in the 2017 Capital Pride festival
In their statement released Friday, Capital Pride said the decision came after months of consultations with stakeholders and members of Ottawa's LGBT community. People for and against the decision to exclude uniformed police officers were at these consultations, but ultimately the decision was made in favour of the exclusion.
Officers will still be allowed to participate in Pride events this August, as long as they wear plain clothes, according to the statement.
This is actually 25 years of building a strong relationship with police officers that is just being destroyed in the space of three or four lines.-Rémi Chapadeau
Ottawa police Chief Charles Bordeleau said he plans to give officers the option to attend in uniform or in plain clothes that day.
"Capital Pride made a request to us and we acknowledge that request," he said Tuesday on Ottawa Morning. "We don't enter a float into the parade and usually we put a police car in it, and we've made the decision not to put a police car in it.
"We will be marching alongside other first responders. Our fire services, our paramedic services, we'll be marching alongside with them."
Criticism from within LGBT community
Rémi Chapadeau, a member of Ottawa's LGBT community says he and others will be starting a social media campaign in an effort to get Capital Pride to change its mind. He believes the group's current stance will destroy relations with police.
"Capital Pride talks about inclusion, they talk about safety, they talk about discrimination. And in one paragraph, they do discriminate. Not only against the police corps, but also against members of those police organizations who are members of the LGBTQ2 community."
Chapadeau worries the statement could reverse a trend of good relations between police and the LGBT community.
"It is incredible to see how a committee who wants to celebrate the gains that we have made in the past 30 years, exclude an organization that was essential in those gains," he said. "This is actually 25 years of building a strong relationship with police officers that is just being destroyed in the space of three or four lines."
Many pleased with Capital Pride's decision
Dillon Black, an LGBT social worker, takes a different view on that relationship.
"The whole reason that Pride exists is because of the longstanding history of criminalization of our bodies, and of our identities, and our sexuality," said Black.
Black was one of several people who advocated for Capital Pride to take this stance, commending Friday's statement saying many people in the community simply don't feel safe around police.
"We're not asking police to not be present," Black said. "It's just asking them to not be wearing that uniform and that symbol of institutional discrimination that has been around for so long."
'We've worked through conflict before'
Bordeleau said he doesn't believe excluding uniformed police officers is productive.
"I think even within the LGBTQ community there are differing views from that perspective, and I think not to include us or to push us away is not the appropriate way to go," he said. "If there's conflict, let's work through it. We've worked through conflict before.
"I think it's important for us to continue working together, and us being part of [the parade] ... I think sends a strong message that we will continue to be at the table to talk through those difficult issues."
Matt Skof, president of the Ottawa Police Association, said he is disappointed by the decision.
"This event is universal. It spans gender, it spans culture, religion," he said. "And to now exclude the uniform … They've taken themselves back — what I see — to an era of exclusion.
"The whole purpose of the Pride parade was—to be inclusive."
Skof said despite the "negative rhetoric" being directed at police, many in the community agree the uniforms should be allowed. He said he worries that Capital Pride's decision will further damage the relationship between police and the LGBT community.
"So you've excluded one uniform now, and where does it stop? Very hypocritical and disappointing at the same time," said Skof.
Capital Pride's chair and spokesperson Tammy Dopson declined CBC's request for interview, saying the organization wanted to give their community time to reflect on the decision.