Black Lives Matter Toronto says they are not backing down from demands to put an end to police floats in the city`s annual Pride Toronto parade, chastising event organizers for reneging on their promises.

Over the weekend, BLM-TO held a sit-in during the city’s Pride parade, bringing the festivities to a halt for 30 minutes. As well as calling for more funding and space for black LGBT groups, they also demanded the elimination of police presence from the parade.

BLM-TO co-founder Rodney Diverlus said in a news conference Thursday that his group won’t budge.

“We are staying firm on our demands. Unfortunately, we have seen Pride Toronto recant from their commitment on these demands,” Diverlus told reporters.

Pride Toronto executive director Mathieu Chantelois agreed to sign a list of the group’s demands Sunday, which re-started the parade. Later Monday, he said that “Black Lives Matter is not going to tell us that there is no more floats anymore in the parade,” and that final decisions on such matters need to be made as a community.

Diverlus said Pride Toronto had historically makes promises and commitments to the black LGBT community, only to recant them later.

He added that Mayor John Tory should not be wading into the debate.

“He has no place in this discussion and he needs to stay in his lane,” Diverlus said.

“…We are not interested in politicking back and forth with him. We are not interested in his sound bites and his vapid interest in this community,” he said.

Earlier this week, Tory sent a letter to the Toronto Police Association, voicing his support for the police union following the protest. Diverlus called Tory's letter to the police union "outrageous."

On Thursday, Tory said he hopes to engage in further discussions with BLM-TO next week.

“I acknowledged without any qualification that there are issues raised by Black Lives Matter that relate to the continued issues of discrimination and elements of racism in our society here in Toronto,” Tory told reporters.

“That’s why we’ll have the meetings that start next week involving myself and Black Lives Matter and a number of other organizations.”

Fellow BLM-TO co-founder Alexandra Williams said Chantelois has waffled in his solidarity with her group many times and “has actively tried to push us out by flip-flopping on his stand with us.”

“The way that Pride Toronto handles black LGBT members, the way they handle blackness… and black LGBT youth is abysmal,” she said.

Rinaldo Walcott of the Anti-Black Racism Network re-iterated BLM-TO’s belief that the black LGBT community cannot feel comfortable at the Pride parade with police present.

“The police have no place in Pride on floats when they are harassing black youth day in and day out, when they even harass even at Pride. They have no business in Pride,” he said.

“That is not to say that LGBT officers cannot march, but we do not need a militarized Pride.”